Skip to content
Ash Lane

Ash Lane

Chief Strategy Officer · VP Strategy

Professional Summary

Strategic operator and founder with 10+ years defining and executing multi-product strategy across SaaS, edge-native platforms, IoT hardware, and mobile. I translate ambiguous opportunities into portfolio roadmaps, build the shared platform foundations that unlock scale, and align product, engineering, and GTM teams around measurable outcomes. Comfortable working with boards and founders alike to balance ambition with disciplined execution.

Core Skills

Corporate & Product Strategy

  • Multi-year roadmaps, portfolio allocation, OKRs, and governance
  • Thesis-building across SaaS, edge, IoT, and mobile investments
  • Capital efficiency, sequencing, and exit/handoff planning

Platform & Architecture Vision

  • Shared services (auth, CRM, MDM, media, roadmapping)
  • Cloud, edge, and data architecture choices
  • Build vs. partner decisions and ecosystem positioning

0→1 Venture Creation

  • Discovery, concept validation, MVP builds, and launch playbooks
  • Cross-functional team formation and experimentation rhythms
  • Documentation, ADRs, and knowledge transfer frameworks

Commercial Alignment

  • Monetisation design, pricing & packaging, and growth loops
  • Partnership, alliance, and channel strategy
  • Board-level storytelling and stakeholder communications

Director-Level Scope

  • Director-level ownership across product roadmap, delivery governance, stakeholder communication, vendor selection, budget trade-offs, and cross-functional operating cadence.
  • Experience leading product, engineering, operations, GTM, implementation, and partner teams through 0-to-1 launches, regional expansion, and platform scaling.
  • Translate founder, board, and executive priorities into OKRs, portfolio plans, hiring needs, delivery metrics, risk management, and customer-facing execution.

Professional Experience

Founder & CEO – Chief Strategy Officer

Topolo Technology Inc

Mar 2022 – Present Global / Remote

Architect the multi-product strategy for a business software platform, directing investments across identity, CRM, billing, AI workflows, admin tooling, commerce, media, and infrastructure.

  • Defined long-range roadmap and capital allocation across platform bets including OAuth/OIDC identity, developer onboarding, CRM, roadmapping, AI gateway, billing/payments, notification orchestration, admin tooling, commerce, and workflow automation.
  • Built the shared-services strategy for auth, tenant data, service scopes, deployment governance, media/storage/search, MDM/device operations, support, and customer lifecycle systems.
  • Chaired portfolio reviews, OKRs, and operating cadences aligning product, engineering, GTM, and partner priorities around measurable outcomes.
  • Created ecosystem theses around developer access, APIs, integrations, partner channels, usage-based AI, and platform packaging.
  • Prepared board materials, investor updates, and strategic narratives tying product progress to commercial results and future bets.

Founder & Owner – Strategy & Operations

Fresh Ventures (Livefreshr, JustCook, JustFeed)

Mar 2014 – Present Dubai, UAE

Founded Livefreshr and led strategy across product, operations, and growth to turn a bootstrapped meal-kit idea into a durable subscription business.

  • Set the strategic roadmap for vertical integration—owning supply chain, kitchen operations, delivery, and customer experience.
  • Developed the JustCook/JustFeed platform strategy to digitise logistics, inventory, and customer journeys, reducing unit costs and error rates.
  • Structured partnerships, menu expansion, and pricing experiments that unlocked new revenue streams while preserving margins.
  • Instituted KPI dashboards, planning cadences, and scenario models tying operational metrics to growth and profitability targets.
  • Orchestrated fundraising and investor narratives, translating operational insights into strategic investment theses.

TPP Partnerships Manager / Mid-Market Sales Manager

Cvent

Apr 2019 – Mar 2021 Dubai, UAE

Helped establish Cvent’s Middle East presence, selling enterprise event technology into agencies, corporates, and venues.

  • Joined as one of the first Dubai hires, contributing to the growth of the regional office from a small startup-like footprint.
  • Promoted from mid-market sales to managing the entire Middle East territory for third-party planners, owning full-cycle sales to high-value accounts.
  • Partnered with SDRs to build pipeline, run tailored demos, navigate complex procurement, and close multi-stakeholder deals.

Solution Consultant / Project Manager & Account Manager

XpertLearning

Apr 2012 – Sep 2016 UAE

Led enterprise learning and talent management implementations while managing a hybrid new-business and account management portfolio.

  • Became the first Cornerstone OnDemand certified solution consultant in the GCC, responsible for end-to-end implementations and best-practice guidance.
  • Handled RFP responses, solution demonstrations, platform configuration, admin training, and go-live project management.
  • Drove business development, sales cycle management, and contract negotiation while supporting marketing initiatives such as XpertInsight magazine.

Technical Skills

Leadership & Strategy

Corporate strategy, OKRs, operating cadence, stakeholder alignment, board reporting.

Platforms & Technology

React/TypeScript, Flutter/Dart, Laravel/Vue/PHP, Node APIs, PostgreSQL/MySQL, Firebase, serverless workers, cloud hosting, IoT hardware, and MDM.

Commercial & Ventures

Pricing & packaging, partnership ecosystems, GTM design, innovation governance.

SaaS Tools & Platforms

CRM, GTM & Lifecycle

Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Mailchimp, Braze, Customer.io, WhatsApp Business API, Stripe, Google Ads, and Meta Ads.

Product, Analytics & Support

Jira, Linear, Notion, Confluence, Figma, Airtable, GA4, Looker Studio, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Hotjar, Intercom, and Zendesk.

Delivery, Cloud & AI

Git, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, AWS, Google Cloud/Firebase, Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify, VPS/cPanel, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Sentry, Datadog, OpenAI API, Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, MCP, RAG, vector search, prompt/eval workflows, and agent tooling.

Selected Projects

  • Topolo platform: Edge-native business software ecosystem spanning identity/OIDC, developer onboarding, CRM, roadmapping, billing/payments, AI gateway, notifications, admin tooling, commerce, workflow automation, media operations, and customer support.
  • Platform infrastructure: Cloudflare Workers architecture with generated deployment manifests, staging/production targets, service-to-service auth, scoped JWT/JWKS authorization, CI/CD, D1/KV/R2/Vectorize/Queues/Durable Objects, and deployment orchestration tooling.
  • JustCook SaaS and JustFeed: Food-tech operations and mobile subscription platform covering ordering, inventory, recipes, procurement, routing, payments, lifecycle messaging, and reporting.