About SparkJAR
SparkJAR started with a business problem, not an AI demo.
Business founders often understand their markets better than anyone.
But turning that knowledge into software has traditionally required layers of translation through technical organizations.
SparkJAR was created to change that.
Founder
Rory Rawlings
Rory Rawlings is a co-founder of Avalara and the lead inventor of the original AvaTax engine.
He began his career as a CPA before moving into software development at Boeing Defense & Space, where he completed a nine-month systems-architecture program in Object-Oriented Analysis & Design and built financial applications.
He went on to develop enterprise software at PowerCerv, then joined PhotoDisc, later Getty Images, to architect its internal business systems. There, he built his first sales-tax engine.
At Avalara, Rory applied that experience to a larger problem: turning complex tax rules, jurisdictional data and business decisions into an executable system.
SparkJAR extends that same approach from a single business function to the company itself.
Three decades of serialization
Then → Now
01
AvaTax
Turn complex tax rules into software.
The original problem was sales-tax determination: take thousands of rules, jurisdictions and business conditions and make them executable.
02
Meydomo
Turn a real estate brokerage into software.
The scope expanded from one complex business function to an operating company.
03
SparkJAR
Turn the method into a platform.
If one business could be serialized, could the process itself become repeatable?
04
Sundry
Prove the platform can build again.
A second company in a different industry went from specification to working software in about 90 days.