# Josh Whisenant

> Josh Whisenant is the co-founder and CEO of Roger (tryroger.com), a Salt Lake City construction-tech startup building an AI workspace that helps project managers catch scope gaps in drawings, generate scopes, find subcontractors, and stay coordinated. A Stanford engineer turned construction operator turned founder, he raised a $3.2M seed in 2022 led by Resolute Ventures and has spent the years since publicly wrestling with how hard - and how necessary - it is to drag construction operations into the AI era.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Roger (tryroger.com)
- **Organizations:** Roger (tryroger.com), Zwick Construction Company (prior), University Growth Fund (prior), AAM's Mild to Wild Rafting (prior)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S., Environmental Systems Engineering, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Roger and grew it into a ~17-person AI-for-construction startup., Raised $3.2M seed round from top early-stage investors in 2022., Shipped Scopes by Roger, an AI product that finds scope gaps in construction drawings.

## Career timeline

- **pre-2020** — Whitewater raft guide with AAM's Mild to Wild Rafting and Jeep Trail Tours.
- **2015-2020** — Studied Environmental Systems Engineering at Stanford.
- **2020** — Joined Zwick Construction Company as Project Engineer and Construction Management Intern.
- **2021** — Co-founded Roger in Salt Lake City with Elijah Zenger.
- **2022-07** — Closed $3.2M Seed round led by Resolute Ventures; Animo Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, Grix VC and Gaingels participating.
- **2025** — Launched Scopes by Roger, an AI tool that reads construction drawings to surface scope gaps.
- **2026** — Slated speaker at BuiltWorlds Venture West as CEO of Roger.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Roger and grew it into a ~17-person AI-for-construction startup.
- Raised $3.2M seed round from top early-stage investors in 2022.
- Shipped Scopes by Roger, an AI product that finds scope gaps in construction drawings.
- Built a product that auto-generates RFQs and ranks subcontractors by location, experience and availability.
- Featured guest on The ConTech Exec podcast.

## Latest updates

- **2025-01** — Introduced Scopes by Roger after months of build, framing it as AI reading drawings the way a senior estimator would.
- **2025-07** — Posted candidly about how brutal construction tech is for founders who don't come from the industry.
- **2025-12** — Wrote about AI's real limits in construction operations, pushing back on contech hype.
- **2026-01** — Wrote about AI in construction being 'particularly fascinating' given the data shape of jobsites.

## Links

- Website: https://tryroger.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshwhisenant/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4yh3lFonPU

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/josh-whisenant
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-30