Matt and Chris met in 2020 through friends to play tabletop games together online. They both love games like Dungeons and Dragons and spent a lot of time adventuring together while trying to survive the pandemic and lockdown.
After using different types of virtual tabletop platforms, Matt and Chris became very frustrated because most of them were hard to use – if they worked at all. They believed virtual tabletop platforms should be easier to use, and that’s how they came up with Heroic Roll.
Matt Cunningham
Matt is a full-stack software developer from Kansas City, Missouri, who has worked in the tech industry for over a decade and developed software since he was 9. His experience spans a wide range of industries. He has worked as an employee and independent consultant on diverse projects such as petrochemical control systems, display drivers, GameCube controller drivers, marketing sites, custom CMS software, AR pipelines, custom game engines, as well as video game demos. Matt is also a devoted accessibility hacker who loves modifying software and hardware to improve usability. His work in this space includes digitizing his favorite board games to play more easily with distant friends and building custom gaming controllers for friends experiencing repetitive motion injuries. He hopes to one day use his experience with projects like these to support robotic prosthetic limb development (he’d also like to have his brain frozen if it’s ever an option).
While using VTT’s over the years, Matt noticed that they often had a steep learning curve, and he frequently brainstormed ways to improve them and make them more accessible, especially for mobile users. After meeting Chris during the pandemic and finding out he had the business acumen, connections, and interest in starting an online tabletop gaming company, Matt realized they had the opportunity to put theory into practice when they founded Heroic Roll. D&D has been a pastime for Matt since he was a youngling. His knack for spontaneously formulating fanciful sentences and setting them into songs (or terrible puns) made him a natural Bard. He loves playing underpowered characters so he can talk his way out of problems instead of fighting or convince NPCs to do favors for the party, with improbably high persuasion roles. Matt loves the eSports scene and is a former competitive Super Smash Bros Melee player who hosted more than 100 SmashFests and attended EVO from 2013-2017. He is a giant sci-fi/fantasy nerd, avid Redditor, and reader of lore.
Favorite video game: Chrono-Trigger
Favorite food: Ravioli!
One word to describe Matt’s outlook on life: Futurist.
Christopher Lauzon
Christopher Lauzon is a technical support/success/sales/etc. Expert and has worked in the tech industry for over 20 years. He’s worked for video game companies, website content management platforms, mobile app companies, AI, and so much more! He has a passion for helping people new to technology and has managed large teams of diverse people.
More importantly, Chris has played tabletop games since he was in high school. He loves running and organizing games with his friends and spends his free time obsessing over the next game night. During covid, he had to teach himself different virtual tabletop games. He found most of them to be very difficult to use. Luckily one of the best things to come out of 2020 is meeting amazing people, including meeting his business partner Matt. Chris is a huge theme park nerd and loves anything Disney and Star Wars.
Favorite Video Game: Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild.
Favorite Food: Tacos and Burritos.
One word to describe Chris’s outlook on life: Bald.