Independent web design, built in Piedmont, Alabama.

I was born and raised in Piedmont. After high school I went to Jacksonville State University and graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science with a concentration in Information Assurance. The Information Assurance side meant a lot of cybersecurity work, building systems where you actually have to think about what could go wrong, not just what you want to go right.

For the last five years I have worked as a Department of Defense contractor. I built software for the Air Force, the Army, and the Marines. That kind of work has a different standard than most web development. You cannot ship something half-finished. You cannot leave a security hole and patch it later. People depend on what you build, and that mindset never leaves you.

Ladiga Studios is what happens when I take that same standard and point it at the businesses around me. The local diner that needs more than a Facebook page. The nonprofit doing real work that has not had a real website in ten years. The artist whose old site does not match the quality of what she actually makes.

The studio is named after the Chief Ladiga Trail. Thirty-three miles of old railroad turned into something the community actually uses. It runs right through Piedmont. I like the idea of taking something that already had value, doing the work to make it useful again, and giving it back to the place that needs it. That is how I think about most of the websites I build.

If you are reading this and your business needs a website, or your website needs to be better, I want to hear about it. Send me a note. I read every one personally.

Nate Butler · Founder, Ladiga Studios