Before joining M25, Mike founded The Anvil, a student-run coworking space and startup incubator at Purdue, and was later named Purdue's OnePurdue Scholar for his positive impact on campus; he also leads BLCK VC's Midwest chapter and has argued the region has a rare chance to build diversity into its startup culture early on. Beyond investing, he created a board game called Unicorns To The Moon, sits on the board of ScriptDrop, and stays involved in community and mentoring work through groups like MeTo and PicDiversity.