# Lucas Roh

> Lucas Roh is a serial entrepreneur and computer scientist who founded and runs MetalSoft, a Chicago-based startup whose software automates bare metal data centers - turning racks of multi-vendor switches, servers, and storage into cloud-like, on-demand infrastructure. A former Argonne National Laboratory researcher in automatic differentiation, he built the global web host Hostway (1998-2013), launched the big data cloud Bigstep, and spun MetalSoft out of Hostway's internal tooling in 2019. In December 2022 MetalSoft raised a $16 million Series A led by DNS Capital.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at MetalSoft
- **Organizations:** MetalSoft, Bigstep, Affinity Global, Hostway Corporation, Argonne National Laboratory
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA, Physics, University of Chicago, PhD, Computer Science, Colorado State University
- **Known for:** Founded and exited Hostway Corporation, a global web hosting company (1998-2013)., Founded MetalSoft and raised a $16 million Series A led by DNS Capital in December 2022., Founded Bigstep, a big data orchestration platform on bare-metal cloud.

## Career timeline

- **1990s** — Computer scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, researching automatic differentiation; published over a dozen academic papers and filed several patents.
- **1998** — Founded Hostway Corporation, a global web hosting and cloud services company, and served as CEO.
- **2013** — Led Hostway to a successful exit/sale.
- **2014** — Hostway's internal hardware-management software entered production - the seed of what became MetalSoft.
- **2010s** — Founded Bigstep, a big data orchestration company running a high-performance bare-metal cloud; also founder/chairman of Affinity Global.
- **2019** — Spun MetalSoft out of Hostway as an independent company to bring its bare metal automation software to other providers and enterprises.
- **2022** — MetalSoft closed a $16 million Series A led by DNS Capital ($17M raised total).

## Achievements

- Founded and exited Hostway Corporation, a global web hosting company (1998-2013).
- Founded MetalSoft and raised a $16 million Series A led by DNS Capital in December 2022.
- Founded Bigstep, a big data orchestration platform on bare-metal cloud.
- Conducted pioneering research in automatic differentiation at Argonne National Laboratory.
- Published over a dozen academic papers and holds several patents.
- Built software now running across major telcos and data center operators with hundreds of thousands of devices.

## Latest updates

- **2022-12** — MetalSoft announced a $16 million Series A led by DNS Capital to tackle end-to-end data center automation.
- **2023** — MetalSoft advanced its intelligent bare metal automation platform to support cloud-native workloads, with AI/ML capabilities for hardware management.

## Links

- Website: https://metalsoft.io
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-roh-a3955b6

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/lucas-roh
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-11