Our Family & Values
200+
200M
500K
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We're not beholden to Silicon Valley VCs.
We're proudly family-founded. Midwestern-built.
And we're obsessively laser focused on only one hero:
You.
America's Household CFO
While others scrambled to raise millions from VCs to pour into aggressive Customer Acquisition spend, we chose a different path. One grounded in integrity, clarity, and the simple belief that America’s Household CFO — the financial advisor — deserves more time with their own family.
When our competitors brag about Silicon Valley funding rounds, we lead with something more powerful: focus, grit, and a deep understanding of the advisor’s role in every family’s peace of mind.
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
Mike co-founded Packback, an AI-powered writing platform named one of TIME’s Most Innovative Companies in Education. Over 11 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 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. His upcoming comedy memoir, Sweaty Equity, captures the gritty (and often hilarious) realities behind that journey.
Today, Mike co-hosts Momentum Mode, a podcast featuring top-tier operators and PE-backed CEOs, and serves on the board of Future Founders, supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs. He brings the full entrepreneurial arc — from cold calls to exit — and a deep respect for the challenges advisors face every day. With Impruve, he’s channeling everything he’s learned to help advisors scale the businesses they’ve worked so hard to build.
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 serve you. Not the Silicon Valley boardroom. Not the so-called blitzscaler techie influencers.
Just you.
America's Household CFO.
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