\u201cI know firsthand what it takes to build a platform to 100 million monthly users, and I\u2019ve also seen what people can build today with AI, at a fraction of the cost,\u201d founder and CEO Philip Camilleri [pictured above] told Refresh Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is honestly insane. You can take almost any idea and build a product without investing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. But I\u2019ve also seen amazing products implode because of security holes, scaling issues, or because someone vibe-coded the whole thing without really knowing what was happening beneath the hood. Codistry exists to fix that gap: helping AI-builders understand the tech fundamentals, and build things that don\u2019t fall over the second real users show up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camilleri, who helped grow fintech platform SmartAsset to more than 100 million monthly users, founded Codistry after experiencing how AI coding tools were changing software development. Rather than replacing engineers, he believes AI is changing what skilled builders can accomplish.<\/p>\n
That philosophy sits at the heart of Codistry\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
The startup is tackling two audiences at once: experienced software engineers looking to stay competitive in an AI-first world, and founders using AI coding tools without understanding the engineering principles behind them.<\/p>\n
\u2713<\/p>\n
Check your inbox for a confirmation email.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to preserve engineer careers,\u201d COO John Feldman asserted. \u201cYou kind of need to know AI and utilize it to best preserve your career.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, Codistry wants to help founders avoid what the team calls the \u201cMVP graveyard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople start an MVP, send it out, it breaks, they don\u2019t know how to fix it because they don\u2019t know the fundamentals of engineering, and then they start from scratch,\u201d Feldman said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/John-headshot-1024x617.png\")
Codistry COO John Feldman <\/p>\n
To address both challenges, the company has built an eight-week online program. The first six weeks teach software engineering fundamentals before participants spend the final two weeks building a real product with guidance from the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want people to know that yes, you can use AI. AI is great. AI expedites 95% of the process,\u201d Feldman said. \u201cBut if you don\u2019t have the fundamentals of engineering under your belt, then it\u2019s going to be very difficult to actually grow that platform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before launching publicly, Camilleri ran pilot workshops with companies in Europe and the United States. One of the first took place with senior developers in Stockholm.<\/p>\n
The engineers were skeptical at first. But two days after the workshop, the company\u2019s engineering lead reported that the team had gone from \u201c0 to 100 overnight.\u201d The company later enrolled another 18 developers, including its senior staff engineers.<\/p>\n
Codistry is currently preparing to launch its first public cohort on August 15 after spending its early months working primarily with enterprise customers. The startup has a team of five and, according to Feldman, sees Miami\u2019s growing tech ecosystem as a natural place to expand.<\/p>\n
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:<\/p>\n
I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or www.RileyKaminer.com.<\/p>\n ![\"Riley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4q0a7418-1.jpeg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/a>Latest posts by Riley Kaminer (see all<\/a>) \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Building software used to require a team of engineers, months of work, and a healthy budget. Now, anyone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-331795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}