Jay Glass (b. 1986, Edinburgh) is a hospitality operator and brand developer who creates, revitalises and scales high-performing venues and, increasingly, builds the software that runs them.
His instincts were formed early, in sound and crowds. He studied music production and studio engineering at Edinburgh College while DJing and promoting large-scale club nights that drew thousands every week, going on to stage thousands of events headlined by internationally recognised artists including Kygo, Sigala, Bakermat and Klingande. The discipline of live entertainment, reading an audience, controlling logistics at scale, turning a room into an experience, still underpins how he approaches commercial hospitality today.
He joined Eclectic Bars in 2007, then moved to Reading in 2010 to run Sakura, a high-volume Japanese-inspired lounge and club, before being headhunted by Novus Leisure in London to manage flagship late-night venues including Tiger Tiger Haymarket.
In 2012 he returned to Edinburgh and to Caledonian Heritable, where he led the full rebrand and refurbishment of Why Not. Profitability rose by nearly 700%, and the venue became one of Scotland's most decorated nightclubs, taking multiple "Scotland's Nightclub of the Year" titles, a standard it still holds under his direction. He plays the same role at The Dome, one of Edinburgh's most iconic venues, where a sustained programme of operational refinement has more than doubled profitability without compromising the character that defines it.
He also builds from nothing. Rose Street Garden, a seasonal street-food and cocktail destination, and Encore, an intimate 1920s-inspired speakeasy, are both original concepts he took from idea to operating business.
More recently, that same instinct has turned to technology. Frustrated by software that never quite fit how venues actually run, Jay began designing his own practical operational systems for sales and finance visibility, cost control, team management, reporting and marketing, built using modern AI-assisted development and now used across live venue operations. It is the work he has always done, in a new medium: removing friction, sharpening the numbers, and making a demanding business easier to run.
The throughline is consistent. Whether the material is a room, a brand, a team or a piece of software, Jay builds hospitality businesses that pair real commercial performance with experiences people remember — and that stay profitable long after the opening night.