PureBrain Referral Partner Profiles
10 LinkedIn profiles -- strong fits as both PureBrain users and referral partners
Will runs his own independent consulting practice while simultaneously managing Umbrex. He juggles client delivery, community management, podcast production (630+ episodes of Unleashed), and business development. He is exactly the solo consultant drowning in non-billable work who needs a persistent back-office team.
Umbrex is the first global community connecting top-tier independent management consultants. 8,000 members across 50 countries. His podcast "Unleashed" has 630+ episodes and is the go-to resource for independent consultants from McKinsey, Bain, and BCG alumni networks.
100,000+ LinkedIn followers. 8,000 Umbrex community members. 630+ podcast episodes with cumulative audience in the hundreds of thousands.
Will is a McKinsey-trained operator who respects data and ROI. Approach as a fellow builder in the independent consulting ecosystem. Offer him a free trial and frame PureBrain as "the back-office that Umbrex members keep saying they need." If he uses it and it works, he will talk about it on the podcast and in the community without being asked. Do not pitch promotion. Pitch utility.
Karina is a practicing fractional COO serving multiple clients simultaneously while running the largest fractional executive community in the world. She manages client engagements, community operations, content creation, and member coordination. The admin overhead of juggling COO work across multiple companies plus community leadership is enormous.
Fractionals United has grown to 13,000+ members as of early 2025. It is the single largest concentration of fractional executives on the internet. Karina is the most visible and trusted voice in the fractional executive movement. When she recommends a tool, thousands of fractional leaders pay attention.
Karina built FrUn as a "member-first community without pressure, posturing, or pitches." Respect that ethos completely. Approach her as a fellow fractional operator, not a vendor. Say you built something for people exactly like her and her community members, and ask if she would be willing to try it. Never ask her to promote. Let the product earn it.
Melisa is a former corporate tech executive who became an independent consultant and then a coach for independent consultants. She manages her coaching practice, produces weekly podcast episodes, creates course content, writes her blog, and handles all the business operations of her coaching business.
Her podcast "Grow Your Independent Consulting Business" releases weekly episodes and is the top-ranked podcast specifically for independent consultants. She was named LinkedIn Top Voice. She authored "Grow Your Consulting Business: The 14-Step Roadmap." Her entire audience is independent consultants trying to build sustainable practices.
Melisa coaches consultants through the exact operational challenges PureBrain solves. Her Episode 261 is literally titled "The 6 Ways to Scale Without Hiring Employees as a Solo Consultant." PureBrain is a seventh way. Approach as a listener and fellow believer in the independent consulting path. Say you built the tool her listeners keep asking about: a way to scale the back-office without hiring.
Michael has built a coaching empire but still operates as a hands-on consultant and coach himself. He manages client coaching, content production, podcast hosting, newsletter writing (50,000+ subscribers), and business development. He knows the admin pain of consulting firsthand because he has lived it for 20+ years across 75 industries.
He has coached and trained 6,000+ consultants worldwide. His weekly newsletter reaches 50,000+ consultants. He runs one of the largest consulting communities with active Facebook and LinkedIn groups. He is the author of multiple best-selling books on consulting.
Michael is a coach who helps consultants build systems. PureBrain is a system. Frame the approach as: "Your clients keep telling you they are drowning in admin. You coach them on strategy and client acquisition. PureBrain handles the rest." Offer him a trial so he can experience it as a user first.
Dorie has built a seven-figure, one-person business. She is the definitive example of a solo consultant at scale: consulting clients (Google, Microsoft, FedEx, World Bank), keynote speaking, book writing, course creation, community management (Recognized Expert community), and regular HBR contributions. All of this without employees.
363,000+ LinkedIn followers with 21,500 average views per post. She runs Recognized Expert, a community of professionals building thought leadership. Named 4x as Top 50 business thinker by Thinkers50 and #1 Communication Coach by Marshall Goldsmith awards.
Dorie is highly selective and values authenticity. Do not pitch her. Lead with her own framework: "You wrote Entrepreneurial You about building multiple revenue streams as a solo professional. PureBrain is the operational layer that makes running all those streams possible without hiring." Offer a trial, no strings.
David runs his own consulting practice focused on helping small firms and solo consultants grow. He manages coaching programs (Massive Acceleration Program, Solo Practice Accelerator), creates content, and handles his own business operations. He explicitly works with solo shops doing $150,000/year and up, which maps precisely to PureBrain's target.
