Behind Every Great Outcome is a Great Operating System.
McLain Associates builds strategy that scales — not just through ideas, but through process, precision, and people who know what to do.
How We Work
Strategy without bloat. Execution without drag.
Strategy Intensives
Short-form, high-impact engagements designed to unlock clarity fast — used for positioning, narrative, and GTM modeling.
Ongoing Advisory
Weekly or biweekly cadence. Executive-level thought partnership, playbook reviews, and strategic navigation.
Embedded Fractional Roles
Interim product marketing or brand leadership — helping teams scale systems before they scale headcount.
Custom Strike Teams
Handpicked collaborators across research, design, comms, and operations — aligned to the stage, scope, and objective.
Experience that Compounds
Insight & Pattern Recognition Across Industries
Brands
Industries
Industries & Brands
From AI to Telecom, From Branding to Startup Advising,
From Series-A to Enterprise — We Have You Covered
- Poliverse
- Bank on California
- Bank on San Francisco
- United Way King County
- Civana
- Unifyre
- Capgemini
- Cognizant
- Diageo
- Pabst
- Peet’s Coffee & Tea
- Kyocera
- LG
- Firefly
- SolarCity
- TOMS Shoes
- Modern Amusement
- The Fresh Market
- Thermador
- Hill’s Pet Nutrition
- Panda Express
- Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
- Global Payments
- Visa
- Intuit
- AIG
- Kemper
- Matrix Direct
- Unitrin
- Silicon Valley Bank
- Banner Health
- Clarify Medical
- POGO Glucose Meter
- Siemens-Danvers
- GE Industrial Systems
- One-Off Robotics
- McCann Worldgroup
- Brunswick Group
- CXO Communication
- QuinStreet
- Adzaar
- Utopia Experiences
- Riot Games
- E.W. Scripps Company
- BlueOcean AI
- SageTalk
- Alteryx
- Cloudera
- Fastly
- Google Meet
- Collibra
- 1Password
- Yellowbrick
- Oracle
- Sterling Commerce (AT&T)
- SAP
- Sophos
- Equinix
- PEER 1 Hosting
- ServerBeach
- Nutanix
- Thinfilm Electronics
- MobiTV
- Cisco
- F5
- Juniper
- Microsoft
- IronPort Systems
- Coverity
- NetApp
- Covad Communications
- MegaPath
- Nortel Networks
- T-Mobile
- Mooney Airplanes
- GenZe
About McLain Associates
A Specialist Collective
McLain Associates is a modern talent collective — a hand-selected network of senior operators and subject-matter experts brought together to solve complex brand, product, and go-to-market challenges.
From brand identity and UX architecture to pricing research and sales enablement, our collaborators bring deep craft and category fluency to every engagement. We assemble lean, high-impact teams tailored to each client’s specific objectives.
We’re proudly location-agnostic. Based in the U.S., our team works across time zones and geographies — embedding where needed and scaling up or down based on phase, scope, and strategic fit.
Whether you need a solo operator or a cross-functional strike team, McLain Associates delivers calibrated talent without bloat.
About Nick McLain
Trusted by Founders, Growth Teams, and Global Brands
Nick McLain has spent the last 20 years helping organizations navigate inflection points — defining brand strategy, refining product positioning, and architecting go-to-market systems that align teams and drive momentum.
He’s worked across numerous industries and verticals — in roles spanning CEO & Founder, VP of Strategy, Brand Director, and Product Marketing Lead. Whether inside a venture-backed startup or advising an enterprise team, Nick brings a sharp lens to market clarity and cross-functional alignment.
His strategic and advisory experience includes work for Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 organizations, as well as dozens of SMBs and early-stage companies. He’s partnered with founders on messaging, funding narratives, MVP validation, and organizational clarity — as well as enterprise teams on brand repositioning, platform GTM, and marketing transformation.
Nick holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and has been invited to guest lecture at Stanford University on web analytics. His approach is grounded, framework-driven, and shaped by experience inside the room.