Most companies treat change as something that happens to them. Slingshot treats it as the job.
That distinction explains much about the last 21 years, and what’s happening right now. David Galownia, who started the company in 2005, has moved away from the day-to-day. Chris Howard, who joined in 2017, is officially President and is now running the business and setting its direction.
It’s easy to frame that as an ending; it’s closer to the opposite. Here’s how Slingshot got here, what’s actually changing, and what isn’t.
Summary
Slingshot’s answer to two decades of market upheaval turns out to be a skill the company practices on purpose, not a reaction it scrambles into. A near-fatal pivot a dozen years ago rebuilt the business from a single-technology dev shop into a full solution provider, and the same instinct now drives an AI shift that rewrote job descriptions, titles, and roles across every function, plus two new offerings aimed at where clients are actually stuck. David Galownia and Chris Howard each explain what the handoff changes, what it deliberately doesn’t, and why the only promise that has held since 2005 is the one about people.
Change Is the Reason We’re Still Here
Start with 2005, because the market looked nothing like it does today.
“There were no mobile apps. There was no AI,” David said. “Custom programming was a big thing, and there weren’t a lot of SaaS tools either. So there was a lot more custom development, and a lot more internal development.”
The company’s idea was simple enough to survive it all. Find people who are genuinely passionate and genuinely talented, put them together, and build the right things the right way.
“The market has changed dramatically,” David said. “But the fundamental idea of Slingshot, hiring really talented people, creating a positive environment, and letting them use that passion to build great things, isn’t any different.”
The philosophy held still while everything around it moved. Smartphones became a thing. Design stopped being a finishing touch and became a requirement. SaaS swallowed work companies used to build in-house. And now AI is rewriting the category again. Through every one of those shifts, our promise to clients stayed the same: help them get better with technology, whatever it is that year.
The Pivot That Almost Didn’t Happen
Ask David what he’s proudest of, and he doesn’t name a product launch. He names the hardest stretch the company ever had.
Roughly a dozen years ago, Slingshot was a laser-focused custom development shop built around a single technology. The market moved faster than the company did. Work slowed, revenue dropped significantly, and Slingshot had to let people go. That was the point where the company had to decide what it would be.
“We could have kept going down that road. We could have doubled down on it,” David said. “But we realized the market didn’t need a team of software development specialists. It needed a full solution provider.”
So Slingshot rebuilt itself: new skills, new services, new office, new branding, new name. Real investment in design and marketing for the first time.
“We could have given up at that point, and we didn’t,” David said. “I’m proud that we had a big moment and we were able to pivot definitively and move quickly, and not just persist but flourish.”
That’s the part worth sitting with. The proudest moment in 21 years wasn’t a win. It was deciding not to quit while rebuilding from the inside out. Companies that treat reinvention as an emergency rarely get good at it. Companies that treat it as a skill get second and third acts.
Asked whether he would change any of it, David stood firm. “Looking back is valuable, but the experiences we went through solidified the direction we needed to be on,” he said. “Maybe we could have noticed some things sooner. We were a very culture-centered company, which is good, but culture has to meet the market.”
The answer underneath that is no, he wouldn’t redo anything. “I don’t know that I’d make decisions any differently,” David said. “I’m happy we got where we are today, and that it wasn’t necessarily a straight line.”
What Chris Saw in 2017
Chris joined during that rebuild, after spending most of his career on the road between California, Texas, and India, learning new ways to build products and wanting to be home more.
“What sold me on Slingshot was David, 100 percent,” Chris said. “I just felt like we could do something good together.”
He’s honest about what came next. “Those first couple years, everything about it was challenging. We were redoing everything,” Chris said. “I probably underestimated how hard that would be. But I wouldn’t change it; it had to be that way.”
The surprise was how strongly embedded the company already was locally. “I was so disconnected from Louisville at that point. I didn’t know what businesses were here; I didn’t know anybody,” Chris said. “And a lot of those customers are still with Slingshot today, ten years later.”
