Plank

THE PLANK SR&ED STORY

Founded in 1998 by Warren Wilansky, a true pioneer in the website design and development space, he saw firsthand the drastic shift from the Web 1.0 days to its current and ever-evolving state. We were fortunate enough to have witnessed Plank grow from a small team of around 5 employees in 2004 to an industry-leading design and development studio with a client roster that boasts some of the largest and most reputable companies in the world. 

Partner, Peter Bailey first met Warren and his team in 2004, where we introduced them to the SR&ED program and advised them on its benefits, requirements, and best practices which ultimately led to us filing their first claim that same year. Unlike other government tax incentive programs, innovators can apply for the SR&ED program every year – assuming that eligible SR&ED activities have taken place. Plank's innovation-driven approach to growth and subsequent SR&ED claims over the past decades perfectly exemplifies the “Utilizing The SRED Cycle To Fuel Growth” concept that we’ve showcased in this infographic.

Plank’s goal was to always remain profitable before SR&ED however the program has given them the room to tackle challenges and hire with less risk to current long-term relationships with clients.

 Growing The Organization And Scaling SR&ED Claims

From a total of 5 employees in 2004 (at the time of their first SR&ED claim), the team has grown 5-10% per year. Currently they have 24 employees including 14 full time developers, with plans to increase their total employee count to around 30 in early 2022. Correspondingly, the size of their SR&ED claims have mirrored the growth of the organization.

Fostering Innovation

Flow Venture’s experience and risk mitigated approach to SR&ED claims, gave Plank the reassurance and comfort of being able to take more risks in hiring and granting engineers more time to solve technical uncertainty specific issues. Plank noticed that they were able to retain vital human capital for longer, as work that involved technical uncertainty offered engineers a built in challenge mentality, resulting in turnover being less than 10% per year.

Building Experience, Expertise And New Products

Due to the iterative nature of SR&ED work Plank was able to build upon their technical prowess, and now is able to sign approximately 100%-200% larger budgets per mandate.

Flow’s specialized knowledge and experience in all aspects of growth capital funding paired with their deep understanding and involvement in the tech ecosystem allowed Plank to focus on their business objectives. Allowing them to: 

• Excel at working closely with clients to solve complex online issues in novel ways 
• Specialize in designing the highest quality responsive websites and mobile applications for creative organizations
• Stay up to date with the state of the web
• Move beyond the commodification of web development in the mid 2010’s
• Innovate on larger more complex jobs and have higher stress mandates with corporate clients