Shawn Larner played at a Division II school, Northwood College, before starting his career in sports. He first got his foot in the door as a ticket sales intern with the Detroit Red Wings. Because of his background in baseball, he also spent time working as an instructor at the Heaven Training Center. After that, he moved into a more analytical role as a baseball video scout with Sport Info Solutions.

He spent a few years there but eventually wanted the chance to work directly with a team. That led him to take a job with the Minnesota Twins as a video associate, where he handled technology and created reports for players and coaches during spring training and the regular season. Later on, he stepped away from sports for a bit and worked as an online banking operations specialist for GenoaBank.

After the pandemic, though, he decided to return to the sports world and joined the Detroit Tigers as a baseball technology assistant. After some time with the Tigers, he ended up going back to Sport Info Solutions. This time, he would get a job as an operations associate and later changed to a live data analyst for basketball. One of the main reasons for that decision was wanting more stability and to settle down in one place. The reason he switched from baseball to basketball was that it allowed him to finally enjoy his summers for the first time since starting his career.