Let’s journey back in time for a minute…
Have you heard the one about the geography major and the barbecue salesperson who walked into a coffee shop? It’s a tale as old as time!
We started Full Stacks in 2012 doing SEO work. Back then, we (just Dana and Jen at that point) were often brought in by large agencies to work on their clients’ projects, while working with some small businesses in Edmonton who saw the value of investing early in SEO. Building this agency has involved a lot of “yikes, let’s never do that again” and “cool, cool, cool, we just lost a ton of money on that project” and “wow, we did not set that employee up for success at all” and “wait, why are we doing this?” conversations, but the lessons learned shaped how we all treat each other now.
Our team grew as we started to expand our services, or in most cases, we expanded our services as our team grew and brought new skills and more diverse experience to the company. When Laura joined Full Stacks in 2019, she implemented a solid project management structure and built processes for how we manage projects and accounts. After that, much of our focus shifted from small projects and one-off fixes to full service marketing partnerships. This shift positioned us to work alongside eager and engaged partners to build and sustain meaningful growth for their organizations.
The early days of the pandemic and the clouds of uncertainty it brought helped us realize that doing good work wasn’t enough. How we worked mattered just as much. We didn’t want to be the kind of agency where people were expected to feel lucky just to have a job, or where care and kindness or any kind of a struggle got mistaken for weakness.
Two of our longest-tenured employees started here as interns and are now directors. Not because we mapped out their career paths for them, but because they had the space, time, and support to grow into roles that matched their strengths and ambitions. We chose to invest in people, support them, and create the kind of workplace we all actually want to work in.
We don’t believe in keeping any part of marketing a secret. We’ve trained teams from one-person startups to large organizations to create and run their own strategies, manage ads, SEO, and analytics, and take control of reporting without having to rely on us forever. We love showing teams who have in-house capacity how it all works so you can make smart decisions with confidence. That commitment to building skills is what led Dana DiTomaso to launch Analytics Playbook, a platform and community focused on practical, accessible analytics education. Dana is a sought-after instructor and speaker on all things analytics, and she continues to work directly with clients and partners.
Since 2012, we’ve built a team that’s thoughtful, adaptable, and deeply committed—not just to delivering results—but to understanding what those results mean for your business. When you work with us, you’re getting a group of people who aren’t burnt out or spread thin. We’ve created space for learning and growth on purpose, because that’s how we show up: with clarity, care, and the kind of insight that makes a real difference to our clients and partners.
That’s what makes our work better and what makes us better to work with.
If you’re ready to do better marketing, let’s talk.