James Pickard is the owner of The Green Dragon in Bungay - a family business handed down from his parents - and of a software start-up called Omni Tend.

He has digitised everything in the pub business - which also includes a brewery - so that he can see exactly what’s happening in real time.

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Here he describes his business journey:

Tell us about yourself

I am a software developer and pub owner, which I believe is a rather unusual combination.

I grew up in the family pub which my parents bought in 1991, with my father as the brewer and my uncle as the bar manager.

Omni Tend in action (Omni Tend)I’ve always enjoyed using computers - my first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum and I used to copy the example programs from the back of the book.

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Since I didn’t really understand them, one small error and it wouldn’t work and I’d have to check everything. But I didn’t give up and spent most of my lunchbreaks at school in the computer lab.

After uni, I got a software job in London, and after a year I was sent on an assignment to Moncton in Canada.

The Green Dragon in Bungay (Image: Omni Tend) After that I was sent to Montreal where I ended up working for an eCommerce business. I was having a great time - I love Montreal, the culture, the language, the food - and I soon met my future wife.

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