Who We Are
Small studio.
Punches way above
its weight.
Founded in Salt Lake City by John Ramsay, we've shipped 12 platforms across healthcare, e-commerce, fitness, and marketing. We don't specialize in one thing, we specialize in figuring things out. Every project gets the founder's attention. No account managers. No junior devs learning on your dime. Just experienced builders who care about getting it right.
John Ramsay
Founder. Strategist. Principal Scientist. Army Veteran.
The Foundation
Born from hardship.
Shaped by stakes
that mattered.
In 2008, when the real estate market collapsed, John Ramsay faced a choice that wasn't abstract: feed a family with no income. His daughter Lauren was 11. His son Cash had just been born. The pressure was real and daily.
He didn't wait for a grant or a clean plan. He taught himself marketing out of necessity and launched Explosive Marketing Group in Southern California. He discovered he had a gift that couldn't be taught: he understood people. Not data. People. How they think. What they trust. What makes them move.
Then something shifted when he hired someone to build his first website. He watched people use it, how they moved through it, where they got confused, what made them leave. He realized most websites were structured by designers and developers, not by the people who had to live with them. The website wasn't a brochure. It was a conversation. And most businesses were losing that conversation in the first 10 seconds.
Over 15 years, John built agencies, launched a CPG company that scaled to $40M+, became a scientist, and most recently helped design a $13.5M extraction facility. Each chapter taught him something: systems thinking, how to operate under pressure, what it takes to build things that last. Not things that look good in portfolios. Things that actually work.
That's the background SLC Site Studio is built on. Not theory. Not trends. Experience that cost something to earn.
"I've been on the other side of bad builds my whole career. I know exactly what they cost, in time, in credibility, in lost revenue. That's not an abstraction for me. That's lived experience."
John Ramsay
Two Decades at Stakes That Mattered
Family crisis drives necessity. Lauren is 11. Cash is newborn. Begins learning marketing to survive.
Explosive Marketing Group launched. First client success. Discovery: he understands people better than tactics.
Relocates to Colorado. Builds full-service marketing firm (Center Mass Media). Starts systems thinking.
Agency grows. Watches patterns. Realizes most websites fail because they are built for machines, not humans.
Launches Infinite CBD. Builds from zero to $40M+ revenue over 8 years. Learns operations at scale.
CPG scaling teaches accountability: supply chain, quality, consumer trust, and execution under pressure.
Infinite CBD successful exit. Recruited by alkaloid extraction company to lead scientific operations.
Recruited as Principal Scientist for the largest essential oil company in the world. Clarifies what matters.
SLC Site Studio begins. Not a startup. A resolution: build things that actually solve problems, not feature lists.
Why This Exists
"I don't build features. I solve the friction that's costing your business time, money, or trust. Everything else is decoration."
John Ramsay, Founder
John has built in spaces where imprecision costs real money, sometimes costs lives. A website that converts nobody, an automation that saves zero time, a system nobody uses. These are not acceptable compromises to him. They are failures.
The Problem
Most firms confuse shipping with solving. Launch the website. Deploy the system. Close the ticket. The idea that it should also move the business is optional. Outcomes are optional.
Our Standard
Every build answers one question: does this solve the actual problem for the actual user? We design backward from measurement. Function first. Aesthetics in service of behavior.
Why We Are Different
We think like operators, not stylists. We come from science, Army medicine, and CPG operations. We own outcomes, not just deliverables. Accountability does not come from a mission statement. It comes from skin in the game.
R&D Chemist
Principal Scientist at the largest essential oil company in the world. Precision, documentation, and rigor at industrial scale.
Army Medic
OIF/OEF combat deployments. Disabled veteran. Decisions with immediate, observable consequences. No room for ambiguity.
CPG Founder
Built Infinite CBD from zero to $40M+ revenue over an 8-year run, then executed a full exit. Real operations. Real accountability.
Facility Builder
Helped design a $13.5M alkaloid extraction facility in Salt Lake City in 2025. Systems thinking applied at a physical, high-stakes level.
Marketing Strategist
15+ years in consumer psychology across two agency builds from scratch. Understanding people, not just data, has always been the edge.
Systems Thinker
Operations, data, science, and platform design spanning six industries. Sees how the pieces connect before a single line of code is written.
Built on Real Stakes
The depth of experience
that shapes every decision.
John's background isn't random. It's systematic. He was an Army Medic in combat zones (OIF/OEF) where decisions had immediate, observable consequences. Then he became a Principal Scientist for the world's largest essential oil company, an environment where rigor is not negotiable. Then he built Infinite CBD from zero to $40M+ exit, managing supply chain, quality, and team scaling in a regulated industry.
