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Dig Insights
Dig Insights was launched in Toronto in 2010 by Paul Gaudette and partners as a technology-enabled insights consultancy.
Dig Insights
Dig Insights was launched in Toronto in 2010 by Paul Gaudette and partners as a technology-enabled insights consultancy. The firm quickly differentiated itself by building proprietary software to support its consulting engagements, rather than relying on third-party survey and analytics tools. That focus on in-house technology became the firm's defining structural feature. The firm operates at the intersection of market research and enterprise software. Its consulting practice serves global consumer brands, while its technology arm developed Upsiide, a SaaS platform for concept testing and innovation insights. In 2022, Dig Insights made the unusual decision to spin Upsiide into a separate entity and pursue external investment for it, signaling that the software had outgrown its original cost-center function. The move effectively created two linked but distinct businesses: a services-driven insights consultancy and a venture-backed software company. Dig Insights is headquartered in Toronto, with additional offices in Chicago and London, giving it coverage across North America and Europe. The firm has historically been private and employee-owned, without publicly reported institutional funding for the parent consultancy. The Upsiide spinout, however, attracted external capital, with the platform's client list including PepsiCo, General Mills, and Diageo. The consultancy side continues to serve Fortune 500 clients across consumer packaged goods, retail, and financial services. Gaudette serves as CEO of the parent entity, while maintaining a leadership role in the Upsiide business. Dig Insights occupies an unusual structural position: part consulting firm, part software incubator. The Upsiide spinout is not merely a product launch but a genuine separation of asset classes — services revenue on one side, recurring SaaS revenue and venture equity on the other. That architecture is rare among insights consultancies and creates a dual mandate for Gaudette's team: grow the core advisory business while steering a technology asset that now follows a startup's growth and exit trajectory.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2010
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
Canada
City
Toronto
Corporate office
Toronto, ON, Canada
Principals
Paul Gaudette
CEO
Chuck McLeish
Partner
Michael Ho
Chief Client Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is Dig Insights — a consultancy, a software company, or both?
Dig Insights is primarily a technology-enabled insights consultancy, but it now operates as a hybrid structure. The parent company runs a traditional consulting business serving global brands with market research and innovation strategy. Separately, it incubated and spun out Upsiide, a SaaS platform for concept testing, into a standalone entity that raised external growth capital in 2022. The two businesses share DNA and leadership but now have distinct capital structures and growth paths.
Who founded Dig Insights and who runs it now?
Paul Gaudette co-founded Dig Insights in 2010 and serves as CEO. He leads the parent consultancy while also providing strategic direction to the Upsiide software business. Other named leaders include Partner Chuck McLeish and Chief Client Officer Michael Ho. The firm has remained employee-owned on the consulting side, avoiding the institutional-funding path that its software spinout took.
What is Upsiide and how does it relate to Dig Insights?
Upsiide is a SaaS-based concept testing and innovation insights platform originally built as an internal tool for Dig Insights' consulting engagements. As client demand for the software grew, Dig spun it into a separate company in 2022 and brought in external venture funding. Upsiide now operates independently with its own P&L, though it retains close ties to the consultancy. Known clients include PepsiCo, General Mills, and Diageo.
Does Dig Insights have external investors or is it employee-owned?
The core consulting business of Dig Insights is privately held and employee-owned. The firm has not publicly disclosed any institutional backing for the parent entity. The spinout Upsiide, however, closed an external growth investment round in 2022 to fund its independent expansion as a SaaS company. These two parts of the business now have fundamentally different ownership structures.
Where does Dig Insights operate geographically?
Dig Insights is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with additional offices in Chicago, Illinois and London, United Kingdom. The firm serves North American and European markets through these hubs, with its client base concentrated among Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods, retail, and financial services companies.
What investment stages or types would Dig Insights or Upsiide be relevant for?
The parent consultancy Dig Insights is not itself an investment target — it is an employee-owned services firm. The relevant investable entity is Upsiide, the SaaS spinout, which raised growth-stage venture capital in 2022. An allocator encountering Dig Insights in a deal context is likely looking at Upsiide as a late-stage venture or growth-equity opportunity in the enterprise SaaS and market-research-technology space.
What is Dig Insights' structural differentiator versus other insights firms?
Most insights consultancies buy or license third-party software to run their research operations. Dig built its own platform, Upsiide, then spun it into a separate venture-backed company — effectively creating equity value from what would ordinarily be a cost center. That dual structure of a consulting partnership alongside a SaaS startup is rare in the insights industry and gives the firm exposure to both services revenue and software equity.
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