Act One
How Part Human came to be
First the arc at a glance, then the story in 10 drawn beats.
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The receipts
An open-source case, told as a story
Part Human
The founder story of Pete Andrews & Michael Lennon, in 10 beats — then how the business actually works.
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About this case
Welcome to the open-source case for Part Human. Founded by Pete Andrews and Michael Lennon, the company exists to close the gap between businesses and the people they serve — built on the conviction that the most interesting truth about a person never shows up in a spreadsheet. What makes this story worth the treatment is the unlikely pairing behind it: a kid from a Boston suburb who took things apart to see how they worked, and a senior biologist who led more than 120 lake, pond and wetland restoration projects, now building brand strategy on how people actually decide — feeling first, logic after. To understand it fully, this case reads the company through four lenses: the Founder Story traces how Pete and Michael came to it, the Golden Circle names why the company exists and how it tells that story, the Lean Canvas maps how it operates and earns across five published engagement tiers, and the Empathy Map gets close to the Leader Who Feels the Urgency — the person whose brand no longer matches the business or the market.
The arc · 7 milestones
- 1Two different roots
Michael led 120+ lake and wetland restorations; Pete built brands across agencies and his own studios. s5s17s24s23
- 2Paths converge at Earls
By 2018 the biologist and brand builder co-founded Earls Brand + Supply—Pete on design, Michael on operations. s18s23s24
- 3Making, not just branding
In 2023 they launched The Original Cornpole, using rare-earth magnets and patented ferromagnetic bags. s21s23s24
- 4Naming the enemy
After six months of questions, Pete decided brands had lost the signal to the Algorithmic Industrial Complex. s17s7
- 5The Human Response method
They built a method around feeling-first choices, with Michael's debate stress-testing every word. s4s17s6
- 6Earls becomes Part Human
In May 2026 it rebranded as Part Human—senior crew, no handoffs, prices from a $12K sprint; Pete published the manifesto. s19s23s24s2s3s7
- 7Arguing it in public
Through Proof of Life, Pete reads 2026 Cannes winners as proof human judgment wins, from biotech to supplements. s9s11s12
Now the fuller story, drawn beat by beat↓
01 / 10
Once upon a time…
Pete Andrews was a kid in a Boston suburb who took things apart to see how they worked. Michael Lennon studied the environment at Bates College and became a senior biologist, leading more than 120 active lake, pond and wetland restoration projects.
s5s17s24
02 / 10
Every day…
Pete built brands from the agency side. He started the digital design agency a\idg in 2000, led digital influence and social strategy for biotech and health tech at Ogilvy, ran digital strategy at Hill Holliday and co-founded the studio Plain English.
“To do that, I question everything.”
s23
03 / 10
Until one day…
The biologist and the brand builder ended up in the same company. By 2018 both were co-founders of Earls Brand + Supply, with Pete leading design and strategy while Michael ran operations, pressure-tested the work and led product manufacturing.
“We're not here for empires or titles”
s18s23s24
04 / 10
Because of that…
They could make things as well as brand them. In 2023 they co-founded The Original Cornpole, which uses rare-earth magnets and patented ferromagnetic bags so cornhole players never have to bend over.
s21s23s24
05 / 10
Because of that…
Before launching Part Human, Pete spent six months asking what makes the greatest creative great and why he kept cutting against the grain of his industry. He concluded that most brands had lost the signal.
s17
06 / 10
Because of that…
Pete gave the opponent a name, the Algorithmic Industrial Complex: shared templates, prompts and playbooks that make sameness the default.
“It made the work faster, but 100x more forgettable.”
s7
07 / 10
Because of that…
The studio built its method around how people actually choose, feeling first and justifying after, and called it Human Response. Michael's love of friendly debate keeps testing the work, down to the words and syntax.
“push, question, and distill”
s4s17s6
08 / 10
Until finally…
In May 2026 Earls became Part Human, a small senior crew with no handoffs and published prices from a $12K two-week sprint upward. On May 20 Pete published its manifesto.
“Because brands stopped being built by humans for humans.”
s19s23s24s2s3s7
09 / 10
Ever since then…
Pete has argued the case in public through Proof of Life, reading the 2026 Cannes winners as proof that human judgment wins, while the studio brings the same thinking to clients from CNS biotech to consumer supplements.
“The machine is a tool in the kit.”
s9s11s12
10 / 10
And the moral of the story is…
The brands people remember pick a position and pay the cost. For Pete and Michael, that starts with asking honest questions and being willing to argue the answers through.
s7s17s6
Act Two
Why it exists
Start at the belief at the center — then the circle zooms out through the method and the offer.
WHY
Brands stopped being built by humans for humans. Part Human exists to close the gap between businesses and the people they serve, because the most interesting truth about a person never shows up in a spreadsheet.
s2s17
HOW
Through Human Response: Emotion + Logic = Action. The studio reads how people decide, who they are and the culture around them, treats the gap between what people say and do as the real data, and pressure-tests every idea through friendly debate.
s4s8s6
WHAT
Brand strategy, design and activation delivered by a small senior team, sold in five published tiers from $12K to $500K and up.
s2s3
Act Three
Who it serves
Step into one customer’s world — the person the whole business is built around.
Meet
The Leader Who Feels the Urgency
Founder or executive at a challenger, scale-up or market leader
The product works and the company is growing or defending its position, yet the brand no longer matches the business or the market.