That's not a resume. That's a framework. Systems thinking. Accountability. Precision under pressure. User-first thinking. These aren't values he adopted for a business card. They are the result of having skin in the game. Literally, in some cases.
Most digital shops are built by designers and engineers. SLC Site Studio is built by someone who has had to live with the consequences of bad systems. A broken supply chain doesn't make it to the next quarter. A confused website costs leads you can't recover. That's not theoretical for John. That's lived experience.
When he says a build should solve a real problem, he's not being aspirational. He's stating the baseline. Everything else he's done has required that standard.
"I've built things under pressure I couldn't afford to get wrong. That teaches you what matters and what doesn't. A website that doesn't work isn't just a missed opportunity. It's a failure to execute. I don't accept that standard."
John Ramsay
The Team That Ships
Family. Not founders.
This started because John needed to feed his family. It continues because of family. That is not a marketing line. That is the actual dynamic. The kind of care and accountability that exists between people who share real responsibility is different. You can feel it in the work.
John Ramsay
Strategist & Founder
The strategic engine. John owns the client relationship, shapes the scope, and obsesses over whether every build actually solves the problem. He talks to every prospect, designs the solution, and holds us accountable to measurable outcomes. Failure isn't an option in his framework.
Cash Ramsay
Lead Build Architect
John's son. The technical backbone. Cash turns strategy into systems that actually work. The father-son dynamic creates something most teams never build: complete alignment without politics. When Cash ships something, it's built to last. He builds it right the first time.
Lauren Carlson
Design & Creative Direction
John's daughter. Design is not decoration to Lauren. It is a tool for behavior change. She understands that every pixel should serve the end user. That is why our work feels considered, intentional, and human. Design in service of function.
"This started because of family. I had two kids to feed and nowhere else to go. Fifteen years later, I am building with my kids. That dynamic, the accountability, the care, the standard we hold each other to, you feel it in the work. It is not manufactured. It is just what happens when it is real."
John Ramsay
Operating Philosophy
The beliefs that shape
every decision.
These aren't ideals we aspire to. They're non-negotiables we live by. Most come from building in environments where precision and accountability weren't optional. Where people depended on us getting it right.
Design serves behavior. Always.
A beautiful interface that converts no one is just decoration. Every design decision traces back to the person using it. What they need to understand, what makes them move, what changes as a result. Function first.
Measurement is architectured in, never bolted on.
Before we build, we know what success looks like and how we'll measure it. Shipping something you can't measure is gambling. We don't gamble.
The end user is the only baseline that matters.
Every decision, interface, copy, flow, logic, gets tested against one lens: what does this person need to do, trust, and understand? We ship when we can defend every choice through their lens.
Speed comes from clarity, not corner-cutting.
People who actually understand their problem move fast and clean. Slow, broken builds come from unclear thinking. We start with clarity. That's why we move fast.
AI is a tool with a specific job. That's it.
We use it when it solves a problem better than the alternative. Not because it's trendy. Not because it sounds good. When we use it, we can articulate exactly why.
We ship what we'd stake our family name on.
We do not ship things we would not use ourselves or recommend to someone we love. That is not perfectionism. It is basic integrity. It is the standard.
Core Values
These are non-negotiable.
Most businesses write values posters. Ours come from Army service, CPG operations, and two decades of having skin in the game.
Say Yes
We don't gatekeep. If you need something built, we want to hear about it. No project too weird. No idea too ambitious.
Ship Fast
We move fast and stay until it works. Not because we are reckless. Clarity creates speed. We figure it out together.
No Handoffs
We don't do account managers. You work with the people building your system. Founder-led. Family-rooted. Real partnership.
Integrity
We won't ship things we wouldn't use ourselves. We won't take on work we can't solve. That standard isn't flexible.
Service
Not serving ourselves. Not serving our portfolio. Serving your actual problem. John learned this in the Army. It shapes this studio.
Family
We're a family building this. Radical candor, high standards, and the kind of care you only give people you actually know.
How We Got Here
The studio timeline.
First operator client. Built internal systems for a $40M+ CPG company. Replaced spreadsheets and disconnected tools with a unified ops platform.
Expanded into healthcare and clinical operators. First AI-assisted intake system shipped for a multi-location clinical practice.
Launched full AI-integrated build capability. Custom GPT workflows, lead scoring, and content automation deployed in production.
12 platforms shipped across 4 industries. Systems Studio established. Founder-led, family-built, outcome-obsessed.
Platform Versatility
Every major platform.
Plus what comes after.
We work across every major web platform including WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, and custom frameworks. We also specialize in building complete business operating systems, SaaS products, and AI-powered platforms from the ground up.
Based in Salt Lake City, serving businesses nationwide.
We work remotely with clients across the US, from Utah to New York to California. Location doesn't limit our ability to deliver exceptional results.