Built on curiosity and the people we work with.
We started with a simple belief: the best digital work happens when you understand and connect with the people first.
We're in it from the first conversation to the ongoing work.
Most agencies pick an end. Strategy firms hand off a plan. Design studios hand off a site. Marketing agencies inherit something someone else built and try to make it perform.
We do the whole span. We're in the first consultation, we design and build it, and we're still there years later doing the search, content and maintenance work that keeps it useful. That changes what gets built. When you know you could be living with something for a decade, you make different decisions about it.
We start with a common goal.
The projects we take on rarely have a single stakeholder. There could be a council, a board, several departments, vocal members, a community, and they don't all necessarily want the same thing. The risk in a project like this usually isn't technical. It's that the differences never get worked through and the result ends up a compromise nobody is happy with.
So we start by finding common ground and the things everyone can agree matter. That becomes the foundation, and the harder calls get easier once there's something solid underneath them. By the end, people who came in with different priorities are looking at the same thing and standing behind it.
How we show up.
We stay.
Our longest client relationship is eleven years. Most agencies count projects. We count years.
We don't oversimplify.
Simple solutions are great. Oversimplified ones cause problems three years later. We take the time to understand the whole picture before we touch a pixel.
We build it to empower.
Your team should be able to do more, not depend on us to do it. We hand over something you can run and grow yourselves, and we're here for the parts where it helps to have us.
Small team. Long memories.
Cole Nakatani
Cole started Ideahack in 2011, straight out of UBC Sauder, and he's been in every project since. Proudly Japanese-Canadian, Vancouver born and raised.
He's worked with people from all walks of life at Ideahack, on projects that have collectively impacted millions. Youth across BC. First Nations members on and off territory. Marine scientists on the front lines of climate change. Senior leaders at major public and private organizations.
What makes his skillset unique is his experience outside Ideahack as a certified coach, adjunct professor at UBC Sauder, and public speaker. He's passionate about supporting the well-being of people and has led dozens of programs on habits, mental health and leadership over the years.
Outside of work, he loves to engage in sports and has recently been learning the ukulele.
Lily Haines
Lily leads SEO, AI search, Google Ads and content strategy. She came to it sideways, with an MSc in Marine Biology from SFU, combined honours in Journalism and Biology from Carleton, Arctic reporting in Norway and coral fieldwork in the Bahamas. Her background includes communications leadership for an international marine science organization and managing Google Ad Grants for nonprofits. The science training is the point. She's rigorous about what's working and what only looks like it is.
Ken Tam
Fifteen years of full stack development, more than ten supporting WordPress in production. Ken turns a design into code without losing anything on the way, and his eye for detail is why the finished thing looks like what was drawn. He's usually seen whatever is going wrong before. Studied at UBC, grew up in Vancouver.
Marcel Glaesser
Twelve years of full stack development and server management, more than ten supporting WordPress in production. Marcel is why the sites stay up. He's led dozens of web and campaign projects across government, high tech and food and beverage, and he's as comfortable managing a server as a timeline. BBA in Marketing from SFU. Outside work he takes apart cars, computers and furniture, most things with screws in them.
We also work with a network of contract developers and engineers we've known for years, brought in when a project needs them.
Want to work
with us?
If you're building something you want to still be proud of in ten years, we'd like to hear about it.
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