Mike Kerns co-founded Citizen Sports, a "stock market for athletes" that became a major Facebook and mobile sports app network before being acquired by Yahoo, giving him rare operator-level experience building sports and data products that he now applies as an investor. He started his investing career in 1999 working directly for Ron Conway at Angel Investors, L.P.—described as "Y Combinator before Y Combinator"—providing him with an unusually early view of seed investing that spans from the first dot-com era to today's creator economy deals.

• Prioritizes businesses that successfully merge content, commerce, and community into a single cohesive brand. He points to portfolio companies like Food52 and Barstool Sports as ideal models because they built large, organically engaged user bases through authentic connections before effectively layering in monetization strategies.
• A deep interest in the evolution of sports media, specifically the intersection of sports betting, fantasy gaming, and premium analysis. He highlighted the Action Network as a prime example of his thesis, describing it as a platform that marries the personality and entertainment value of traditional sports coverage with the analytical depth typically found in financial news.
• Seeks out founders and teams that display scrappiness, hustle, and the ability to operate at high speed without taking themselves too seriously. He specifically lauded the CEO of Barstool Sports for taking a company with stagnant revenue and turning it into a profitable juggernaut through sheer force of execution, valuing leaders who can balance creative vision with business grinding.
• Active investing in emerging consumer trends and niche digital ecosystems, including the creator economy, digital collectibles, and the Roblox ecosystem. He explicitly identified these specific areas, alongside telehealth and board games, as sectors where he wants to dig deep to find the next generation of consumer giants comparable to Crunchyroll or Headspace.
• Focuses on Web3 and crypto applications, particularly those that innovate on publishing and ownership models. He shared his participation in a write race on Mirror and mentioned collaborative investments in the crypto space, signaling an intent to back decentralized platforms that offer new ways for creators to operate.