# Two builders, one harbor, a fixable problem.

> Black Buoy is a web design and development LLC founded by Hutson Jones and Gardner Thornhill in coastal southern New Hampshire, built on craftsmanship, honest pricing, and modern search readiness.

Black Buoy is a web design and development LLC founded by Hutson Jones and Gardner Thornhill in coastal southern New Hampshire.

## It started with noticing.

Spend enough time in the harbor towns of the New Hampshire seacoast (Portsmouth, Rye, New Castle, Hampton) and a pattern jumps out. The businesses are excellent: real craftspeople, real service, real community roots. Their websites are not. Slow to load, hard to navigate, last touched years ago, built by a vendor who charged agency prices and disappeared.

Hutson Jones and Gardner Thornhill kept seeing the same two failures: local businesses were overpaying for underwhelming websites, and almost none of those sites were positioned for the biggest shift in how customers search since search began: questions answered directly, by answer-driven tools, instead of pages of links.

So they founded Black Buoy: a studio that builds the sites these businesses deserve, prices them like a neighbor rather than an agency, and structures every one of them to be found in the way people search now, not the way they searched in 2015.

### Who founded Black Buoy?

Black Buoy was founded by Hutson Jones and Gardner Thornhill, and is based in coastal southern New Hampshire. It is a registered LLC providing web design, development, and Answer Engine Optimization to local businesses.

### Hutson Jones (Co-Founder)

Hutson leads design and client strategy: the shape of every site, the words on every page, and the plan that connects a business's goals to what visitors actually see.

### Gardner Thornhill (Co-Founder)

Gardner leads engineering and search readiness: the fast, clean code under every Black Buoy site and the structured foundations that get clients found and cited.

## The values under the hull.

- **Craftsmanship**: Every site is designed and built by hand, by the founders, to a standard we'd put our own name on, because we do. This website is built exactly the way we build yours.
- **Affordability**: Great web work shouldn't be priced out of reach of the businesses that need it most. Honest scope, transparent quotes, dramatically below typical agency rates.
- **Local roots**: We live here, we shop at the businesses we build for, and we're accountable the way only a neighbor is. Coastal New Hampshire owned and operated.
- **Modern execution**: Craft doesn't mean old-fashioned. Semantic code, structured data, fast performance, answer-ready content: the technical edge is the point.

## A real business, built to last.

Black Buoy is a registered New Hampshire LLC, not a side hustle, not a freelancer who might vanish mid-project. Contracts, invoices, and accountability all run through the company, and the company plans to be here as long as the harbor is.

- **Registered LLC**: Established in New Hampshire, operating under Black Buoy LLC.
- **Founder accountability**: The people who sold you the project are the people who build and support it.
- **You own your site**: Domain, code, and content belong to you: documented and portable, never held hostage.

## Come say hello.

Whether you're ready to build or just wondering what's possible, we're glad to talk shop. [Get in Touch](https://blackbuoy.net/contact)