By Michael Hornsby, VP Fed/Field CIO, AutoRABIT
On November 10, 2025, I joined AutoRABIT to design, develop, and lead the public sector practice.
As you may know, AutoRABIT defined the DevSecOps approach for Salesforce more than 10 years ago. It’s a favorite for teams that need to manage complex Salesforce configurations at scale. The company has served regulated industries (e.g., banking, healthcare) for some time, but until now, has not invested in supporting organizations in the federal, state, and local sectors.
I plan to build a public sector community for AutoRABIT customers, experts, and leaders leveraging secure and scalable best practices aiming to accelerate the delivery of services to their constituents. In this community, we’ll learn from each other to improve time-to-value and offer a seat at the table for our customers to help design products alongside our team.
The Wild West of the Early Internet
I started my tech career in San Francisco as a converted educator and witness to the explosion of the commercial internet.
During those early start-up days, anything and everything was possible. I kid you not, there was a scratch-n-sniff internet company that shared space in the building of the company I worked for at the time.
I saw lots of big brands launch, but the small, scrappy companies were having all the fun. Small companies were creating their future every day, trying new things and building the next cool site, product, and experiences. Alas, ‘cool’ did not endure, and nearly all of those small, scrappy companies with great ideas and questionable paths to revenue did not survive. It was still a great time.
I went on to lead an education transformation project meant to deliver technical solutions to well-deserving students, followed by an opportunity to learn an early version of CRM. The products were focused on solving email communication and knowledge at scale for call centers.
Uncharted Waters
Those experiences (and a supportive network) led to an opportunity that I could not have predicted, a chance to work on tech in the federal space.
When the call came from my good friend asking me to help him replicate the engagement that the Obama campaign created on the campaign trail for the White House, I was ready. My prior successes in serving a variety of stakeholders with at times conflicting incentives, positioned me well for federal service.
What I did not understand initially was that public service would leave a lifelong impression that continues to inform the way I view the world.
In serving constituents, I understood how important it was to put their needs at the center of everything we did. Our goal was to use CRM to engage, solve problems quickly, assist those in dire need, and to ensure that the administration didn’t lose touch with the American public.
The Journey Continues
Following federal service, I went on to work at Salesforce, as I identified with their customer success model, which prioritized understanding needs and delivering outcomes.
After a few years, I realized that the world was evolving, and that today’s software marketplace was shifting. More companies began prioritizing quarterly profits over customer goals and objectives.
Facing market saturation and pressures on profitability in a post-growth era, many large firms are turning to automation and reducing investments in customer experience. While I completely understand the thinking, I firmly believe that turning away from the customer is short-sighted.
Bringing It All together at AutoRABIT
I joined AutoRABIT because I believe that engaging person to person, team to team, and finding mutually beneficial outcomes is still possible. The AutoRABIT team is focused with a common purpose.
I am confident that building products alongside your customers provides insights that differ from goals aligned with market trends and revenue targets. I know that there will be times when our products won’t be the right fit, and I want our team to be forthright and honest enough to say so.
At AutoRABIT, we are committed to:
- Investing in the long-term. Companies who sell to customers and then don’t continue to engage are short-sighted. If we are not concerned about the long-term success of the organizations we support, then we don’t deserve their business.
- Remembering what it was like to be a customer. Our team has an obligation to listen and invest the time it takes to understand how we can help.
- We will sell strategy, ideas, value, and outcomes as opposed to trying to overwhelm customers with never-endings lists of features.
This Conversation Is Two-Sided
The AutoRABIT public-sector community will be based around you, the customer, and we’ll develop it together. We want your ideas to help inform what we deliver. We pledge to work shoulder to shoulder with you and help transform the way you serve your customers.
If you’re working in public sector technology and share these values, I’d love to connect.
Let’s build this community together.