We didn't start in healthcare marketing. We grew into it.
And that journey, from building websites for wine stores to operating as the marketing team for professional training institutes and healthcare organizations across the country, is what makes us different.
From wine stores to healthcare. The long way around turned out to be the right way.
Drew Hendricks earned his MBA in Entrepreneurial Finance, spent a decade in the wine industry, built one of the first online wine auction platforms, and launched the web development company that became Nimbletoad in 2008. Along the way, his academic background in philosophy of mind and neural networks gave him a framework for understanding AI that most marketers are only now scrambling to develop.
The name came from a simple observation: most websites are toads. Slow, bloated, and doing nothing to generate business. Drew's goal was to make them nimble, fast, functional, and built to convert.
For years, Nimbletoad served a broad range of industries. Wine, law, hospitality, real estate. If you had a website that wasn't working, we'd fix it. But as the agency evolved, a pattern emerged. We kept gravitating toward the work that required the most care: therapy practices, professional training institutes, healthcare organizations, nonprofits. The work where getting the marketing right meant connecting people with care and education they genuinely needed.
Today, Nimbletoad is a digital marketing agency and embedded marketing partner that works with healthcare organizations, professional training institutes, and mission-driven nonprofits. We've built learning management platforms for institutes that certify practitioners worldwide. We've developed multi-channel marketing strategies for some of the largest healthcare organizations in California. We've partnered with multi-million-dollar technology companies on digital strategy. And we've designed membership growth campaigns for community foundations that measure success in impact, not profit.
We track every minute of it, because we believe transparency isn't a feature. It's a requirement.
Drew Hendricks
Drew holds an MBA in Entrepreneurial Finance and has spent nearly two decades helping organizations tell their stories online. Before founding Nimbletoad, he built eCommerce platforms and spent years in the wine industry learning something that shaped everything after: the best products in the world don't sell themselves. Stories sell them.
What sets Drew apart in the agency world is his early and deep understanding of AI. His academic work in philosophy of mind, studying neural networks, computational models of cognition, and how meaning is constructed, gave him a framework for understanding these tools that most marketers are only now scrambling to develop. He's been thinking about how machines learn and how humans process information for over twenty years. That's why Nimbletoad's approach to AI isn't automation for its own sake. It's experienced marketers using AI with the judgment that only comes from doing the work by hand for nearly two decades.
His work with training institutes, healthcare organizations, technology companies, and nonprofits has given him a deep understanding of how mission-driven organizations grow, and the unique constraints they operate under.
Drew also founded Barrels Ahead (barrelsahead.com), a sister agency dedicated to organic growth marketing for wineries and craft beverage producers. Because sometimes the best thing for mental health is a really good glass of wine.
He's also an award-winning photographer. Every image on this site was shot by him. When he's not working, you'll find him surfing, hiking, fishing, or shooting photos somewhere in Southern California. He lives in Vista with his wife Brooke and their three dogs.
Eight people who stay.
Nimbletoad operates as a focused team of eight. Most of our team members have been with us for over six years. They're not contractors rotating through your account. They're not freelancers we pulled in last week. They're the people who know your brand voice, remember what we tested last quarter, and care about your results because they've been invested in your growth for years.
This isn't an agency that hands you off to a different account manager every six months. When you work with Nimbletoad, you work with people who stay.
Six principles that shape everything we do.
Want to meet us?
We partner best with organizations seeking long-term strategic growth. Tell us about yours.
Request a Strategic Review