Matthew Peltier

Post-pitch story

Matthew Peltier pitched Shimmur as a Reddit-style app where fans gathered in upvoted "Tribes" around their favorite influencers. It grew to more than 166,000 users without paid marketing and raised money from Greycroft, Arena Ventures, Techstars and others. But the business model never clicked, and by early 2018 Shimmur's website was pointing somewhere new. That new thing was Community, a text-messaging platform that lets celebrities and brands talk directly with fans by SMS. Peltier relaunched with Hollywood heavyweights Guy Oseary and Ashton Kutcher, through their firm Sound Ventures, and Community went on to raise tens of millions of dollars and sign high-profile clients. The ride wasn't smooth: in 2020 former co-founders sued, alleging they'd been misled about the company's finances and investors — claims Peltier denied. Community is still operating today, now also supporting WhatsApp, with around 85 employees. In December 2024 it named Jeremy Schultz CEO, with Peltier and Kutcher moving to board and co-founder roles. Peltier has since started again: he's CEO and co-founder of Cohesive, an AI startup founded in 2024 that has raised $4.5 million. Shimmur itself is gone, but the pivot it led to became one of the better-known startups connected to the show.