That’s the quiet proof point in a transition similar to this one. Continuity isn’t a press-release promise. It shows up in relationships that outlast org charts.
Why Now, and Why Chris
David isn’t leaving. He still owns the company and has no plans to sell it. What changed is who makes the final call.
Part of that is pull. Slingshot Ventures, started five years ago, co-founds companies with operators who come through Slingshot’s orbit. One of them, P3 Technology, took off, and it gave David something he’d been missing.
“That scratched part of an itch I had to be more involved on the product side versus always the business side,” he said.
The bigger part is a judgment about what the company needs next. “Slingshot has been going strong for over 20 years, and we’re still growing,” David said. “It’s a good time to let somebody do some new things with it, and have the freedom to do so without me being a bottleneck.”
Then David made the case for Chris in two parts. The track record: ten years of bringing new things into the company, new ways of building software, the processes around them, design and design thinking, and an early and aggressive read on AI that put Slingshot ahead of the wave rather than behind it.
And the culture fit, which David treats as the higher bar. “Slingshot’s culture is so critical, and Chris is trusted and respected by the team and by me,” he said. “Chris and I get along well, but we’re also different in a lot of ways. I think Slingshot is going to do some new things because of that, and I’m happy to see where that goes.”
That last line matters. This isn’t a handoff designed to keep everything identical. It’s a handoff designed to let the company change again.
None of this is new ground for Chris. He already knows most of Slingshot’s clients, and he and Dave have worked together for years on the company’s future. What’s different is where he spends his time now. Most of it goes to one question: where Slingshot fits in the market next.
AI Changed Every Role, Not Just the Technical Ones
Ask Chris what Slingshot had to change internally to become genuinely AI-driven, and the answer is short: “Everything,” he said. “Every role within Slingshot has been impacted in some way.”
The change that mattered most wasn’t buying a tool. It was permission to step away from billable work, and Dave approved it a couple of years ago.
“Years ago, we started creating time for our key people to learn and explore,” Chris said. “This stuff is moving so rapidly that you have to invest the time, get out there, and see what’s possible.”
From there it reached the org chart. “We’ve reworked job descriptions, some of the roles within our company have changed, and we’ve even updated job titles,” Chris said. “Developers, designers, and business-side; all of those roles have been challenged. We’ve had to rethink everything about how we work.”
For a consultancy, he treats the investment as non-negotiable. “We continue to invest time and money into guaranteeing our team are experts in artificial intelligence,” Chris said. “Our customers rely on us to be experts in that space, and to help them find the way.”
That’s the uncomfortable lesson for leaders watching from the outside. You can’t bolt AI onto a company and leave the roles untouched; the roles are the adoption.
Three Years Out: More Diverse, More Collaborative
Chris sees a wider company ahead, and a different relationship with clients. “Technology is becoming more and more collaborative,” he said. “In the past we would create the concept and share it with the customer. Now the customer may come to us with the concept.”
Two offerings anchor the next phase. Launch AI puts Slingshot’s AI experts inside a client’s organization to accelerate adoption through custom training, skills and prompt development, tool selection, and safe usage. When something needs to get built, the same team pulls in Slingshot’s project expertise.
Orbit AI answers a newer problem. A wave of people are building apps quickly, and then discovering that shipping to production is a different discipline. Orbit AI takes that app and provides the architecture, the cloud setup, and the ongoing guidance on monitoring, security, and maintenance.
Both offerings point to the same three-year picture. “We’ll be a lot more diverse than where we are today, and doing even more AI,” Chris said. “Not only are we building and experimenting with all this stuff, but we’re also out hosting events, participating in the community, and sharing our knowledge.”
What Both of Them Are Carrying
Chris describes the job in terms of weight, tracing it back to his time as a 17-year-old guest relations supervisor at Six Flags, where he was hammered into taking care of customers.
