The “Fan Email” Playbook: How Plank Lands Dream Clients Without Doing Spammy Outbound
Interview: Warren Wilansky on niche focus, case-study trust, and building an agency that outlives the founder
Haus Advisors Live with Warren Wilansky, Founder of Plank — a website agency for mission-driven creative organizations (arts, culture, nonprofits)
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Prefer the highlights? Key takeaways and summary below.
TL;DR – Key Takeaways
Plank started the classic way: a little freelance momentum + “let’s rent an office and figure it out.”
Their “zone of genius” is a mix of:
deep industry knowledge (arts/culture + nonprofits)
strong design taste and attention to detail
high-end technical builds (big, complex projects)
unusually deep client relationships + project management
They didn’t start niche. At first they took whatever walked in. Over time, personal interest + portfolio gravity pulled them into a tight focus.
Case studies are the main conversion engine: “people see themselves in the story” → instant trust.
Warren’s best “cold outbound” isn’t cold. It’s a fan email—rare, personal, passion-driven. It works maybe once every ~5 years, but when it hits, it’s huge (Michael Moore, Rush, etc.).
Hot take: they still do RFPs sometimes—but only when it’s a perfect fit and they can build a relationship before submitting.
The future goal: make the agency less reliant on Warren, both for culture and biz dev, so it can live beyond him.
Meet the Guest
Warren Wilansky founded Plank over 25 years ago. Plank builds websites for mission-driven creative organizations—especially arts and cultural institutions, plus nonprofits.
Warren’s story is refreshingly unglamorous: it started with freelance work, scrappy teamwork, and then decades of narrowing focus through repetition, taste, and relationships.
Episode Summary
1. How Plank started (the “scrape together rent” era)
Warren studied communication studies with a focus on “multimedia” (before web dev was even a real category).
After graduation:
some freelance
a short stint at a company
and once he had enough freelance work, he teamed up with two partners
They didn’t launch with a master plan. It was more like:
“Can we pool enough to get an office and survive?”
That became Plank.
2. What Plank is genuinely great at
Warren’s answer here was super clear, and it’s basically why Plank has lasted:
Deep niche understanding
They know arts + culture orgs (museums, performing arts, etc.) and nonprofits at a practical level: what those orgs actually need, how decisions get made, what constraints exist.
Design + detail
Design was the original anchor. They sweat details.
Complex technical builds
They like big challenges and high-end projects.
Relationships + project management
This wasn’t “PM as admin.” It’s “PM as stewardship.” They care about the experience, not just the deliverable.
3. Niche wasn’t a decision — it was a gravity well
This part matters because people love to pretend niches happen from a single brave decision.
Warren said: early on, they took whatever showed up. No luxury.
But because he personally cared about arts and culture (music background, loves the arts), their best work kept landing there, and the portfolio started to reflect it.
Then something interesting happened:
the portfolio attracted similar clients
case studies made those clients feel seen
that reinforced the niche
the niche got tighter over time
It’s basically a flywheel powered by relevance.
4. “How did you get your first client?” (three defining stories)
Warren told three “first client” stories, and they show the weirdness of early agency life:
9 West Shoes (NYC)
He picked it up through an early agency situation that imploded. Right place, right time. One freelancer suddenly working with a major brand.
A pen company
Plank’s first “official” client was local and scrappy. It’s the contrast: big-name luck on one side, small local work on the other.
The client they actually wanted: Michael Moore
Two years in, Warren found Michael Moore’s website, thought it wasn’t great, and sent a personal email. Michael Moore called that afternoon. They worked together for ten years.
That was the first “we chose this” client.
5. Their stance on outbound (and why most people do it wrong)
Warren basically said:
They don’t do blast outreach. Ever.
When they reach out, it’s personal and passion-led—more like:
“I’m a fan, and I think we can genuinely help.”
He said it rarely works (about once every five years), but when it does, it turns into major, long-running work—like Rush and other dream projects.
This is a good gut-check for agency owners:
Most “outbound” fails because it’s not rooted in real interest, and the receiver can smell it.
6. The most recent client: yes, an RFP (but they did it the smart way)
Warren knows the agency internet hates RFPs.
And he agreed with the criticism: many public RFPs are stacked, crowded (50+ submissions), and sometimes the buyer already has someone picked.
But they still won their latest client through an RFP because:
it was a perfect fit (nonprofit, aligned, budget fit)
they had relevant case studies
they got on a call first to build a real connection
they didn’t want to be “Proposal #37 in a pile”
So it wasn’t “pray and spray.” It was relationship-first selling, even inside an RFP.
7. The future: business development can’t be a one-person sport
For a long time, Warren carried most biz dev.
Going forward, they’re shifting to a team-based model:
PMs more involved in defining projects and sales
team leads owning relationships
biz dev embedded in culture, not just founder hustle
And his bigger long-term goal is even more clear:
Build an agency that isn’t dependent on Warren as the keeper of culture.
He wants the team to be able to run it and eventually have a president beyond him.
Not because he wants to disappear—because he wants other people to have the chance to do what he’s done for 25 years.
Notable Quotes
“It’s almost like you’re reaching out as a fan.”
“It’s successful once every five years — but when it is successful, it’s incredibly successful.”
“Case studies… somebody hooks into a case study and sees themselves represented.”
“The culture of the agency has to be reflected by everybody in it.”
Learn More / Get in Touch
Visit → Plank.co (P-L-A-N-K.co)
There’s a contact form on the site.
Warren encouraged people to explore Plank’s website and values—because values are the real product.
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