Our Team
We’re family-founded. Midwestern-built.
And obsessively focused on only one hero:
You.
America’s Household CFO
Meet our Founders
Danny Shannon — Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
Growing up, Danny might have been the only rugby team captain in Illinois history with a near-perfect ACT score and a 4.6 GPA — and he’s certainly the only top 1% software engineer who spent college sweating through door-to-door sales jobs. He’s led everything from student retreats to high-performance engineering teams. As an elite software engineer initially trained out of University of Illinois’ top-ranked Computer Science program, Danny built advanced database structures for options trading clients out of Maven Wave Partners. After Maven Wave was acquired, Danny was recruited to build infrastructure systems at J.P. Morgan Chase before becoming a lead engineer at an Andreessen Horowitz & Sequoia-backed AI startup. Married to a wealth advisory portfolio manager, he understands this world from every angle. Danny’s rare mix of intellect, grit, and empathy is the foundation of Impruve’s product — designed for scale, but always built with people in mind..
Mike Shannon — Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
Prior to Impruve, Mike co-founded and served as CEO at Packback, an AI-powered writing platform named one of TIME’s Most Innovative Companies in Education. Throughout 12 years, he led it from a scrappy startup to $20M in ARR and a $50M+ acquisition — earning recognition from Inc. 500, Fast Company, Forbes 30 Under 30, and the Chicago Innovation Awards along the way. But his path wasn’t linear. After shaking Mark Cuban’s hand on Shark Tank, Mike clocked in for his next shift folding towels in the Chicago Bulls locker room. He’s pitched boat tickets on the streets of Chicago, sold cutlery door-to-door, and cold-called his way into early B2B sales — all before scaling Packback to 100+ employees and steering through the highs and lows of company building.
Nowadays, Mike enjoys coaching little league and spending time with his two young kids and wife. He co-hosts Momentum Mode, a podcast featuring top-tier operators & investors, serves on the board of national entrepreneurship education non-profit Future Founders, and recently completed writing his comedy memoir, Sweaty Equity: A Ball Boy, A Billionaire, and the Bonkers Startup Tale You’ve Never Heard.
Our Guiding Mission
America’s Household CFO deserves more time with their own families.
Financial advisors give everything they’ve got to bring clarity, confidence, and stability to the families they serve. They are often the unspoken glue — noticing the gaps, solving the complex, and guiding families through big life decisions.
We built Impruve to return the favor to you.
Our Core Values
(Yes, they’re a little different — because so are we.)
Focus on the single hero.
We build for one hero only: the financial advisor. No generic fluff. Every line of code aims to put minutes back on the clock between you and your own family.
Live the impruvement math: 1.01^365 = 37.8.
Every day, we get a little better. That’s compound growth. You apply it to client portfolios. We apply it to product, team, and service.
Have fun & laugh while doing cool sh*t.
If we’re not enjoying the journey, what’s the point?
Grandparents’ work ethic.
We understand the sacrifices that were made by the shoulders we stand on. So we work like we’re mowing lawns for Grandma — with pride, consistency, and no cutting corners.
Integrity has no gray hairs.
Integrity isn’t something you grow into. You either have it or you don’t — and we lead with it from day one.
Why We’re Independent
We’ve seen the venture-backed movie before — and we opted out.
Yes, we had the fortunate exit that let us self-fund this next venture. And no, we’re not allergic to capital. But we believe who you take money from shapes how you treat your customers.
Our competitors spend millions on CAC, dominate ads, and race to blitzscale. We chose to keep things tighter, closer, and more intentional — so we could build with our ears open and hands in the product.
Work With Us If…
You want to be heard — not stepped on.
You want founders you can call — not techie blitzscalers you never meet.
You want a product that’s yours — not something built for a board slide.
You believe trust, service, and listening are worth more than loud growth headlines.
Long story short, we’re here to help you grow your AUM without bloating costs. And we vow to give you an extra hour per day back with your own family. Stress free.
