We know about building businesses.
And we’re obsessed with helping you build yours.

A smiling man outdoors with blurred natural background, wearing a dark top.

Meet Mike Shannon

Cofounder and CEO

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 building a company.

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 published his comedy memoir, Sweaty Equity: A Ball Boy, A Billionaire, and the Bonkers Startup Tale You’ve Never Heard.

A young man with short reddish hair and a checkered shirt, smiling at the camera, against a blurred outdoor background.

Meet Danny Shannon

Cofounder and CTO

‍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 built with people in mind.

Our approach to Impruve your RIA

Together, we operate as a hybrid SaaS platform and embedded design partner, focused on delivering long-term AI leverage and compounding operational advantage for our clients. With our highest involvement clients, we provide:

  • A fractional AI Strategy Team to help shape your firm’s AI infrastructure and execution strategy, 

  • A trusted partner for secure data ingestion, automation, and workflow innovation tailored uniquely and securely to your firm.

  • A continuous strategic lens on AI trends, vendor evaluation, and AI roadmap development.

How we think

This moment isn’t about choosing an AI note-takers or installing the next shiny widget. It’s about defining your AI strategy for the long haul.

Most vendors will hand you another tab to open. We’d rather sit beside you as a trusted thought partner, helping you cut through the noise to build a foundational AI strategy that endures for the long haul.

That’s why we make our thinking transparent. We don’t just tell you what we build, we show you how we think.

Dive deeper into how we think:

  • Momentum Mode – Mike Shannon & renowned Private Equity backed CEO & investor Corey Ferengul interview leading CEOs on scaling companies.

  • Mike Shannon’s Journal – Essays on entrepreneurship, creativity, and the wild journey of building.

We believe transparency builds trust. If our way of thinking resonates, let’s explore how it could shape a bespoke AI strategy for your firm.