Mike Shannon Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Illinois, United States

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

Ever wonder what keeps the CEO up at night? Climbing the ladder yet still left in the dark about what's being debated in the board meeting? Or are you an active CEO, feeling alone at the top, and craving another perspective?Welcome to Opening the C-Suite , a series in which a multi time CEO & investor (Corey) teams up with a recently exited entrepreneur (Mike) to chew on the situations & duties that sneak up to punch CEOs in the face and give others an inside view on how the C-suite actually works.In lightning fast 15-20 minute episodes, you'll capture decades worth of CEO nuggets as Corey & Mike expose a no-filter glance at the business world through the lens of the top seat. You might be surprised by what you see.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Future Founders is building the nation’s largest inclusive community of intentional young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial-minded leaders. My favorite part of being involved is the time I get to spend with our vast array of incredible entrepreneurs. Founders - feel free to reach out any time and we'll chat!

Chicago, Il

Co-founded an AI-enhanced writing practice software company through the path from $0 → $20m ARR. Acquired in 2024. Ok, now that the boring-version descriptor is done, here's the messy stuff that you and I might have fun chatting about (in no order): - Learning to become a much-less-bad entrepreneur/CEO through a decade+ of trial & error, while receiving intensive executive coaching and wide-ranging (generous!) mentorship from some of the best pros in the game. - Refining & packaging that knowledge set by undergoing a year+ process of handing off the reigns to a new internal CEO successor (a wonderful teacher-at-heart by the name of Kelsey Behringer). - Failing & pivoting out of the original business model - while being publicly celebrated for its apparent success - at age 25 after nearly 4 years of trying (that’s a long & weird story about what happens when the college kids call up the textbook publishers).- Shook Mark Cuban’s hand on TV and then checked into my other job folding towels in the Bulls locker room the next day. - Being young, dumb, and raising capital from far more angel investors than I have fingers & toes to count (while compiling an even longer list of VC rejections). - Finally getting to the VC investment …by way of a major (& necessary) “down round.” - Managing multiple iterations of a company Board of Directors as CEO.- Scaling to 100+ employees. - Distilling all fancy talk about building startups down to one simple yet enormously challenging math equation: LTV / CaC Most special of all = being part of a team far more talented than me, hellbent on awakening curiosity. Accolades earned by that team include: Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America, Fast Company’s “10 Most Innovative Companies in Education”, Forbes’ “30 under 30” in education, Chicago Crain’s “Twenty in their Twenties”, Shark Tank deal w/ Mark Cuban, Chicago Innovations Awards.

Chicago

Because I still thought I might make it as a rhymer, I was trying to understand how to grind out Chicago’s open mic circuit. Asked another entrepreneur in the music space about it. He told me (whether true or not), “there isn’t really one.” So we teamed up to start an open mic, using Packback’s office as a home. That evolved into a whole thing. We eventually called it Makespace. At its peak, we had audiences of a hundred folks coming out to see poets, musicians, and comedians take the mic. Beyond the headliners were ordinary folks working ordinary jobs who happened to have honed exceptional creative talents and didn’t have many avenues to let ‘em out. My favorite moment ever was the time when a soft spoken new engineer at Packback surprised a packed house when he stepped up to the piano for a solo keys/vocals act. Everybody knew Brian after that. I talked about what I think that kind of stuff can do for a company culture in this Tedx talk back in 2016 (botched most of the rhymes, oh well): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv3IN8D4AoI

Chicago

Deng inbounds the ball to Jimmy Butler. 10.5 seconds left. Butler passes it to Rose. Joakim sets the high pick on Felton. Derrick Rose drives baseline right. Tyson Chandler meets him there. Both players elevate. Rose floats the ball just barely over Chandler’s outstretched fingertips, and, “...he scores!” Bulls win. That’s me pumping a fist in the background, kneeling on the hardwood next to Adam. Another Rose-era Bulls 'W' in the bag. Time to go get the post-game luggage ready.

Greater Chicago Area

Years before Michael Jordan & Kobe Bryant’s famed trainer, Tim Grover, wrote his two NYT best-selling books (“Relentless” & “Winning”), he hired a small cohort of interns to work at his private gym on Chicago’s west side.My intern colleagues were mostly hoops team managers at D1 programs like Indiana, Butler, Memphis, etc. I was the lone “ball boy” of the cast. The other bosses surrounding Grover came from a host of coaching & athletic training roles across the NBA.When Durant came to town for his portion of the Nike camps, my friend George beat him in HORSE, twice. Swear to God. I never got past H. I basically moved in for the summer. By the end of it, I was doing video editing work for a few pros, playing scout D on Will Bynum, and owning the skills workouts for a host of junior clients. But, whatever, a lot of the staff did that too. Where nobody rivaled me was in the art of mixing the Gatorade. Anecdotes aside, the lasting knowledge that my time with Grover & crew instilled in me is this: the difference between how the “pros” (as compared with the “amateurs”) approach deliberate practice, and how the best coaches in the world make sure of it. As Kobe’s game film guru, Mike Procopio, says: “Dominate Simple, [insert swear word]”

Bachelor Of Science, Finance

President of AKPsi co-ed Business Fraternity

Education record

"Scout Team Award" recipient - football "Almost made the freshmen B-team" - basketball