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The Podcast
Unsolicited Biz Advice is where corporate and entrepreneurial veterans Ian Ash, Steve Mast + the occasional guest, perform strategic surgery on one company per episode, delivering the unvarnished truth about what’s holding businesses back and how they could dominate their markets.
Unlike typical business podcasts that skim the surface of multiple topics, we go deep on a single company—dissecting everything from Jaguar’s identity crisis to ON Running’s market positioning. Then we do something radical: we send the CEO a detailed letter outlining exactly what we’d do in their shoes.
It’s part strategic intervention, part masterclass in business transformation, delivered with the candor of conversations that usually happen behind closed boardroom doors.
For listeners, it’s a front-row seat to how seasoned operators diagnose business problems and prescribe solutions that cut through the corporate BS.
No platitudes. No consultant-speak. Just the advice these companies should be paying millions for—delivered free, whether they want it or not.
Your Hosts:
Ian Ash is a technology entrepreneur and strategic advisor who has spent 25+ years building companies, launching products, and creating value. As Co-Founder of Dig Insights, he scaled the business from a startup to a 300-person global organization with offices in Toronto, Chicago, and London. Under his leadership, the company achieved five consecutive years on Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies list, launched the high-growth SaaS platform Upsiide ($10M ARR), completed three strategic acquisitions, and successfully exited to private equity firm Beringer Capital.
Ian currently serves on the Board of Directors at Ontario Genomics and as Board Advisor at Dig Insights. He’s a recognized thought leader with 25,000+ LinkedIn followers and has provided strategic guidance to Fortune 500 companies across multiple industries.
Unsolicited Biz Advice is where Ian applies his operator’s lens to dissect companies, identify opportunities, and deliver the strategic insights CEOs need—whether they asked for them or not.
Steve Mast is a technology entrepreneur and transformation strategist with over 25 years of experience building, scaling, and exiting businesses. As President, Chief Innovation Officer, and equity partner at Delvinia, he transformed the company from a digital consultancy into a data and research technology powerhouse. Under his leadership, Delvinia executed multiple strategic acquisitions and successful exits, including the sale of Methodify and AskingCanadians to Schlesinger Group (now Sago) in 2021.
Steve is Founder and Managing Partner of Twenty44, a consultancy focused on helping organizations successfully adopt AI and navigate digital transformation. His approach centers on creating environments where teams can play, learn, and grow together—because technology adoption starts with people, not platforms.
Steve’s philosophy is straightforward: success is measured by actions, not words. On Unsolicited Biz Advice, he applies decades of operating experience to analyze companies, challenge assumptions, and deliver strategic insights that drive real results.