Custom web builds
Hand-built on Next.js and Tailwind, with GSAP motion used to guide attention rather than to show off. No page builder, no template smell, and the codebase is yours at the end.
Web design— After dark — the people behind the light
About Carlsbad Web & AI
A productized web and AI studio on the Carlsbad coast: fixed pricing, defined scope, fast turnaround, and senior people on every build. Founded by Larkin Kenney. This page says plainly who does the work, and which results are actually ours.
Why this studio exists
Carlsbad Web & AI started after watching the same thing happen over and over: a local business asks a traditional agency what a website costs, gets a discovery phase, a retainer, and a number with the comma in the wrong place — and decides to keep the template it already has.
So the studio was built the other way round. The work is productized: fixed pricing published on the site, a scope defined before anyone signs, and a turnaround measured in weeks. You know the number and the date before you commit, and the money buys build time instead of a process.
Fast sites. Honest AI. Built on the coast, made to work anywhere.
The founder
Larkin Kenney, Founder
Larkin Kenney founded Carlsbad Web & AI and leads design and build on every project. He is a finance student at the University of Oklahoma who spent a semester at the University of Westminster in London, and he came to all of this from art school — ten years of design and video work for athletes and brands before a line of production code.
That combination is why the studio is shaped the way it is. The art-school half is why the work looks like something; the finance half is why the pricing is a published number rather than a negotiation. He builds the sites, writes the AI assistants, and cuts the video — so when you ask what something will cost and how long it will take, you are asking the person who is going to do it.
- Finance
- University of Oklahoma
- Semester abroad
- University of Westminster, London
- Art school
- the foundation under the design work
- Ten years
- design and video, for athletes and brands
Three lines of work
WHAT WE DO.
Ada, our AI assistant
The AI assistant we build and deploy on client sites. She answers from your real content, streams her replies, says so when she is unsure, and hands off to a human cleanly.
Meet AdaAI-produced video advertising
Advertising cut for connected TV and social, produced with an AI pipeline on top of ten years of hands-on video work — so a modest budget buys a finished spot instead of a storyboard.
All servicesProof, not adjectives
WHAT WE HAVE SHIPPED.
Loyal — CTV and mobile publishing
Loyal is a connected-TV publishing platform with a portfolio of 200+ apps. Larkin designed and built its full marketing site at loyal.app — the design system, every page template, and a detail page for every title in the catalogue — and produced the CTV campaigns that have generated 200,000+ plays.
- 200,000+
- plays on the CTV campaigns produced
- 200+
- apps in the catalogue the site was built around
Said plainly: this was done in-house as a Loyal employee, not as a Carlsbad Web & AI client engagement. The build and the campaigns are the founder's work and you can go and look at them. Loyal's business results are Loyal's. Read the case.
Client work since
Payments, cash-access hardware, coastal retail, sport, and entertainment — plus hospitality concept builds. Every client site below is a live URL you can open and judge for yourself.
- The Gilded Fisherman
Coastal boutique - Shopify OS 2.0
- Triple G Payments
Cannabis-commerce payments - static Vite build
- EllaCash ATM
Dispensary cash access - hand-built static site
- Neil Granger Magic
UK close-up magician - static Vite build
- OMBAC Rugby
San Diego rugby club, est. 1954 - static build on Vercel
Operating principles
HOW WE WORK.
Ship fast, in the open
Small visible steps, real screens in days, and a launch measured in weeks, not quarters.
You own everything
The code, the CMS, the keys. No proprietary lock-in and no hostage situations.
AI that tells the truth
Agents that answer from your real content, admit what they do not know, and hand off cleanly.
Senior attention
You work directly with the people building your project. Nothing gets handed to a junior queue.
Two kinds of credibility, kept apart.
Team experience before Carlsbad Web & AI
- Vervefounded, scaled, and taken to a public-market exit
- Loyala contextual ad exchange spanning 622K+ apps
- Intel & NTN Buzztimebrand and product marketing
- Nokia & BlueRun Venturescorporate development and venture
Earned at other companies, before this studio existed. It is why the work is senior — and it is not a Carlsbad Web & AI result.
Results delivered by Carlsbad Web & AI
- The Gilded FishermanClient work · gildedfisherman.com
- Triple G PaymentsClient work · triplegpayments.com
- EllaCash ATMClient work · ellacashatm.com
- Neil Granger MagicClient work · neilgrangermagic.co.uk
- OMBAC RugbyClient work · ombacrugby.org
- LoyalFounder's in-house build · loyal.app
Builds, not business outcomes: live sites you can open and judge. Where a client's measured outcome can be published, it will appear on the case page — not before.
One more plain sentence: not everyone listed below works on every engagement. Design and build are led by Larkin Kenney; growth, partnerships, and sales roles join when a project calls for them.
Meet the team
A small group with real backgrounds in design, growth, and building companies. When you hire us, these are the people on your project.
Larkin founded Carlsbad Web & AI to bring agency-quality websites and AI to local businesses at a fair price. He pairs ten years of design and video work for athletes and brands with hands-on product, analytics, and web-building experience.
- Web & product analytics
- 10 yrs design & video
- Finance, Univ. of Oklahoma
Greg shapes how the studio shows up — brand, positioning, and the strategy behind every site we build. He cofounded Verve as CMO, helping pioneer location-based mobile advertising, and earlier led marketing at Intel and NTN Buzztime. A retired USMC Colonel and combat veteran, he brings red-team critical thinking to every brand.
- Cofounder & CMO, Verve
- Marketing, Intel & NTN Buzztime
- USMC Colonel (Ret.)
- MBA, Notre Dame Mendoza
Austin cofounded Carlsbad Web & AI and helps keep the team sharp. A business and real estate student at SMU's Cox School of Business, he works with SMU Football producing and editing film, and brings a former captain's leadership and team-building instincts to how the studio runs.
- Real Estate Finance, SMU Cox
- SMU Football, video & ops
- Leadership
Simon leads sales and the first conversation with every client. An economics student at USC, currently a summer analyst in J.P. Morgan's Private Bank and an incoming Goldman Sachs private wealth analyst, with consulting work at USC Rev and LA Community Impact. The job is the same either way: sit with an owner, work out what the business actually needs, and match it to the right plan.
- Economics, USC
- J.P. Morgan Private Bank
- Goldman Sachs, incoming 2027
- English & Spanish
Tom founded and scaled Verve, the mobile advertising company, through to a public-market exit, and serves as CEO of Loyal. A former venture capitalist at BlueRun Ventures and corporate development lead at Nokia, he advises the studio on strategy, partnerships, and growth.
- Founder & CEO, Verve
- CEO, Loyal
- BlueRun Ventures
- Nokia Corp Dev
07Process
How a build goes.
From kickoff, once we have your content: Website 2–4 weeks. Website + Ada 3–5 weeks.
- 01
Scope
One call to map the goal, the audience, and what done actually looks like.
- 02
Design
You see real screens in days, not slideware, and we iterate fast on them.
- 03
Build
Hand-coded on Next.js, with the AI agent trained on your real content.
- 04
Launch
We ship, measure, and tune. You get the keys, the code, and the numbers.
Facts a stranger can check, not claims
- 6
- live sites we built, open right now
- $449
- where a custom website build starts, published up front
- 2 days
- our reply time on a new enquiry, worst case
- 100%
- of the code, content, and keys are yours
The light stays on