“We’re trusted to deliver on projects that are incredibly important to these businesses. Sometimes the project is their business,” he said. “I think about the employees and their families too. David started this thing 21 years ago, and I want to guarantee it’s here for another 21.”
David’s confidence rests on the same place it always has. “Slingshot has always changed. That’s why we’re still here 21 years in,” he said. “We’ve had several clients for more than a decade, and the only reason that’s possible is that we change with the times. If we only did what we did 15 years ago, we wouldn’t be here. The important thing to remember is that tech is just a tool; we’re just using that tool to solve business problems.”
The Part That Doesn’t Change
So here’s the shape of it. A founder who built a company around passionate people and then changed everything else around them multiple times. A reinvention that nearly broke the company and became its destiny. A resident who arrived during the hard part, stayed a decade, and now owns the direction. An AI shift that touched every role, not just a few. And a set of new offerings built on the same old contract: help clients use technology better.
Ask either of them what Slingshot still is, and the answers land in the same place. “Slingshot is still the kind of company people want to work for, and that companies want to hire for their toughest challenges,” David said.
“We’ll always be the kind of business you can trust with your idea,” Chris said. “A true partner to your company.”
Twenty-one years of change produced a company that’s good at changing. The only real question left is what we decide to become next.
Inside the LaunchAI Bet
Written by: Savannah Cherry
Savannah leads marketing and new business at Slingshot. She writes, posts, and creates all things Slingshot, and helps companies navigate working with a tech partner for the first time. While she isn’t developing software, her CIS minor and a tendency to tinker with AI tools to streamline her own work keep her up to speed on the team’s work. She co-organizes and hosts the Louisville AI Exchange, and she can’t rest until all her work is done.
Expert: David Galownia
David excels at propelling Slingshot towards their goals and oversees the strategic direction of the company. He’s been described as ‘intense, driven, caring, and passionate’ both at work and play. At work, he enjoys watching his team explore, imagine, and reinvent to do the best by their clients. At play, he drives Karts at insanely high speeds and scares his wife half to death. It’s all or nothing. Which means he gives it all.
Expert: Chris Howard
Chris has been in the technology space for over 20 years, including being Slingshot’s CIO since 2017. He specializes in lean UX design, technology leadership, and new tech with a focus on AI. He’s currently involved in several AI-focused projects within Slingshot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Treating reinvention as a standing capability rather than an emergency response. Slingshot has been through the arrival of mobile, the rise of design as a requirement, SaaS absorbing work companies used to build in-house, and now AI. The constant was not the technology stack or the service list. It was hiring talented people, giving them a good environment, and changing the offering around them as the market moved. Companies that only reinvent under duress rarely get good at it. Companies that practice it get second and third acts.
When the market stops needing the specialty, not when revenue dips. About a dozen years ago Slingshot was a custom development shop built around a single technology. Work slowed, revenue dropped, and the team shrank. The decision point was not whether to work harder at the same thing. It was recognizing the market no longer wanted a group of specialists and wanted a full solution provider instead. The pivot meant new skills, new services, a new office, new branding, and a new name, plus real investment in design and marketing for the first time.
They are Slingshot's two AI offerings. Launch AI embeds Slingshot's AI experts inside a client's organization to accelerate adoption through custom training, skills and prompt development, tool selection, and safe usage guidance. Orbit AI picks up where fast-built apps stall, providing the architecture, cloud setup, and ongoing guidance on monitoring, security, and maintenance needed to run in production.
At Slingshot, every role changed, not just the technical ones. The first move was giving key people protected, non-billable time to learn and explore, approved roughly two years ago. From there the company reworked job descriptions, changed roles, and updated job titles across development, design, and the business side. The lesson for other leaders: AI adoption is a roles problem before it is a tooling problem.
Continuity at Slingshot comes from relationships, not org charts. Chris already knows most of Slingshot's clients and has worked alongside David on company direction for years, and several customers he met in 2017 are still with the company today. David remains the owner. What changes is where Chris spends his time, which is now largely on where Slingshot fits in the market next.
