Sprout Development connects disconnected systems, builds the data and ML infrastructure teams depend on, and turns manual bottlenecks into reliable, automated software. From distributed compute clusters to the scripts holding a business together. Engage us as overflow capacity for the work that can’t wait for a req — scoped projects, not a hire.
Most businesses don't need a technology strategy. They need one specific, expensive, everyday thing to stop being broken. These are the ones we hear most — in the words people actually use.
If you read one of those and thought that's us — that's the whole conversation. You don't need a spec, a budget, or a plan to start. Start with a free systems map.
Sprout's specialty is connecting the systems, data, and infrastructure a business runs on — and building the reliable software around them. We work with the tools you already have, and go as deep as the problem demands.
The core specialty. We build the connections between systems that were never meant to talk — so data moves accurately, automatically, and in real time.
The pipelines, platforms, and visibility your scientists and analysts depend on — getting data off instruments and into something anyone can analyze, making an analysis reproducible by someone other than its author, and moving what works in the lab into production.
Modern cloud infrastructure — and turning manual, brittle, or legacy processes into cloud-native software that runs itself.
When off-the-shelf can't do it, we build the bespoke piece — the connector, tool, dashboard, or system designed to fit your problem exactly.
Sprout is equally at home at both ends of the engineering spectrum — and the truth is, most valuable work lives in between. Whatever the altitude, the result is the same: a problem solved, and software that keeps working.
Standing up a Kubernetes-hosted Ray cluster for distributed compute, or engineering high-throughput, low-latency data processing where speed and correctness are non-negotiable.
Taking the brittle VBA macros and manual spreadsheets a business quietly runs on and turning them into cloud-run services with real analytics and reliability.
No jargon, no bloated proposals. We find the highest-value problem, prove the solution, and build out from there — starting small enough to earn your trust.
We dig into how your systems, data, and daily work actually flow — and pinpoint where the real cost is hiding. This part is the free systems map.
You get a clear, written plan: what we'll build, what it costs, and the outcome you can expect. Fixed price, no surprises.
We deliver the integration, pipeline, or software — accurate, reliable, and documented so it outlives the engagement.
We stay on as a long-term partner — monitoring, adjusting, and finding the next thing worth solving.
Selected work from the engineering experience behind Sprout — spanning cloud infrastructure, travel platforms, customer-experience ML, enterprise logistics, and low-latency trading.
Built automated cloud-to-cloud backup connecting Google Workspace (Drive, Gmail) to AWS S3 and SQS — replacing a manual, error-prone process with a resilient, hands-off pipeline for critical documents and communications.
Integrated the booking experience with a partner tax-remittance API to surface accurate tax earlier in checkout — reducing sticker shock at the final step — and automated the generation and delivery of daily operational reports.
Designed a survey-collection system that captured incremental progress through each response — recovering data that was previously lost and unlocking new signals for the customer-experience ML models.
Automated Excel-heavy operational workflows and connected ML researchers to the data and development systems locked across a large enterprise — removing the bottlenecks between technical teams and the tools they needed.
Engineered high-throughput, low-latency data processing for options trading — an environment where both speed and correctness were absolutely non-negotiable.
Bespoke API integrations and a reusable integration library for a local client, plus web and mobile product work — the kind of hands-on engagements Sprout Development takes on today.
Engagements are described by sector rather than by name. Specifics, including references, are available on request. Work marked “Sprout Development” is independent.
Engagements don't begin with a statement of work and a six-figure signature. They begin with a conversation and a diagram. Here's the shape most of them take.
A 60-person manufacturer in Washtenaw County. Orders arrive by email and EDI. Someone keys them into the ERP by hand. A production planner rebuilds the same scheduling spreadsheet every single morning before anyone else is in the building.
Nothing is on fire. Nobody has filed a ticket. It's just two people and four hours a day, every day, forever.
Ninety minutes on site. We follow one order end to end and ask a lot of dumb questions. A few days later you get a one-page diagram of how your data really moves, the three most expensive breaks in it, ranked, and a rough cost and timeline to fix each. It's yours — including if you take it to somebody else.
The top item is order intake. A small service reads incoming orders, validates them against the ERP, and writes them in. Anything it isn't sure about gets routed to a human — the exceptions stop, not the whole job. Fixed scope, fixed price, agreed in writing before we start.
Order entry is hands-off except for exceptions. The planner's scheduling spreadsheet now builds itself and lands in the right inboxes at 5 a.m. Nothing was ripped out — the ERP, the email, and the spreadsheets all still exist, they just stopped needing a person in between.
We monitor what we built, fix it when something upstream changes, and start on the next item — because the map listed three problems and we only solved one. That's a retainer if you want it, and a phone number if you don't.
Illustrative — a composite of the kinds of engagements described above, not a single named client. The shape is representative; your numbers will be your own.
You shouldn't have to sign a big contract to find out whether we're any good. Every engagement begins with something small, concrete, and low-risk — and only grows if it earns the right to. Agencies and consultancies: we also take overflow and specialist work as a subcontractor, under your brand or ours.
A conversation, then a one-page map of how your data actually flows, the three most expensive breaks in it, and what each would take to fix. Yours to keep — including if you hire somebody else to do the work.
We take the single highest-value item off the map and ship it. One integration, one automation, one pipeline — running in production at the end, not a prototype. Most clients start here.
The full engagement — the platform, the data infrastructure, the replacement for the system everyone is afraid of. Scoped and priced in writing before anybody commits to anything.
We host it, watch it, fix it when something upstream changes, and keep working down the list. The option that means you don't have to hire for this — until you want to.
For comparison. A data or integration engineer in Southeast Michigan runs roughly $140,000–$180,000 a year once benefits and overhead are counted — and takes three to six months to find, hire, and get productive.
Most businesses don't actually need a full-time hire. They need a few focused weeks of the right work, and somebody to call when it breaks. A pilot costs less than a month of that salary and you find out inside four weeks whether it was worth it.
Prices are starting points for scoping conversations, not quotes. The number you're given before work begins is the number you pay.
Sprout Development is based in the Ann Arbor / Detroit area and works with organizations across Southeast Michigan — from software companies and manufacturers to research teams who need a partner they can actually sit down with.
Tooling follows the problem — not the other way around.
Sprout Development is an independent engineering practice built on a career spent across very different worlds — cloud backup, travel platforms, customer-experience ML, enterprise logistics, and low-latency trading. The common thread: getting systems that were never meant to work together to do exactly that, and building the reliable software around them.
Every engagement is scoped to the outcome, not billable hours. Whether the work is delivered directly or with trusted specialists, the standard is the same — diagnose the real problem, ship a solution that lasts, and leave it documented and dependable. No resellers, no rotating teams, no hand-off to people who weren't in the room.
The things worth knowing before a first conversation — including the ones most firms would rather you didn't bring up until later.
Describe your worst integration headache in a paragraph — or forward the spreadsheet everyone's afraid of. You'll get a free systems map back: how your data actually moves, where it's costing you, and what fixing it would take.