In an industry where connection is everything, The Consultant Exchange is making one of the boldest moves franchising has seen in years. Founded by healthcare entrepreneur turned franchise-executive Steven Inglefield, the platform is redefining how franchisors and franchise business consultants meet, collaborate, and ultimately grow their brands.
Seven days into its beta launch on May 13th, 2025 the platform had already generated revenue, activated numerous profiles, and confirmed bookings. All early signals that it may be solving long-standing friction points that have quietly challenged the industry for decades.
But this isn’t just another broker directory. This is franchising’s answer to OpenTable and Uber. It’s a modern, intuitive, data-forward solution built to remove barriers and increase access across a fragmented marketplace.
“Franchisors are still stuck behind static directories and only interacting at semi-annual events,” Inglefield explained. “It’s 2025 and there’s still very little control and visibility on the franchisor side to build a strategy around their broker network.”
From Physiotherapist to Platform Founder
Inglefield’s journey to franchising was anything but conventional. A trained physiotherapist in Canada, his early work focused on creating bespoke pain management programs for military veterans. His experience scaling that venture across six clinics exposed him to the operational complexities of multi-unit businesses and ultimately planted the seeds of what would later become The Consultant Exchange.
Later, as President of franchise consultancy AC Inc., Inglefield worked directly with founders and CEOs who echoed the same pain points: a need for more quality leads, better access to brokers, and clearer ways to grow. These conversations, layered over his earlier experience building two-way platforms in healthcare, shaped the foundation for what The Consultant Exchange is today.
At its core, the Exchange is solving one critical problem: accessibility.
Franchise brokers (also called consultants) have historically been siloed within broker networks. Franchisors often find themselves relying on sporadic conferences or closed lists to connect with the right individuals. There’s little transparency, limited strategy, and high dependence on legacy systems.
“I kept thinking, there has to be a better way,” said Inglefield.
Paying for What Already Happens
One of the platform’s most disruptive yet elegantly simple ideas is recognizing and monetizing the unseen labor consultants already do.
“Consultants do fantastic work,” Inglefield said during our conversation. “They’ve got to go and learn about all the new brands that are entering the industry. They’ve got to stay up to date, generate leads, meet with their contacts; and all of that goes unpaid until a deal closes.”
With The Consultant Exchange, franchisors can now pay a small fee, typically $25 to $50 for a 15- or 30-minute meeting with a consultant. It’s a meaningful shift. Instead of hoping a consultant takes interest in their brand for free, franchisors are guaranteed an audience. And consultants are compensated for the time and effort that goes into understanding a concept, asking the right questions, and exploring potential alignment.
“In that 15 minutes, the consultant can truly focus,” Inglefield explained. “They’ve done their homework. Now that call becomes about connection, clarity, and building a relationship that might lead to a great placement.”
It’s a new way of thinking about growth: not just paying for performance, but for the foundation that makes performance possible.
Changing the Rules Without Breaking the System
One of the most promising effects of The Consultant Exchange is its inclusivity. Consultants don’t need to be affiliated with a broker network to join. This opens the door for hundreds of independent consultants who’ve operated largely under the radar.
“Some franchisors are actually building their strategy around speaking with independents first,” Inglefield noted. That leveling of the playing field is part of a broader mission for the company: to raise the standard across franchising through transparency, openness, and access. It’s a shift away from exclusivity and toward credibility.
Inglefield is also quick to clarify: this isn’t about replacing broker networks. It’s about complementing them.
“We’re not trying to disrupt what’s working. Conferences are valuable. Broker networks play an important role. But what do you do in between those events? What if you miss a connection at a roundtable? Now you have a year-round tool to maintain and build those relationships.”
The Platform in Action: A Hands-On Look
To fully understand the power and potential of The Consultant Exchange, Inglefield walked me through a live demo of the platform from both the franchisor and consultant perspectives. The version we evaluated was the BETA version.
On the franchisor side, users can search consultants based on experience, broker group affiliations, and even price point. Each profile includes a bio, booking link, and the ability to send direct messages. Calendar integration and AI-powered filters are on the roadmap, promising even more intuitive search in the weeks to come.
Flipping to the consultant view, I saw how incoming meetings are tracked, rated on the back end, and managed. Once a call is completed, consultants mark it as done, and the platform aggregates billing on the franchisor’s end. What’s unique here is that franchisors can rate the quality of these conversations, offering unprecedented visibility into consultant responsiveness, preparedness, and overall professionalism.
“It’s about giving everyone more control, more insight, and a higher level of engagement,” said Inglefield.
And it shows. The UI is clean, the experience seamless, and the early feedback from users overwhelmingly positive. There are other features as well most notably is the ability to seamlessly access information provided by the franchisor. This way consultants can quickly access info, learn about brands, view marketing decks and arrive to calls (with franchisors and potential franchisees) prepared.
Where AI Meets Franchise Development
Backed by a venture capital firm and supported by a full tech and marketing team, the platform is evolving rapidly. Features like Territory Scout; a proprietary AI tool that reduces the administrative lift of checking franchise territory availability by up to 80% are already in the pipeline.
Imagine a consultant being able to check territory availability in real-time with a traffic light report. Green means go, red means no. It’s smart, streamlined, and deeply practical.
Future plans include a more robust AI search engine that can pull concepts based on criteria like industry, investment level, and discovery day materials, as well as a community-style forum to foster knowledge-sharing between franchisors and consultants.
The Consultant Exchange is also keen to stay in its lane. At present, the platform is intentionally staying out of direct franchise lead generation. It’s not looking to replace brokers, educators, or lead aggregators. Rather, it wants to be the connective tissue that helps the whole ecosystem function better.
Economics That Make Sense
With a monthly subscription model (free for the first 90 days), franchisors get unlimited access to search, message, and book meetings with consultants. The platform takes a small cut of the meeting fee, but overall pricing is lean; especially compared to legacy models that may cost tens of thousands for access.
Consultants, meanwhile, are compensated for their time spent learning about new brands. That revenue for active users can be reinvested into lead generation, effectively creating a closed-loop system that benefits everyone in the ecosystem.
“It’s monetizing behavior that already exists,” said Inglefield. “And that’s what makes it so sustainable.”
The Bigger Picture
Inglefield believes the next chapter of franchising won’t be written by those with the most exclusivity; but by those with the most visibility and integrity.
“We believe this next wave of franchise growth is going to be powered by an open system where credibility wins,” he said.
With consultants gaining more access, franchisors making more strategic connections, and prospective franchisees benefiting from better-fit opportunities, the long-term impact could be significant. This is franchising done smarter, not louder.
As The Consultant Exchange gains traction, it could very well become the place where growth-minded brands and forward-thinking consultants build the future; one 15-minute call at a time.
