An independent technology workshop in REO Town, Lansing
Enterprise-grade software at a small-business price. Custom databases, connected systems, and practical AI, built around the way your business already works.
The Grand and the Red Cedar meet a few blocks from the workshop. Drag across the water below to stir up an eddy.
Big corporations keep their edge with custom software, connected data, and AI built just for them. We bring that same machinery to the local shop, the regional contractor, and the independent underdog, without the per-seat bill or the lock-in. Your data stays yours, and it doesn’t have to live in a massive data center. We build powerful systems that run locally, on hardware you own.
| Topic | Off the shelf | The fire, handed over |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Per-seat fees that grow every year you use it | A build you own, with support when you want it |
| Fit | Your team bends its work to match the software | Software shaped around the way your team already works |
| Data | Lives on someone else’s servers, on their terms | Stays where you decide, including on your own hardware |
| Help | A ticket queue and a chatbot | The person who wrote the code, a few miles away |
Start with the problem. Open a drawer to see the kind of first job each one usually begins with.
For the spreadsheet that has outgrown itself.
A typical first jobReplace the inventory spreadsheet three people edit at once with a scan-to-update app that records who moved what, and when.
For systems that don’t talk to each other.
A typical first jobSend new jobs from the estimating tool straight into the schedule and the invoice, so nobody types them in twice.
A powerful foundation, turned into software people enjoy using.
QuickBase is a strong engine with a dated dashboard. We build modern custom software on top of it: full applications that run natively inside QuickBase code pages, plus middleware that connects it to QuickBooks and the rest of your tools. Same engine, but it drives like a sports car instead of a bulldozer.
A typical first jobPut a clean, phone-friendly app on top of an existing QuickBase setup, so the field crew taps through their jobs instead of fighting forms, and invoices flow into QuickBooks on their own.
AI with a real job to do, on your terms.
A typical first jobGive the front desk an assistant that answers from your own manuals and price sheets, without pasting them into a public chatbot.
Custom IoT that works with or without the internet.
We write custom IoT software for sensors and devices that keeps running whether or not the internet is up. Devices talk to each other over a local LoRa radio mesh, keep their readings on-site, and sync to the cloud only when you want them to.
A typical first jobPut a sensor in a walk-in cooler and raise an alert when it drifts, over a long-range radio link with no monthly cell bill.
Records nobody can quietly change.
A typical first jobKeep an equipment inspection log where every entry is fingerprinted, so you can prove later exactly what was recorded and when.
Small first versions you can put your hands on, then growth only where it earns its keep.
Walk through what happens today. Find the bottlenecks, the workarounds, and the task someone repeats every Tuesday.
Build a focused first version you can see and try with your own data before anything gets bigger.
Adjust it around real use, show your team how it works, and plan what comes next together.
You talk to the person writing the code. Every system comes with plain-language notes on how it works, so it never becomes a black box.
No technical spec needed. Describe the headache or the idea, and this turns it into a one-page work order you can copy, download, or email.
First question on the bench:
AI first read:
Nothing leaves your browser until you press Send. Prefer your own email? Use Open in my email, or copy the brief and send it to .
The ideas the workshop runs on, written down. Build logs from real projects will land here as they ship.
October 14, 2026
Ransom E. Olds founded the REO Motor Car Company in Lansing in 1904, after leaving the company that carried his name, to build tough, dependable working machines like the REO Speed Wagon on his own terms.
CuREOsity Labs puts REO inside curiosity. It treats software, databases, radio, and AI the way a neighborhood machine shop treats steel: as material for custom tools, made by people you can meet.
October 14, 2026
Near the north edge of REO Town, the Red Cedar curves in to join the Grand. Two currents become one stronger river. The workshop sits at a similar meeting point, between local know-how and modern data.
At a river bend, an eddy is water that runs back against the main flow. In a conductor, an eddy current is a loop of energy induced by a changing field. We aim to be both: a counter-current to tech monopolies that still generates real power, right here.
October 14, 2026
Small businesses pay rent every month on bloated software they don’t control. The capabilities behind it, AI agents, integrations, custom databases, and automation, aren’t magic. They can be built smaller, cheaper, and closer to home.
The goal is leverage: let the local shop, the regional contractor, and the independent underdog work with the same tools as a national chain, without giving up ownership of their data or the way they like to work.
This neighborhood grew up around a factory that put working machines in ordinary hands. The plant is gone, but the habit stuck: REO Town is still a place where people make, fix, and figure things out.
CuREOsity Labs carries that forward with software. Founded October 13, 2026, it’s a workshop for custom databases, web applications, integrations, sensors, and AI, sized for the businesses that keep this city running.
Started by Thomas Charles Harwood, who grew up in the trades, studied art, and has spent years building enterprise systems. Reach him directly at tomharwood@cureositylabs.com.