About Up Coast
Improving Tech by Expanding Who Gets to Build It
Up Coast Digital Products, Inc. is the parent company behind Up Coast Builders.
Its mission is simple:
To improve tech by expanding access to app strategy knowledge and skills, so anyone can confidently build, guide, and launch their own software projects.
One central way this goal is realized is by teaching app strategy skills to women, people in small communities, and others without access to education funding. The broader objective is to widen who gets to participate in building software in the first place, while also addressing income disparities in small communities affected by incoming remote tech work.
Tech should be for everyone
App strategy skills do not require formal tech education. Anyone can learn them.
Some of the most innovative stuff comes from people with no previous experience to the field they're innovating in. Just because you're new to tech or to app strategy, doesn't mean you can't make an impact.
The free From Passion to Product course remove financial barriers that typically gate access to tech education.
This model exists to widen who gets access to tech skills and to ensure knowledge is shared openly rather than protected by status, credentials, or income level.
The company behind Up Coast Builders
I built Up Coast Digital Products, Inc. as a for-profit company with a social venture inside it, the Tech Access Initiative, because I wanted to create work that could support me sustainably while genuinely helping others, without all the red tape that surrounds a non-profit.
Up Coast exists to make app strategy something anyone can learn, through generous, actionable education. The company is built on the belief that high-quality learning should be accessible regardless of financial barriers, and that shared growth and kindness are not at odds with running a real business. Profit matters here because sustainability matters but profit is not the point.
What drives this company is a community-first model rooted in trust, long-term relationships, and a “help first, monetization later” philosophy. I am not building Up Coast to scale quickly or sell. I am building a small, enduring company that I intend to run and work in for a long time, where value is created by investing in people without pressure, obligation, or gated access to core knowledge.
That generosity-first ethic extends beyond education into how the company operates. Up Coast has an aspirational commitment to hiring and training local talent in the Comox Valley, with a focus on creating pathways into high-paying remote tech roles for people who might not otherwise have access. In rural communities, opportunity in tech often flows inward rather than growing locally. Up Coast is designed to counter that pattern by prioritizing community-first hiring, on-the-job training, and long-term skill development.
My own career, spanning disability, health disruptions, and senior roles across engineering and product leadership, shapes how this company works. Up Coast avoids hype, rigid formality, and extractive tactics in favor of clear thinking, practical guidance, and human-centered systems that respect people’s lives as much as their ambition.
Up Coast Digital Products, Inc. is built on a simple founding ethic: providing value should never feel manipulative or transactional. This company exists to prove that it is possible to build a sustainable business that supports its founder, serves its community, and helps others grow, without compromising on integrity.
Delivering on the mission
Nurture Diversity of Thought via Diverse Entry Points
From Passion to Product: The Complete App Strategy Course is the primary gateway into the network. Large live cohorts collaborate in Slack, work in support pods, and submit questions for dedicated Q&A sessions. Optional materials are available, but the course itself remains free.
Passion to Product App Strategy Workshop for Indie Devs is an accelerated session designed for engineers who want focused strategic direction without foundational walkthroughs. It is available at select conferences:
- July 21, 2026 at SwiftRockies (learn more)
This is aspirational. Partnership-funded cohorts would be small online cohorts where participants can ask questions and interact live with Abbey during class. Monthly sessions would continue for as long as participants are members of the Up Coast Builders network, ensuring ongoing guidance without requiring paid group coaching.
My Experiment
Free Entry, Ongoing Support, and Local Opportunity,
All While Respecting Real-World Limits
I don't know if it's going to work, but I think it's worth a try
Up Coast is intentionally designed to be sustainable for the long term.
Free access is the primary entry point. Optional paid offerings support facilitator time and advanced learning. My hope is that some local programs can be funded by third-party partners to make smaller hands-on sessions with extra support feasible.
The structure of the business also reflects my health constraints. After a spinal injury and years navigating disability in tech, I designed this company to allow me to teach and support people without overextending myself or building something that requires constant high-intensity scaling.
The goal is continuity, not rapid growth.
Over time, I hope participation in Up Coast Builders becomes recognized as meaningful applied learning; something that signals real product and strategy skill.
For those pursuing professional roles, it may serve as a pathway. For others, it may remain a way to confidently build their own projects.
Beyond the network, the long-term vision for Up Coast includes hiring locally in the Comox Valley, training people in product and app skills, and helping them access higher-paying remote tech roles.
All of these activities create a cycle of mentorship and opportunity, supporting the broader mission of improving tech for everyone, and advances Up Coast’s secondary mission of bridging income and opportunity gaps in small communities.
This is aspirational. It depends on health and financial capacity. But it frames where this company is headed.
