diff --git a/lib/ShipIt/ProjectType.pm b/lib/ShipIt/ProjectType.pm
index ce0119c..62f1169 100644
--- a/lib/ShipIt/ProjectType.pm
+++ b/lib/ShipIt/ProjectType.pm
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package ShipIt::ProjectType;
 use strict;
 use ShipIt::ProjectType::Perl;
 use ShipIt::ProjectType::AutoConf;
+use ShipIt::Util qw(find_subclasses);
 
 =head1 NAME
 
@@ -37,6 +38,12 @@ sub new {
         $pt = ShipIt::ProjectType::AutoConf->new;
         return $pt if $pt;
 
+        for my $class (grep {!/::(Perl|AutoConf)$/} find_subclasses($class)) {
+            eval "CORE::require $class";
+            $pt = $class->new;
+            return $pt if $pt;
+        }
+
         die "Unknown project type.  Can't find Makefile.PL, Build.PL, configure.ac, etc..";
     }
 
diff --git a/lib/ShipIt/Util.pm b/lib/ShipIt/Util.pm
index 86b2224..8f3f3bc 100644
--- a/lib/ShipIt/Util.pm
+++ b/lib/ShipIt/Util.pm
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ use Carp qw(croak confess);
 require Exporter;
 our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
 our @EXPORT_OK = qw(slurp write_file bool_prompt edit_file $term make_var tempdir_obj
-                    in_dir);
+                    find_subclasses in_dir);
 use Term::ReadLine ();
 use File::Temp ();
 use File::Path ();
@@ -62,6 +62,20 @@ sub make_var {
     return $1;
 }
 
+sub find_subclasses {
+    # search for any other custom project type modules
+    my $class = shift;
+    my @classes = ();  
+    for my $dir (@INC) {
+        for my $file (glob("$dir/" . join("/", split(/::/, $class)) . "/*.pm")) {
+            if($file =~ /\/(\w+)\.pm/) {
+                push(@classes, "$class" . "::" . "$1");
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    return @classes;
+}
+
 # returns either $obj or ($obj->dir, $obj), when in list context.
 # when $obj goes out of scope, all temp directory contents are wiped.
 sub tempdir_obj {
diff --git a/lib/ShipIt/VC.pm b/lib/ShipIt/VC.pm
index 42968a8..06278d6 100644
--- a/lib/ShipIt/VC.pm
+++ b/lib/ShipIt/VC.pm
@@ -41,6 +41,14 @@ sub new {
     return ShipIt::VC::Git->new($conf) if -e ".git";
     return ShipIt::VC::Mercurial->new($conf) if -e ".hg";
     return ShipIt::VC::SVK->new($conf) if $class->is_svk_co;
+    
+    # look for any custom modules with an expensive search after exhausting the known ones
+    for my $class (grep {!/::(SVN|Git|Mercurial|SVK)$/} find_subclasses($class)) {
+        eval "CORE::require $class";
+        my $vc = $class->new($conf);
+        return $vc if $vc;
+    }
+
     die "Unknown/undetected version control system.  Currently only svn/svk/git/hg are supported.";
 }