Two disciplines.
One van.
Websites that work.
Michael and Ciara — engineer and UX designer — running a boutique studio from a converted campervan. Remote-first. Client-focused. Currently somewhere scenic.
On the road.
Why We Exist
Most small business websites are slow, invisible, and nobody’s fault — until now.
Most agencies sell you one half of the problem. Design shops build beautiful things that don’t rank. SEO shops optimize pages that don’t convert. You end up with a site that looks decent and does very little.
Upward Buzz is both sides in one studio. Michael brings the engineering and systems thinking — fast builds, technical SEO, paid acquisition, automation. Ciara brings the design discipline — UX, conversion flows, and the kind of clarity that makes a visitor stay.
No handoffs. No tradeoffs. Just a site that pulls its weight.
The Team
Two people. No filler.
Michael
Founder
Michael builds the systems. The websites, the search strategy, the ad infrastructure, the automations. He approaches marketing the way engineers approach software: define the goal, build the system, measure what happens, iterate.
Before Upward Buzz became a full studio, he spent several years as a forward deployed AI engineer at a high-growth startup — building automation systems and AI workflows for enterprise clients. That work sharpened how he thinks about growth: less guesswork, more architecture.
- Website development and architecture
- Technical SEO and search strategy
- Analytics and performance measurement
- Google Ads and acquisition systems
- Automation and integrations
Ciara
Design Lead
Ciara designs the experience. She started in fast-moving digital agencies, working across industries and timelines that left very little room for anything that didn’t work. She now designs full-time at a fintech company, where the bar for clarity and trust is high.
Her focus is on how real people use things: what they notice first, where they hesitate, and what finally gets them to act. Good UX isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s where visitors become customers.
- User experience design
- Customer journeys and conversion flows
- Interface and visual design
- Usability and clarity of messaging
- Landing page design and optimization
Our Story
How a boutique studio gets built.
Upward Buzz started the way most small studios do: one person, a few clients, doing the work. Fast websites, search visibility, Google Ads that actually traced back to revenue. It worked. Slowly, then quickly.
Michael spent several years going deep into engineering — building automation systems and AI-driven workflows for enterprise clients at a high-growth startup. That stretch changed the way he approaches every project. Not campaigns in isolation, but systems that compound.
Ciara joined the studio and brought the other half: years of design practice across agencies and product teams, a refined sense of what users actually need, and the patience to get the details right. The two disciplines don’t just coexist here. They sharpen each other.
The van came later — or maybe it was always part of the plan. Either way, the work travels well.
“We build websites that pull their weight — and the systems that keep them working.”
How We Work
A studio built for the work, not the office.
We work from a converted campervan — national parks, deserts, coastlines, mountain passes. The location rotates. The standards don’t.
The road isn’t the story. It’s just the backdrop. The point is focused, independent work with clients who care about outcomes as much as we do. Being untethered to a single city means we’re untethered to the overhead that drives most agency pricing up and attention down.
We keep the client list small on purpose. Every project gets real attention.
We also have two dogs. They have not contributed to a single deliverable, but they remain employed.
Parks We’ve Worked From
- Zion National Park, Utah
- Olympic National Park, Washington
- Joshua Tree National Park, California
- Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
- Redwood National Park, California
Good fit? Let’s find out.
We work with a small number of clients at a time. If you want a studio that actually pays attention, reach out and let’s talk.