Ashore App: Started From the Bottom Now We Here
By: Dan Stein
Tags: Founder Interviews, Startup Life, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Startup

Interview with Cody Miles, Founder of Ashore App

Interview with Cody Miles, Founder of Ashore App

Tell us about Ashore App. What do you do?

Online proofing software for high-velocity creatives

What is your startup’s origin story?

I’ve been a creative and marketing professional for over a decade. I built and ran a creative agency called Brandcave. My experience in this industry has revealed two truths: 1) Clients are difficult to get ahold of, and 2) Clients give poor feedback.

It’s not their fault; they speak a different language than creatives. They say “I don’t like the ghosting on top of this image” and what they mean is, “The opaque black overlay is not opaque enough.”

I struggled to get and understand feedback from my clients for years. The struggle led to the first iteration of Ashore, an online proofing software built for high-velocity creatives. Ashore gives creatives a comprehensive platform for sending, tracking, collaborating and managing their projects. It gives approvers a simple, digital interface for giving feedback on every type of file. Since we released it, it has been adopted by nearly 10,000 creatives, including teams at Disney, Uber, Adidas, Coke and AirBnb.

That said, we grew despite ourselves. The MVP of Ashore faced scalability and infrastructure problems. We went through two versions of it before it proved to be too much of a struggle to grow. Ultimately, it required us to build from the ground up.

The real success of Ashore started when we released Ashore 3 on January 14, 2020. Our “rough and dirty” MVP was useful in attracting users and validating the business idea, but Ashore 3 allowed the company to reach profit. Ashore 3 took all of the feedback our users had given us over the previous 2 years, and delivered a beautiful, feature-full, iron-clad, enterprise grade product that attracted even more users.

Ashore has doubled its income since the start of COVID-19 and at the height of election season, even when most B2B companies were holding a close grip on their wallet.

Had you been involved in the industry before this startup? What is your background?

I’m the founder of a creative agency called Brandcave (https://brandcave.co)

What’s unique about your company? What are the key differentiators between you and other players?

Ashore is unique because it is a bootstrapped company in a sea of venture-funded sharks, and still competes (and wins) head-to-head against them. Our success is attributed to focusing on our user feedback and meeting the exact needs of our market. All lean development teams allow us to react quickly. Our feature set focuses on the success of our customer. We get completely out-of-the way. Every part of Ashore can be white labeled, and is flexible enough to fit any kind of workflow.

Take us through a day in your life. What does the typical day look like?

I am in the office every day by 7am, and I usually leave at 6pm. The time in-between is carefully planned. It’s important for me to optimize every hour of my day, regardless of whether it’s working with our product team, ideating through new UX, or meeting with customers and potential integration partners.

What has been the most challenging part of growing your company?

There is a saying in creative agencies: “It would be great if not for the clients.” In software, I’ve come to learn it’s also true about growing successful teams. It takes a lot of work, dedication to employee growth and benefit, and rewarding positive behavior.

What has been your best marketing channel? What are some channels you are looking to explore next?

I come from a marketing background. Ashore was lucky enough to leverage the team behind my creative agency Brandcave to manage its creative assets. We’ve explored virtually every marketing channel, and our strongest channel is, by far, organic search. We’re currently exploring partnership opportunities with our friends at Dribbble. If you visit their blog, you’ll see a recent post from us.

What apps do you use that you would recommend to others?

There’s a million, and I suppose it depends on who is using it. Generally speaking, Slack is essential for quick communication.

Do you have a book, podcast, or Youtube channel you would recommend to other Entrepreneurs?

I’m currently reading The Technology Trap by Carl Benedikt Frey. It’s a great read for anyone interested in seeing their place in technology today.

What’s something you’ve learned from building your business that someone else can learn from?

Build it right, not too right, but right enough. You’ll regret rebuilding.