ConsultBase
Client Portal Platform for Independent Consultants
Hey everyone — Ryan here, solo founder of ConsultBase.
I built this after watching independent consultants run six-figure practices out of an inbox: proposals as Word attachments, invoices from a second app, files in a shared-folder maze. Clients notice — and it costs consultants work they deserve.
ConsultBase gives every client a branded portal and connects the whole engagement flow — proposal, e-signature, milestones, deliverables, invoices — in one place, with an AI associate (Ivy) that actually does the admin work rather than just chatting about it.
The free tools (rate calculator, SOW generator, engagement letter + retainer agreement generators) are open to everyone, no email gate — happy for you to steal them even if you never sign up.
I'd genuinely love feedback, especially from anyone consulting solo. What's the most annoying part of your client workflow? That's what I build next.
3 Comments
The client portal is a visible part of the product, but I'm curious whether that's actually what makes consultants stick with ConsultBase.
Has your thinking changed at all about what the product's real source of value is as you've built it?
Yeah, it's changed — and the honest version is that the portal is what sells it, and the plumbing is what keeps it.
The portal is the moment someone gets it. Every consultant I've talked to has the same wince about sending a client a Google Drive link, and seeing their own logo on a real portal fixes that in about four seconds. Great hook. But it's client-facing, and clients only visit occasionally.
What I've actually been building lately is the boring connective part: a proposal gets signed and automatically becomes a tracked engagement with milestones, time logged against it flows into an invoice, an accepted proposal converts to a bill in one click. That's the consultant-facing side — the part they touch every day.
So my read now is that the portal wins the "I want this," and the chain wins the "I'm not moving off this." Once your live engagements are running through it, leaving means rebuilding how you operate.
Caveat: I'm small enough that this is observation and instinct, not retention data... ask me again in six months and I might have a different answer. :) But it's telling that when I look at where my build time actually went this past month, almost none of it was the portal.
Appreciate the context, Ryan.
Would be good to continue the conversation as you learn more from real usage and retention.
What's the best email to reach you on?