Muhammad Adil Malik
Full Stack Developer
A B2B platform connecting consulting firms, corporate clients, and IT market players to manage 'On The Bench' talent and streamline candidate sourcing.
60%
Bench Time Reduction
500+
Active Profiles
50+
Partner Firms
The challenge
Clear problem framing first — then a solution designed to remove friction for users and operators.
Problem
Consulting and IT firms frequently experience revenue leaks due to 'bench time'—periods where highly skilled consultants are unassigned between projects. Simultaneously, firms needing rapid talent acquisition face long hiring cycles, fragmented candidate profiles, and slow vendor communication channels.
Solution
We engineered Linkup Partner, an end-to-end consulting ecosystem with real-time candidate search, custom filtering, and instant messaging capabilities. The solution features a secure dashboard where consultancies manage consultant profiles, track availability status, and control visibility. Integrated real-time chat enables instant vendor-to-vendor communication, reducing candidate sourcing cycles from weeks to minutes.
Deep dive
Full written walkthrough of the system — architecture decisions, product surface, and operating model.
Read the full deep dive
3 detailed sections · architecture, product surface, and ops
Linkup Partner is a specialized B2B marketplace and management platform designed to solve resource underutilization for consulting firms. The platform consists of a public marketing site, a comprehensive firm dashboard, and a live communication hub. It allows consulting companies to list their available 'On The Bench' talent, while enabling clients and partner firms to quickly search, shortlist, and directly engage with top-tier consultants.
In the B2B consulting sector, unallocated talent on 'the bench' represents immediate financial margin loss. However, traditional recruitment channels are too slow and rigid to fill short-term project gaps. Linkup Partner was built to transform isolated consultant benches into a collaborative network. Consulting firms can list their available talent, maintaining privacy and controlling detail levels, while other firms needing rapid expertise can search and request engagements immediately.
To make candidate discovery seamless, we created a comprehensive skill-tagging and filtering engine. Users can instantly filter by technical domain (e.g., Data Analysis, React, Cloud Computing), availability date, rate, and geographic region. Each profile provides a standardized view of key competencies, experience summaries, and downloadable CVs.
Direct communication is critical for fast deal closing. Rather than relying on slow email chains, we built an integrated live chat messenger into the platform. When a firm shortlists a candidate, they can open an immediate direct chat channel with the listing agency to negotiate terms and initiate onboarding.
The live messaging engine is powered by NestJS WebSockets and Redis pub/sub to deliver sub-millisecond message propagation. Whether users are communicating via the agency dashboard or candidate profile pages, status indicators update in real time.
We implemented presence detection, read receipts, and email fallback notifications for unread messages, ensuring zero dropped leads for participating consultancies.
To support Linkup Partner's business growth, we integrated Stripe Billing API to manage tier-based agency access. Firms can subscribe to monthly or annual packages that unlock advanced candidate search filters, unlimited shortlisting, and direct messaging features.
The dashboard seamlessly handles subscription upgrades, automated billing invoices, and team seat management using Stripe Webhooks to sync license statuses directly to MongoDB.
Capabilities
Practical features users and operators actually rely on.
On The Bench talent directory with status badges and availability tracking.
Advanced candidate search & skill-matching filtering matrix.
Integrated real-time live chat and messenger for instant client-agency negotiations.
Candidate profile showcase pages with embedded CV downloads and skill ratings.
Corporate subscription & access management via Stripe Billing.
Admin moderation workflow for candidate profile approval and quality control.
Architecture
Stack and system choices that keep the product reliable as usage grows.
React / NextJS frontend application for high-performance rendering, SEO optimization, and responsive user dashboards.
NestJS REST and WebSocket gateway enabling real-time live chat and instant candidate status updates.
MongoDB document store for flexible profile schema management and multi-faceted consultant skill indexing.
Stripe Billing API integration for corporate platform subscriptions, featured profile placements, and seat licensing.
Redis pub/sub messaging layer powering real-time chat notifications and instant candidate shortlisting events.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) separating platform admins, consulting agency leads, and candidate profile managers.
Delivery
Every serious product hits constraints. Here is what we solved.
Impact
Results that matter after launch — not just features shipped.
Since launching, Linkup Partner has successfully onboarded dozens of consulting agencies and hundreds of IT specialists across Europe. Partner firms reported a 60% reduction in average bench duration and a 3x faster time-to-first-contact for open project roles via the integrated live chat.
Stack
Tools chosen for the product — not a resume keyword list.
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Next step
Tell me what is broken in your product or workflow. I will reply with a clear take on approach, timeline, and whether I am the right fit.