What they SEESees
Brands that look, sound and land the same, competitors catching up, and engagement climbing while the brand turns to wallpaper.
from the empathy map
- Brands across the market that look, sound and land the same. s7
- Competitors copying and catching up. s1
- Engagement metrics climbing while the brand itself turns into wallpaper. s7
What they HEARHears
Investors saying the word brand for the first time, and a different story from sales, product and marketing.
from the empathy map
- Investors saying the word brand for the first time. s1
- A different story from each of sales, product and marketing. s1
What they SAYSays
"We know what makes us different, but our customers don't" — and "our brand still looks like a pitch deck."
from the empathy map
- We know what makes us different, but our customers don't. s1
- Our brand still looks like a pitch deck. s1
What they DODoes
Tracks ICPs and conversion data closely, yet keeps buying refreshes that look like everyone else's within months.
from the empathy map
- Tracks ICPs and conversion data closely, while struggling to say what keeps its best customer up at night. s1
- Keeps investing in marketing and refreshes that may look like everyone else's within months. s1s3
Act Four
How it makes money
The business model in seven moves — each one drawn, each one cited.
Problem & customer 1 / 7
Challengers, scale-ups and market leaders can say what they sell but not what they believe — so their brands end up sounding like everyone built from the same templates.
Problem
The pain in the market
- Brands built from the same templates, prompts and frameworks end up sounding alike. s7
- Businesses can state what they sell but not what they believe, and they know customers as data rather than as people. s1
- Brand and product get built in different rooms, so the experience does not hold together. s1
Customer
Who lives with that pain
- Challengers creating markets nobody sees yet. s1s3
- Scale-ups outgrowing their origin story, such as Series B/C companies. s1s3
- Market leaders whose playbook stopped working. s1s3
Value & solution 2 / 7
For businesses willing to be honest, Part Human builds brand and creative on how people actually decide, feeling first and logic after — mapping the distance to a brand's people, colliding data with intuition, and building the whole thing when needed, right through to packaging and manufacturing.
Unique value proposition
The belief the brand is built on
- Brand strategy and creative built on how people actually decide, feeling first and logic after, for businesses willing to be honest. s1s4
Solution
How that belief reaches the market
- Strategy that maps the distance between a brand and its people, then the path to close it. s3
- Design that deliberately collides disciplines, data with intuition and logic with emotion. s3
- Activation through platforms, campaigns, experiences and go-to-market. s3
- Full-build capability when needed, from naming through packaging and manufacturing, as with Wither + Rise. s11
Channels 3 / 7
They reach people through Proof of Life, Pete Andrews' Substack, through LinkedIn and Instagram, and through a website that publishes its work and prices and invites a conversation.
- Proof of Life, the Substack newsletter written by Pete Andrews. s7s8s9s17
- LinkedIn and Instagram. s7
- A website that publishes its work and prices, with a direct invitation to start a conversation. s1s3
Revenue 4 / 7
Revenue runs on five published tiers, from $12K Sprints through Foundation, Growth and Acceleration up to Enterprise at $500K and beyond.
- Five published engagement tiers: Sprints at $12K, Foundation at $25K-$50K, Growth at $75K-$150K, Acceleration at $200K-$500K, and Enterprise at $500K and up. s3
Costs 5 / 7
The cost is senior talent on a small team with no account layers, backed by a roster of specialists listed under their own firms across technology, video, strategy and people operations.
- Senior talent on a small team with no account layers. s2
- A roster that lists specialists under their own firms, across technology, video, strategy and people operations. s2
Key metrics 6 / 7
The studio measures itself on customers who stay, spend and advocate — not one-time conversions.
- What the studio says it builds for: customers who stay, spend and advocate, rather than one-time conversions. s4
Unfair advantage 7 / 7
A founding partnership that predates the name — Pete's senior Ogilvy and Hill Holliday roles with Michael's science background and operations lead — doing the work themselves with no handoffs, holding clients for years like the seven-year Praxis account, and shaping real product down to their own Original Cornpole.
- A founding partnership that predates the Part Human name, pairing Pete's senior roles at Ogilvy and Hill Holliday with Michael's science background and operations lead. s23s24s18s19
- Senior people doing the work themselves, with no handoffs. s2
- Multi-year continuity with clients, such as the seven-year Praxis account. s12
- Hands-on product experience, from packaging and manufacturing for clients to the founders' own Original Cornpole. s11s21
Every claim, tethered to a real source
- s1Part Human homepage — https://parthuman.co/
- s2About Part Human — https://parthuman.co/about/
- s3What We Do — https://parthuman.co/what-we-do/
- s4Human Response — https://parthuman.co/human-response/
- s5Peter Andrews bio — https://parthuman.co/about/peter-andrews/
- s6Michael Lennon bio — https://parthuman.co/about/michael-lennon/
- s7We are Part Human (Pete Andrews, May 20, 2026) — https://parthumanco.substack.com/p/we-are-part-human
- s8What being "Human" has to mean for Brands (Pete Andrews, June 4, 2026) — https://parthumanco.substack.com/p/what-being-human-has-to-mean-for
- s9Cannes Just Proved Our Whole Thesis (Pete Andrews, July 7, 2026) — https://parthumanco.substack.com/p/cannes-just-proved-our-whole-thesis
- s11Wither + Rise case study — https://parthuman.co/work/wither-rise/
- s12Praxis case study — https://parthuman.co/work/praxis/
- s13meQuilibrium case study — https://parthuman.co/works/mequilibrium/
- s17There's Always a Gorilla in the Room (Pete Andrews, July 29, 2026) — https://parthumanco.substack.com/p/ill-go-first
- s18Earls Brand + Supply About page (indexed search copy) — https://earls.co/about/
- s19Jill Hawkins portfolio: meQuilibrium — https://www.jillhawkins.design/mequilibrium
- s21The Original Cornpole — https://theoriginalcornpole.com/
- s23Peter C. Andrews LinkedIn profile — https://www.linkedin.com/in/petercandrews/
- s24Michael Lennon LinkedIn profile — https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lennon-286a933/