From Idea to Exit: Building Plann Into a Market Leader
When I joined Plann as employee number three, we were a tiny team with a big ambition: to make social media scheduling intuitive and delightful.
At a glance
- Role
- 3rd Employee & Lead Engineer
- Cost Optimisation
- 37% reduction in AWS costs
- Outcome
- Acquired by Linktree
Impact
2M+
Active Users
50M+
Posts scheduled
99.9%
Uptime
15
Engineers at exit
From Idea to Exit: Building Plann Into a Market Leader
When I joined Plann as employee number three, we were a tiny team with a big ambition: to make social media scheduling intuitive and delightful. At the time, most tools were clunky and expensive, forcing creators to wrestle with software instead of focusing on their content.
The Challenge
We set out to build a platform that could grow from a handful of early adopters to millions of users while staying reliable and affordable. We also needed to build an engineering organisation from scratch, establish a healthy culture and ship improvements quickly to stay ahead of competitors.
The Approach
To deliver on that vision, we focused on foundations that would support growth and agility:
- •Right-sized technical foundation: Rather than over-engineering early on, we built an adaptable architecture and iterated as usage grew. This allowed us to handle increasing volumes of scheduled posts across multiple social networks without constant rewrites.
- •Cost-conscious scaling: As our user base expanded, cloud costs rose quickly. By analysing our AWS footprint and optimising our infrastructure, we implemented changes that reduced our monthly bill by 37%, giving us more runway and financial flexibility.
- •User-first product development: Every new feature started with a deep dive into our users' workflows. This focus kept us building only what solved real problems and helped our product stand out in a crowded market.
- •Team growth and culture: I grew the engineering team from one to 15 people, introducing practices like code reviews, automated testing and continuous deployment. We created a culture of ownership and collaboration, crucial for scaling.
The Outcome
We evolved from a scrappy startup into a platform serving over two million active users and powering more than 50 million posts. We maintained 99.9% uptime while shipping new functionality weekly. Our combination of a solid technical foundation, a high-performing team and significant cloud cost savings drew the attention of Linktree, leading to a successful acquisition.
Lessons Learned
Scaling a product isn't just about picking the right tools; it's about staying close to your users, building a culture that attracts and retains great people, and keeping an eye on efficiency as you grow. These principles continue to guide how I help other founders turn chaos into clarity.