Story | Twenty Miles

Most apps get downloaded once.

Then forgotten.

We build the other kind.

The twenty-mile march

In 1911 two teams raced to the South Pole. One marched twenty miles a day, in blizzards and in sunshine, and came home. The other sprinted when it was easy and stalled when it was hard.

What that means for our apps

We set one small, measurable goal, deliver it, then set the next. AI gives us the pace. Engineering and product management decide what is worth shipping and what to leave out. Small steps, compounding. Nothing heroic, nothing abandoned.

The twenty-mile march

Twenty miles. Every day. Whatever the weather.

In 1911 two expeditions set out for the South Pole. Roald Amundsen’s team marched a steady distance every day: around twenty miles, in good weather and bad. On clear days they could have gone further. They didn’t. On brutal days they could have stayed in the tent. They didn’t do that either.

Robert Falcon Scott’s team did what most of us do. They pushed hard when conditions were kind and stopped when they were not. Amundsen reached the Pole first and brought everyone home. Scott’s party did not make it back.

Jim Collins later named the idea the twenty-mile march: a lower bound you always hit and an upper bound you never exceed, held to with discipline for years. It is the least glamorous way to win and, in his research, the most reliable one.

We named the studio after it because it is how we build apps, and it is what we want our apps to do for the people who use them.

How the march shapes what we build.

Small, measurable goals, delivered and repeated. Five habits we hold to on every project, our own apps and yours.

One small, measurable goal at a time

Every project runs as a series of SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. We set one, deliver it, then set the next. Not a sprint at the end, a march from the start.

A ceiling on the good days

When things are going well the temptation is to push on and build more. We stop anyway. Version one stays small on purpose, because an app that ships beats a bigger one that doesn't.

One thing, then the next

Each app does one job. Each release makes one thing better. Small scope compounds: fourteen apps, two years of monthly updates, and nothing abandoned.

Consistency over heroics

No all-nighters, no big-bang launches, no version three that never arrives. A goal delivered, a build in your hands, then the next goal. Regular releases and a fortnightly look at what the numbers say.

One number to march towards

Before we build, we agree the number that will prove the app works. Every goal is measured against it. That is how we know whether to keep marching or change course.

And for the people using them

Small enough to keep doing.

One task. One sentence. One second of video. One fixture sorted. Every app asks for a small daily action, and gives something back for doing it. That is the march, handed to the user.

Book a free intro call

Fifteen minutes. Tell us the idea and we’ll send a ballpark within a day.

Built the twenty-mile way.

Small, measurable goals, delivered and repeated. Three apps that show how we work.

Since 2023

Small releases, every month, for two years.

Version one had fixtures and availability and not much else. Regular updates, each one shaped by a review or a request, turned it into the app grassroots teams rate 4.7 stars.

Download on theApp Store Learn more about Lineup

Winter 2025

Six apps in six weeks.

Seconds, Frogist, Reflect, Tomorrow, Imposter Me! and Habit Talk all shipped between the first of December and the middle of January. One small goal at a time, delivered and repeated. No heroics.

Download on theApp Store Learn more about Reflect

The principle, as an app

A target you hit. A limit you keep.

Our namesake walking app is the philosophy made tangible: a sensible daily target, and a ceiling that stops you burning out on the good days so you can keep going on the bad ones.

Download on theApp Store Learn more about Twenty Miles