Built by a small team that ships real software.
Maxx Effect is a Muskegon agency built and run by its two co-founders and the people who do the work, not a sales front for outsourced labor. The developer who built the case-management CRM for a 180-employee immigration law firm now builds websites and AI automation for small businesses across West Michigan. We are intentionally small, and that is what lets us ship in weeks instead of quarters.
The current team
Samuel Ohl
Co-Founder & CMO
Leads marketing, brand, and growth. Runs positioning, demand generation, and the campaigns that turn the team's technical work into booked clients across Muskegon and West Michigan.
More team members coming soon
Maxx Effect is staffing up across web development, AI automation, and SEO. If you're a senior IC who wants to do real work in Muskegon, get in touch.
Reach outAn agency built by an engineer, not a sales desk
Most West Michigan small businesses get pushed to one of two extremes. A cheap template that looks fine on day one and breaks by month six, or a big-agency contract priced for a company ten times their size. The middle, modern and affordable and actually maintained, is where almost no one operates.
Maxx Effect fills that gap. We build on the same stack that shipped a production case-management system for a law firm running thousands of active files: Next.js, TypeScript, Supabase, Vercel. That system cut page loads from nine seconds to a little over one and indexed 200,000-plus documents for natural-language search. The résumé is beside the point: those patterns scale down cleanly to a dental office in Norton Shores or a contractor in Grand Haven.
Read the founder storyWhat working with a small team actually looks like
You talk to the person who does the work
No account manager relaying messages to a developer you never meet. When you email about a bug or a new feature, the reply comes from whoever is writing the code. That is what makes a small team an advantage instead of a limitation.
Fixed scope, fixed price, published rates
Every project is scoped in writing before a line of code ships, and the price lives on the /pricing page. Websites run $2,500 to $12,000+, AI pilots start at $5,000. You approve the number before we start, and change orders are quoted the same way.
Two-week build sprints, weekly check-ins
Work moves in two-week increments with a demo at the end of each one. You see progress on a real URL, not a status email. Most 5-to-8-page sites launch in two to three weeks from kickoff.
You own everything at the end
Your code, your content, your domain, your analytics. No proprietary page builder holding the site hostage, no monthly fee required just to keep it online. The maintenance retainer is optional and starts at $199 a month.
Capabilities the team ships every week
Web Development
Next.js 16, TypeScript, React 19, built for speed and SEO.
AI Automation
Claude and GPT production integrations, document intake, CRM routing.
SEO & Local Search
Local pack, AI search, structured data, performance.
Branding
Production-ready identity systems: type, color, and motion.
Working with the Maxx Effect team
How big is the Maxx Effect team?
Two co-founders run the agency day to day: Robert Sapp leads development, Samuel Ohl leads marketing and growth. The work is done by the people you talk to, not handed off to outsourced contractors. We are hiring senior developers, AI engineers, and SEO specialists in Muskegon as the client roster grows.
Are you actually based in Muskegon?
Yes. Maxx Effect is headquartered in Muskegon, Michigan, and we work with lakeshore clients in person across Muskegon, Norton Shores, and Grand Haven. Holland and Grand Rapids clients are mostly served remotely, with on-site meetings when a project needs them.
Do I work with a project manager or a developer?
A developer. Because the team is small, the person scoping your project is the person building it. That removes the telephone game where requirements get lost between a salesperson, a manager, and an offshore developer.
What does the team specialize in?
Four things that reinforce each other: custom Next.js websites, AI automation workflows, local and AI-search SEO, and brand identity. A site built for speed ranks better, ranking better feeds the automation that qualifies leads, and consistent branding ties it together. We build all four so they are not stitched together by three vendors who never talk.
How do I start working with the team?
Run your current site through the free audit for an instant read on speed, SEO, and AI-search readiness, or book a 30-minute call to talk through a project. Either way you get a straight answer and a real number.
Want to work with the team?
Run your site through the free audit for an instant read on speed, SEO, and AI-search readiness. Same-day response.
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