Mikayla grew up in Chapel Hill, NC. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College with a B.A. in Spanish while also completing pre-med requirements and captaining the varsity soccer team. Before PeakSpan, she worked at a neuroscience research lab at UNC Chapel Hill and at a management consulting firm.

Mikayla joined PeakSpan in 2023 after interning at the firm the prior summer. She started on the GTM Tech, Payments & Fintech, and Supply Chain Tech investing teams and has since moved to supporting PeakSpan's Strategic Development program, where she works closely with portfolio companies on exit preparedness, strategic positioning, and long-term value creation, in addition to Investor Relations. She currently serves as a board observer for Dispatch and Routefusion. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, trying new sports, and listening to anything but country music.

The caliber and diversity of people I interact with daily are what excite me most. Whether I’m working with our internal team, conversing with a new prospect, or rolling up my sleeves with a portfolio company, I am surrounded by individuals who are remarkably sharp, creative, and driven. PeakSpan fosters an environment where every interaction is an opportunity to learn something new.

When I first started at PeakSpan, I worked closely with our Strategic Development team (before joining this team full time!) to compile strategic acquirer rosters for our portfolio, including companies with no immediate plans to transact. By identifying the right stakeholders and facilitating introductions well in advance of a liquidity event, we were able to gain early market feedback and establish relationships before they were operationally required. These relationships have proven to be helpful as the companies we work with have matured.

PeakSpan provides a rare combination of high autonomy and a “no-bounds” culture that encourages you to contribute wherever you can be most effective, regardless of title or tenure. You are given the runway to act as a force multiplier for companies because the firm trusts your judgment and your willingness to do whatever it takes for the team to succeed. This alignment that rewards creativity and unconventional thinking is exactly why I can do my best work here.

Growing up playing team sports taught me that a team's success is never just about individual stats — everyone on the roster contributes in ways that matter, even when they're not the ones scoring. The best teammates are the ones who can read what the team needs in a given moment, adapt to fill that gap, and do it without hesitation, whether that means stepping up or stepping back. That's the standard I hold myself to when working with our teams. I try to fill whatever need they have at that moment and own that role fully.