Plink planning to double staff from 10 employees to 20 by mid-2013

Plink, a Denver-based company that bridges the gap between on-line and off-line loyalty programs, is preparing to add 20 staff by 2013. 

Plink is a 2011 spinoff of advertising and marketing agency Adperio, which wanted to develop incentive “offer walls” for Netflix and other household names.

“Plink was born out of that,” says Peter Vogel, co-founder and CEO. “We asked, 'how can we do this for offline brands? How do we build this bridge?' The big idea is being that bridge.” 

Vogel says the impetus for Plink was the fact that more than 80 percent of spending remains offline.

“Everything we do is tied to making purchases,” he says.“We are about driving sales.”

Customers join Plink by registering a credit card, then earn online rewards (Plink Points) when they spend at  partners like Burger King, Quizno's and Red Robin. The rewards, which total about 10 percent of purchases, include gift cards for Amazon, iTunes and other major sites. There are 35,000 participating locations in all.

“We're kind of the anti-Groupon,” Vogel waxes. “Our members are paying full price. The worst thing you can do is to train people to only go when it's 60 percent off.”

After a $630,000 friends-and-family funding round in the spring of 2011, Plink closed on a $3 million Series A funding round led by Grotech Ventures in July. 

Plink is currently building a mobile app that will launch in 2013.

“There'll be a little more functionality and gamification,” Vogel says.