Axeon started with a simple frustration: too many small businesses had websites that looked like 2009 and worked even worse. We set out to fix that — one subscription at a time.
Not a big agency. Not a freelancer. Something in between — with the accountability of a studio and the care of someone who actually knows your name.
In 2018, Tobey Hayes was doing freelance web design out of a desk in his apartment in Des Moines. He was good at it. Clients were happy. But something kept bothering him: every project ended the same way — he handed over the files, the client thanked him, and six months later the site was broken, outdated, or abandoned.
The problem wasn’t the design. The problem was the model. A website isn’t a product you hand off. It’s a living thing. It needs maintenance, updates, security patches, and someone paying attention. Most small businesses don’t have that person. So Tobey decided to be that person — at scale.
He brought in Matthew Gausman to handle development and systems, and together they rebuilt the entire service model around a subscription: one monthly fee, everything included, ongoing relationship instead of one-time transaction.
They named it Axeon — a play on axon, the part of a neuron that sends the signal. Help businesses signal further and connect deeper. That’s still what drives every decision made here.
Six years of iteration, honest mistakes, and a growing conviction that small businesses deserve better tools than they’re usually offered.
Tobey starts Axeon as a subscription-first web studio. First three clients are local restaurants. The model works. Word spreads.
Matthew Gausman comes aboard to lead development. The studio triples capacity and takes on its first e-commerce builds.
Internal experiments with AI-assisted design tooling start quietly. The team begins building what will become Synapse™ — a reasoning layer that sits alongside every design process.
Synapse™ is deployed on every Axeon project. Design iteration speeds up by 3.2×. Quality scores improve across the board. The studio crosses 100 active clients.
Remote clients now make up nearly half the studio’s roster. The subscription model scales cleanly across time zones. 150+ clients, 98% satisfaction rate.
Still based in Des Moines. Still human-led. Still subscription-first. Synapse™ keeps getting sharper. The mission hasn’t changed: help businesses signal further and connect deeper.
A small team with high standards. We stay lean on purpose — it keeps us fast, accountable, and genuinely invested in every project.
Tobey started Axeon after years of watching great small businesses get left behind by agencies that were too big to care and freelancers who disappeared after launch. He leads creative direction, client relationships, and the Synapse™ product roadmap. Des Moines born and raised.
Matthew brought the technical backbone that made the subscription model possible. He leads all development, infrastructure, and the engineering behind Synapse™. He believes the best code is the code clients never have to think about. He’s usually right.
Visual systems, brand identity, and UI across every client project.
Turning designs into fast, accessible, production-ready websites.
Search strategy, analytics, and performance monitoring across the client base.
Keeping clients informed, heard, and genuinely happy — every month.
Not a mission statement written for a pitch deck. The things we actually argue about in meetings.
One-time projects create orphaned websites. Ongoing relationships create businesses that grow. We only work in models we believe in.
AI makes us faster. Humans make us good. Every Synapse™ output is reviewed, adjusted, and owned by a person before it reaches a client.
The best design tools and talent have historically been out of reach for small businesses. That’s the gap we exist to close.
We’re not trying to be a coastal agency. Des Moines is our home. The Midwest work ethic is not a cliché — it’s the reason our clients stay.
No vague quotes. No scope creep surprises. Real prices, published. You know what you’re getting before you sign anything.
Every website we build is a signal. We want yours to travel further, land harder, and connect with the people who need what you offer.
We’re not a remote agency that happens to have an Iowa address. We live here, work here, and our reputation is tied directly to yours.
We live here. We shop at the same businesses. We understand the rhythm of the Iowa economy, the seasonal patterns, and what Des Moines buyers actually respond to. You don’t have to explain your context.
When you can walk into our office or run into us at a local event, the relationship is different. We’re not hiding behind a support ticket. Our reputation here is on the line — and we take that seriously.
Our overhead isn’t New York rent. We pass that on. You get big-agency quality at rates built for small-to-midsize businesses in a Midwest market. That’s a structural advantage, not a compromise.
When Iowa businesses thrive, so do we. We’re not extracting value from this market — we’re building inside it. Every client we help is a vote for what a strong Iowa business ecosystem looks like.
No 6am calls to catch a team in a different timezone. No vague “we’ll get back to you” emails that take three days. Central time, consistent availability, real response windows.
Half our clients aren’t in Iowa. Everything we do runs through async communication and clear project management. Same quality — just without the hometown stories.
Iowa is home base. But good web design doesn’t care about zip codes. About half our clients are outside Iowa — across the Midwest, across the country, and occasionally across the world.
Everything runs through clear async communication, shared project dashboards, and video check-ins. Remote clients consistently rate the experience as smooth as working local.
There’s a reason Iowa businesses have some of the highest trust ratings in the country. We show up. We do the work. We don’t disappear when things get complicated.
That’s the culture Axeon was built inside of, and it’s the culture that runs through every client relationship we have. It’s not a marketing line. It’s just how people here operate.
Des Moines isn’t a flyover city. It’s a growing tech and business hub with a small-business culture that punches well above its weight.
You’ve read the story. Now let’s write yours. Book a free consultation — no pitch, no pressure, just an honest conversation about what you need.