Harro

Peter Shankman built Harro from his couch in the Appalachian Mountains, literally working under an LLC called "Two Cats and a Cup of Coffee LLC"—named after his two overweight cats who would "kill you in your sleep if you don't feed them." The platform was an advertising-based service that relied on sponsored content and partnerships to generate revenue. Shankman describes himself as "a great founder" but "not a great manager," someone who excels at discovering ideas and starting companies but struggles once they require structured management and healthcare.

Harro grew through word-of-mouth and personal recommendation—themes that would become central to Shankman's philosophy. He eventually built a significant audience across email, social media, and his personal website at shankman.com. This audience became his most valuable asset, far more engaged and willing to purchase than casual social media followers.

When Harro reached nearly $2 million in annual revenue, Shankman made a strategic decision: rather than hire managers and scale the operational infrastructure himself, he sold the company to Vocus, their largest advertiser. "I could hire the HR person, I could hire this, I could hire that, I could be a manager," he explained. "Or I could give the company to someone already with a built-in infrastructure." Since then, Shankman has demonstrated that his real asset was never the product—it was his audience and personal brand. He sold approximately 9,000 books in the first week after launch by leveraging a tiered pre-sale model on a custom landing page, becoming #1 in Business and Marketing on Amazon. He later sold eight $600 seats to a mastermind in less than 24 hours through a single email and blog post. A Twitter/Facebook link drove 1,200 clicks in three hours alone.

Shankman has shifted from product-building to audience monetization and angel investing. His investment thesis is clear: he backs "nice companies," including Namely (HR cloud software), which he invested in as a first-round angel and is now valued over $1 billion. He remains active as a keynote speaker, author, NASA advisor, and continues to build his personal brand as the primary monetization engine. His core philosophy—"The new PR is not public relations. It's personal recommendation"—reflects his belief that trust and genuine value delivery, not advertising claims, drive customer acquisition.