By Shawn Ennis | March 2026
I sold Assure1 to Oracle in 2021. Walked away with a check, a non-compete, and a quiet frustration I couldn’t shake.
The problems that mattered most — the ones that had haunted network operations for two decades — were still unsolved. Not because the industry lacked smart people. Not because the technology wasn’t there. But because the business model around solving them was broken. Heavy services costs. Integration nightmares. Vendor lock-in dressed up as “professional services.” And automation — true, lights-out, self-healing network automation — remained the industry’s white whale. Everyone talked about it. Nobody delivered it.
I watched Oracle absorb Assure1 and do what large enterprises do: optimize for existing revenue, protect existing accounts, and move at the speed of committees. I don’t say that as a criticism — it’s just physics. Big companies can’t move like founders. I knew that going in.
What I didn’t know was how long I’d be thinking about what I left on the table.
That ends now.
The Call I Couldn’t Ignore
When Rapax came across my radar, I did what I always do — I stress-tested it. I pushed on the architecture. I interrogated the go-to-market. I looked for the seams where it would fall apart.
It didn’t fall apart.
What I found instead was a team that had built something I genuinely believe in: an AI-native network service assurance and automation platform designed from the ground up for network operators — the segment of the market that has been chronically underserved, overcharged, and left to cobble together point solutions that never quite fit.
I’ve spent 25 years in this space. I hold 12 patents in telecom domain operations. I know exactly what “good” looks like — and I know how rare it is.
Rapax is good. And with the right go-to-market behind it, it can be something the industry has never seen before.
So I said yes. I’m in as CEO, and I’m bringing everything I have.
Why Now? Three Reasons I Don’t Apologize For
1. I Have Unfinished Business With This Problem
When I built Monolith and Assure1, we got operators closer to network automation than anyone had before. But “closer” isn’t the same as “there.” The gap was always the same: integrations were too expensive, services costs were too high, and the complexity required to achieve true closed-loop automation was out of reach for all but the largest carriers.
AI changes the equation entirely. Not because AI is magic — it isn’t — but because it finally makes it economically and operationally feasible to do what we always knew should be done. Intelligent correlation. Autonomous remediation. Self-healing infrastructure. The vision hasn’t changed. The tools finally have.
I didn’t walk away from this problem in 2021. I just ran out of road. Rapax is the road.
2. My Entrepreneurial DNA Doesn’t Know How to Sit Still
I’m a builder. That’s not a personality quirk — it’s a compulsion. I’ve founded companies, filed patents, built teams from scratch, navigated acquisitions, and stared down the blank page of “what’s next” more times than I can count.
Every single time, the answer has been the same: find the hard problem and build the thing that solves it.
Rapax is a hard problem. The telecom market is fragmented, skeptical, and slow to trust new vendors — especially in the assurance and automation space where the stakes are high and the tolerance for failure is near zero. That’s exactly the kind of challenge that gets me out of bed in the morning. Anyone can sell into a warm, receptive market. Building trust and traction in a demanding one? That’s where I’ve spent my career. That’s where I thrive.
3. The Barrier to Entry Has Never Been Lower — And I’m Exploiting That
Here’s the reality that most enterprise software vendors don’t want you thinking about too hard: the cost to build, deploy, and scale a world-class platform has collapsed.
Infrastructure that once required millions in CapEx now runs on a few thousand a month. AI reduces the headcount required to build and operate sophisticated software by an order of magnitude. And the velocity from idea to production-ready product? It’s a fraction of what it was five years ago.
This means a lean, focused, AI-native company like Rapax can compete — and win — against legacy incumbents that are carrying the weight of twenty-year-old architectures, bloated services organizations, and shareholder expectations that demand they protect the past rather than build the future.
I’ve been on both sides of that equation. I know which side I want to be on.
Let’s Talk About AI — Really Talk About It
I want to be clear about something, because I think the industry is getting this wrong in a way that will cost people real money.
AI is not a business outcome. It is an enabler of one.
We went through this with cloud. We went through it with virtualization. In both cases, the technology was real and the hype was massive — and in both cases, the companies that actually won were the ones who stopped selling the technology and started selling what the technology made possible.
Cloud didn’t win because CIOs wanted cloud. It won because it made IT faster, cheaper, and more flexible. Virtualization didn’t win because engineers thought hypervisors were elegant. It won because it cut data center costs in half and doubled utilization rates.
AI is on the same trajectory — and we’re still in the “sell the technology” phase. The companies that will define the next decade are the ones making the pivot right now: from “we use AI” to “here’s the productivity gain, here’s the operational impact, here’s the number that changed on your P&L.”
That is the Rapax story. Not “AI-powered network assurance” as a buzzword — but the elimination of manual triage, the acceleration of mean time to repair, the reduction of NOC headcount required to firefight, and the path to an autonomous operations center that your competitors can only dream about.
That’s the pitch. And I believe every word of it.
What Comes Next
I’m coming into this role with open ears and open eyes. I want to talk to my network. I want to hear what you’re seeing in the market. I want to understand where the resistance is, where the appetite is, and where the first big wins will come from.
I’ve done this before. I know the difference between a product that’s almost ready and one that’s truly ready. I know how to build the trust with operators that turns a pilot into a contract and a contract into a reference customer. And I know how to build the kind of go-to-market motion that creates momentum — the kind that feeds on itself.
If you’re a telecom operator wondering whether there’s a better way to run your network operations — there is. Let’s talk.
If you’re a reseller, integrator, or channel partner in the telecom space looking for a platform worth putting your name behind — let’s talk.
If you’re an investor, a peer, or someone who just wants to kick the tires and tell me where I’m wrong — I especially want to talk to you.
The calendar is open. The chapter is starting. And for the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.
📅 Book time with me: https://cal.com/shawn-ennis
Learn more about Rapax: rapax.app
Shawn Ennis is the Founder & CEO of Citus Technologies, Fractional CEO of Rapax, and co-host of the Transformation Leaders Podcast. A 25-year veteran of telecom service assurance with 12 patents and one very unfinished agenda.