He has helped build 400+ small consulting firms. His book "The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients" is one of the highest-rated in the consulting category. His audience is exactly PureBrain's buyer: solo practitioners billing $150-500/hour who need operational leverage.
David is methodical and metrics-driven. Present PureBrain with the ROI math he already teaches: a $300/hour consultant recovering 5 hours/week of admin time gains $78,000/year in billable capacity for $13,188/year in PureBrain cost. That is the language he speaks.
Casey is a practicing fractional CMO who serves as part-time CMO for multiple companies simultaneously. He also runs CMOx, produces the Fractional CMO Show podcast, manages the CMOx Accelerator program, and maintains his own consulting pipeline.
He literally wrote the book on becoming a fractional CMO (WSJ #1 bestseller). He runs the CMOx Accelerator where he mentors fractional CMOs. Every fractional CMO who reads his book or joins his community is a potential PureBrain customer.
Casey thinks in frameworks (Functional Marketing Framework). Present PureBrain as a framework component: "Your method teaches fractional CMOs how to attract, convert, and serve clients. PureBrain handles the operational infrastructure so they can focus on the strategic work you train them to do."
Greg sold his consulting firm (SBI) for $162 million and now runs Collective 54 as a solo operator/founder. He manages community operations, content production, podcast hosting, member coaching, and business development.
Collective 54 is the first mastermind community specifically for owners of boutique professional services firms. His members are consulting firm founders and solo practitioners who are scaling. Every member of Collective 54 is either a solo consultant or a small-firm owner who needs operational leverage.
Greg thinks in terms of scaling and exits. His framework is start, scale, sell. PureBrain is a scaling tool. Frame it as: "Your members are trying to scale from solo to boutique. PureBrain gives them boutique-level operational capacity without the boutique-level payroll."
Liz has 25+ years in consulting, over 20 as a solopreneur. She founded ProKo Agency (a consulting matchmaker for Fortune 500 clients), co-founded PICA (Professional Independent Consultants of America), and writes for Inc.com.
She co-founded PICA, which helped hundreds of professionals launch solo businesses before closing in 2026. She authored "Succeeding as a Solopreneur." She writes regularly for Inc.com on solopreneur topics. Her audience is specifically people transitioning to or growing solo consulting practices.
PICA recently closed. She may be looking for the next thing that helps solopreneurs at scale. PureBrain could be the tool that extends her mission beyond what PICA could do. The timing is good given PICA's closure. Frame PureBrain as the operational partner every reader of her book wishes they had.
Tom has been an independent consultant for 15+ years, working with major clients while managing his entire practice solo. He has written extensively about the struggles of running an independent consulting practice and actively documents the operational challenges.
Tom wrote "The Strategic Independent," a serialized book about the art and science of independent consulting. His blog is one of the most-read resources on independent consulting. His audience skews toward senior, tech-savvy independent consultants who are exactly PureBrain's target.
Tom is a thinker and writer who values depth over hype. Approach by engaging with his blog content first. Reference specific posts about the operational challenges of solo consulting. Then introduce PureBrain as something you built to solve those specific challenges he writes about. He will want to test it himself.
Priority Ranking by Combined User + Referral Fit
| # | Name | Network Reach | User Fit | Referral Fit | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Will Bachman (Umbrex) | 100K+ LinkedIn, 8K community | High | Very High | Top |
| 2 | Karina Mikhli (FrUn) | 13K+ community | Very High | Very High | Top |
| 3 | Melisa Liberman | Podcast + LinkedIn Top Voice | High | Very High | Top |
| 4 | Michael Zipursky | 50K+ newsletter, 6K+ coached | High | Very High | Top |
| 5 | Dorie Clark | 363K+ LinkedIn | High | High | High |
| 6 | David A. Fields | 400+ firms, Solo Accelerator | Very High | High | High |
| 7 | Casey Stanton (CMOx) | WSJ bestseller, Accelerator | Very High | High | High |
| 8 | Greg Alexander (C54) | Mastermind community | Moderate | High | Medium |
| 9 | Liz Steblay | Inc.com, PICA alumni | Very High | Medium | Medium |
| 10 | Tom Critchlow | Blog, book, consulting circles | Very High | Medium | Medium |
Top 3 to approach first: Will Bachman, Karina Mikhli, and Melisa Liberman. They have the largest concentrated audiences of exactly PureBrain's target buyer, they are genuine users of the type of tool PureBrain is, and they are known for sharing tools that help their communities without needing payment.