Sincerely,
Mike & Danny
Our Team
We’re family-founded. Midwestern-built.
And obsessively focused on only one hero:
You.
America’s Household CFO
Meet the Founders
Danny Shannon — Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
Growing up, Danny might have been the only rugby team captain in Illinois history with a near-perfect ACT score and a 4.6 GPA — and he’s certainly the only top 1% software engineer who spent college sweating through door-to-door sales jobs. He’s led everything from student retreats to high-performance engineering teams. As an elite software engineer initially trained out of University of Illinois’ top-ranked Computer Science program, Danny built advanced database structures for options trading clients out of Maven Wave Partners. After Maven Wave was acquired, Danny was recruited to build infrastructure systems at J.P. Morgan Chase before becoming a lead engineer at an Andreessen Horowitz & Sequoia-backed AI startup. Married to a wealth advisory portfolio manager, he understands this world from every angle. Danny’s rare mix of intellect, grit, and empathy is the foundation of Impruve’s product — designed for scale, but always built with people in mind..
Mike Shannon — Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
Prior to Impruve, Mike co-founded and served as CEO at Packback, an AI-powered writing platform named one of TIME’s Most Innovative Companies in Education. Throughout 12 years, he led it from a scrappy startup to $20M in ARR and a $50M+ acquisition — earning recognition from Inc. 500, Fast Company, Forbes 30 Under 30, and the Chicago Innovation Awards along the way. But his path wasn’t linear. After shaking Mark Cuban’s hand on Shark Tank, Mike clocked in for his next shift folding towels in the Chicago Bulls locker room. He’s pitched boat tickets on the streets of Chicago, sold cutlery door-to-door, and cold-called his way into early B2B sales — all before scaling Packback to 100+ employees and steering through the highs and lows of company building.
Nowadays, Mike enjoys coaching little league and spending time with his two young kids and wife. He co-hosts Momentum Mode, a podcast featuring top-tier operators & investors, serves on the board of national entrepreneurship education non-profit Future Founders, and recently completed writing his comedy memoir, Sweaty Equity: A Ball Boy, A Billionare, and the Bonkers Startup Tale You’ve Never Heard.
Our Guiding Mission
America’s Household CFO deserves more time with their own families.
Financial advisors give everything they’ve got to bring clarity, confidence, and stability to the families they serve. They are often the unspoken glue — noticing the gaps, solving the complex, and guiding families through big life decisions.
We built Impruve to return the favor to you.
Our Core Values
(Yes, they’re a little different — because so are we.)
Focus on the single hero.
We build for one hero only: the financial advisor. No generic fluff. Every line of code aims to put minutes back on the clock between you and your own family.
Live the impruvement math: 1.01^365 = 37.8.
Every day, we get a little better. That’s compound growth. You apply it to client portfolios. We apply it to product, team, and service.
Have fun & laugh while doing cool sh*t.
If we’re not enjoying the journey, what’s the point?
Grandparents’ work ethic.
We understand the sacrifices that were made by the shoulders we stand on. So we work like we’re mowing lawns for Grandma — with pride, consistency, and no cutting corners.
Integrity has no gray hairs.
Integrity isn’t something you grow into. You either have it or you don’t — and we lead with it from day one.
Why We’re Independent
We’ve seen the venture-backed movie before — and we opted out.
Yes, we had the fortunate exit that let us self-fund this next venture. And no, we’re not allergic to capital. But we believe who you take money from shapes how you treat your customers.
Our competitors spend millions on CAC, dominate ads, and race to blitzscale. We chose to keep things tighter, closer, and more intentional — so we could build with our ears open and hands in the product.
Work With Us If…
You want to be heard — not stepped on.
You want founders you can call — not techie blitzscalers you never meet.
You want a product that’s yours — not something built for a board slide.
You believe trust, service, and listening are worth more than loud growth headlines.
Long story short, we’re here to help you grow your AUM without bloating costs. And we vow to give you an extra hour per day back with your own family. Stress free.
Sincerely,
Mike & Danny