Grit Design pivots to biz model to creating own software

In its beginning, Grit Design focused on making custom mobile apps and software tools for its clientele. Today, the 4-year-old start-up is making the transition to building its own software to sell.

The Elevator Building-based company that overlooks the Detroit Riverfront recently launched its own software-as-a-service tool called Sizzlepig, a digital production tool for batch image resizing.

"We made it for ourselves," says Andrea Livingston, co-founder of Grit Design. "It ended up working so well we made it into a product we sell and ship ourselves."

Grit Design and its team of 15 people is spending 2013 focused on growing its customer base and has been landing some larger clients so far this year, including one that Livingston declined to name specifically but described as a "Fortune Top 10 client."

"A year from now we see ourselves in extreme growth," Livingston says.

Source: Andrea Livingston, co-founder of Grit Design
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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