An innovator building software and leading digital transformation: Plan A Technologies

Plan A Technologies was founded by two software entrepreneurs who built and sold two multimillion-dollar startups over ten years. When building those previous startups, the founders kept looking for the perfect engineering firm to help them, but could never find the right company. Eventually, they realized that the only way to get that software development company of their dreams was to create it themselves. That’s how Plan A was born. Plan A Technologies is an award-winning software development and digital transformation company. Plan A creates new custom software solutions and fixes complex software failures for companies and nonprofit organizations around the world. The company works with both startups and Fortune 500 companies across several different industries.

Plan A’s team of hundreds of people loves helping companies create new cutting-edge platforms from scratch, but they are especially proud of helping organizations when they face critical technical crises that threaten to bring down the entire enterprise. Plan A has helped companies that have suffered infrastructure collapses of their aging, legacy software that resulted in all their customers being unable to use their core products. The company has also helped organizations after they have suffered a cyberattack, when they desperately needed to recover their data and rebuild their technology fast. Plan A has helped groups where their tech stack was no longer supported by the original developers, leaving them lost and wondering what to do next. The team at Plan A takes pride in coming to the rescue during these especially stressful times.

In conversation with Slav Kulik, CEO of Plan A Technologies

Q. As a software development company that works on solutions that are absolutely critical to their clients, how does Plan A Technologies manage client expectations?

We strive to create true partnerships with clients and to genuinely earn their trust. We’re extremely honest and transparent about, well, everything. We also make sure that our staff and our clients are all on the same page and truly understand both the tech side of what needs to be done and the business side. That really helps us to go above and beyond what most clients expect from a software development company. We not only execute on ideas, we help contribute to the ideation in a big way. Thanks to our understanding of regulatory issues and our experience building businesses ourselves, we provide our clients with crucial advice that opens up many new opportunities for them. Ultimately, it’s not so much about managing expectations as ensuring there’s a real relationship with real communication, so both parties understand what the other needs and expects. On top of all that we’re available 24/7 and get back to our clients very, very fast...often within minutes. If our client has a problem or a concern, we’re ready to address it immediately.

Q. What is the quality assurance process followed by Plan A Technologies?

We carefully assemble the strongest team possible. Our engineers follow defined coding standards and conduct reviews to ensure code quality, while our quality assurance team is involved in all stages of a product’s development, from design to delivery. Every new hire goes through a rigorous interview process that includes complex technical questions and testing. Ultimately, we hire less than 3% of applicants. But once we find these individuals, we work extremely hard to retain them. The result is continuity, both with our team and our clients, which is rare in tech or, for that matter, any industry. We also have a culture that encourages operating as a true team, where everyone supports everyone else. If someone’s struggling, other people are right there to help.

Q. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful CEO?

There are a lot of qualities, but I’ll limit myself to three.

First, I would say vision. A CEO needs to see the big picture, in terms of the entire business and the entire industry and where the industry is going in the future. A person can be absolutely brilliant at their individual job, but simply lack the ability to see beyond themselves. There’s a big difference between management and leadership, and it’s critical for a CEO to be able to manage the business but also lead the people – and you need vision to do that well.

Second, a CEO needs to be persistent. You will hit roadblocks and you will have bad days. You need to keep going. Sometimes you need to make some serious adjustments to your strategy and your approach, but you need to be the kind of person who won’t give up no matter what happens.

Finally, if the CEO wants to build something that lasts, I think you need to be able to inspire those around you: staff, clients and the rest of the world. As you’re having those bad days and hitting those roadblocks, do you respond by making everyone around you miserable? Or do you inspire confidence? 

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

We are delighted to say that, while maintaining our high standards, Plan A Technologies has still managed to more than double in size in just the last year. We’re already in 17 countries on five continents, with more soon to come.

Meet the leader behind the success of Plan A Technologies

Slav Kulik started as a programmer, rose to increasingly senior engineering roles including SVP of Engineering at multibillion-dollar companies, co-founded/served as Chief Technology Officer and Chief Software Architect for software companies OfferCraft and MacroView Labs (both acquired in eight-figure deals), and finally wound up as Co-Founder and CEO of Plan A Technologies. As a result, he has a uniquely varied and deep knowledge of the software industry. He understands the needs of clients from building his own companies and fully appreciates what he may be asking of engineers (indeed, he still enjoys coding when his schedule permits). It adds up to him being able to help clients find the questions they should be asking and discover the services/benefits they need but may not have even known exist.

“Our engineers follow defined coding standards and conduct reviews to ensure code quality, while our quality assurance team is involved in all stages of a product’s development, from design to delivery.”