In an insightful interview for the NVCA’s "Meet a VC" series, Mike Moradi, co-founder and general partner of Oklahoma City-based Cortado Ventures, shed light on the firm’s distinctive approach to fostering innovation. Cortado Ventures is strategically investing in seed-stage frontier technology companies across the U.S. Midcontinent, operating under a core thesis that the most transformative founders are often those with years of embedded experience within critical industries. This philosophy, marrying deep operational knowledge with strategic capital and robust networks, aims to broaden the geographical footprint of American innovation, extending it far beyond traditional tech hubs.
A Founder’s Journey Forges an Investor’s Vision
Moradi’s transition into venture capital was not an academic exercise but a natural evolution shaped by a formidable career as a six-time founder. His entrepreneurial odyssey spanned technically complex sectors such as biopharmaceuticals and nanotechnology, a path marked by both significant successes and instructive failures. This firsthand experience, particularly the visceral uncertainty of company building, profoundly informs Cortado’s investment strategy and operational ethos.
His journey began with an unconventional pivot from dental school to launch his first startup—an endeavor that ultimately failed. Far from deterring him, this initial setback instilled a profound lesson in resilience. Moradi learned the critical importance of perseverance, of pushing past obstacles, and of remaining steadfast in the face of skepticism. As he articulated, "The lesson was to keep pushing past every obstacle, to not be discouraged by hearing the word ‘no,’ and to stay the course." This foundational experience underscored the grit required to navigate the volatile world of startups.
Subsequent ventures brought greater triumphs, including a rapid growth trajectory that culminated in an acquisition by a Fortune 100 company. Later, a San Francisco Bay Area venture, despite securing an $18 million Series B financing, teetered on the brink of failure before ultimately being acquired. This near-collapse delivered another pivotal insight: capital, while essential, can be a double-edged sword. It can accelerate growth, but speed without direction is detrimental. A substantial valuation and a full bank account, Moradi observed, can inadvertently lead a company to "happily let you scale the wrong thing." This underscored the need to pair entrepreneurial optimism with rigorous evidence, disciplined execution, and a clear understanding of immediate, verifiable milestones.
Today, Moradi’s overarching mission is to infuse the entrepreneurial dynamism often associated with Silicon Valley into the burgeoning ecosystem of the Midcontinent. His unique perspective means he dedicates as much thought to the optimal sequencing and timing of capital deployment as he does to a company’s underlying technology. For Cortado, financing is a tool to test assumptions, mitigate risk, and achieve concrete milestones, rather than merely fuel growth that outpaces validated progress.
In 2020, Moradi co-founded Cortado Ventures alongside a team of seasoned founders, CEOs, and operators. Their collective vision was to construct the kind of venture firm they themselves wished had existed during their entrepreneurial careers—a firm deeply attuned to the challenges founders face, capable of offering support far beyond mere financial investment. This genesis story is central to Cortado’s identity as a "built by founders, for founders" institution.
The Midcontinent: A Crucible for Frontier Technology
Cortado Ventures’ geographic focus on the U.S. Midcontinent is not arbitrary; it is a calculated strategic advantage. This vast region serves as the operational heartland for many critical industries currently undergoing immense pressure to innovate and evolve. Sectors such as energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, mobility, and logistics are characterized by complex physical infrastructures, deeply entrenched supply chains, and demanding customer bases. Transforming these industries demands more than elegant software; it requires an intimate, granular understanding of their inner workings.
This regional concentration of industrial expertise directly informs Cortado’s investment criteria. The firm actively seeks out experienced technical founders who possess this profound understanding—individuals who have spent years immersed in hospitals, factories, laboratories, energy companies, aerospace programs, or logistics networks. These founders, having identified persistent problems from within, are uniquely positioned to devise innovative solutions. Their lived experience grants them unparalleled credibility with customers, crucial insights into implementation hurdles, and a depth of knowledge that would be exceedingly difficult for external parties to acquire.
Furthermore, the Midcontinent itself offers distinct competitive advantages for company building. The region provides close proximity to these critical industries and their potential customers, a robust technically skilled workforce, strong research institutions, access to complementary public funding, and significantly lower operational costs compared to coastal tech hubs. This confluence of factors creates a fertile ground for "frontier technology"—innovations that push boundaries across various industrial applications.
Cortado’s diverse portfolio vividly illustrates the breadth of innovation emerging from this environment. Their investments span companies applying advanced technologies across space communications, industrial safety, critical infrastructure cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing processes, healthcare solutions, energy transition technologies, and mobility platforms. This strategic diversification showcases the profound impact of connecting deep industry knowledge with cutting-edge technological advancements.
Crucially, Cortado’s strategy is not predicated on the notion that Midcontinent founders deserve investment simply because they have historically been underserved by venture capital. Instead, it is firmly rooted in the conviction that direct proximity to "hard problems" — the complex, real-world challenges faced by established industries — is a potent catalyst for producing truly differentiated companies and, ultimately, strong financial returns. As Moradi succinctly puts it, "Talent is not concentrated anywhere in particular. Capital and networks have just been slower to distribute than talent has." For Cortado, expanding the geographic reach of venture capital is not just about democratizing access; it’s about systematically uncovering novel sources of insight and innovation that traditional, geographically constrained networks have historically overlooked.
Capital as a Catalyst, Not a Panacea: Building an Ecosystem
When Cortado Ventures first launched, Mike Moradi, like many pioneers in emerging ecosystems, initially believed that the primary constraint facing the Midcontinent’s nascent venture scene was a scarcity of capital. The firm’s early successes in identifying and funding promising regional companies validated the need for accessible investment. However, as Cortado matured and its understanding of the entrepreneurial landscape deepened, Moradi’s perspective on what founders truly require expanded significantly.
"Five years ago," Moradi reflected, "I would have said the limiting reagent in a young ecosystem was capital. Capital turned out to be necessary, and also nowhere close to sufficient." This realization became a cornerstone of Cortado’s broader strategy. Founders, especially in frontier technology sectors, need more than just money. They require experienced operators who can provide hands-on guidance and help them circumvent common, preventable mistakes. They need early customers willing to take a chance on unproven, yet promising, technologies. They need a supportive investor base prepared to bridge the gaps between milestones. And, perhaps most critically, they need a vibrant community where crucial relationships—mentorships, partnerships, talent recruitment—can organically form and flourish. As Moradi aptly summarized, "Money can accelerate a company. It cannot stand in for experience."
This expansive view profoundly shaped Cortado’s role within the Midcontinent ecosystem. The firm actively works to knit together a diverse network of stakeholders: founders, funders, universities, established corporations, policymakers, and technical experts. This collaborative approach ensures that these vital relationships are not exclusively reserved for Cortado’s portfolio companies but benefit the entire regional entrepreneurial community.
Cortado’s commitment to ecosystem building is evident in several key initiatives. Their annual Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit, for instance, serves as a critical nexus, bringing together investors, limited partners, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the nation to foster connections and facilitate knowledge exchange. The firm also collaborates closely with various regional entrepreneurship organizations and "The Verge," an Oklahoma City-based incubator and accelerator that provides essential company-building resources, specialized programming, and crucial capital connections. Each of these interactions, whether a summit panel or an incubator workshop, represents a potential catalyst for a founder to secure a customer, find an adviser, recruit an employee, forge a collaboration, or attract an investor. Collectively, these relationships form the indispensable infrastructure that enables a greater number of companies to both launch and scale successfully. For Moradi, this is where the true, lasting impact of venture capital transcends individual investments, creating a stronger ecosystem that provides more entrepreneurs with a viable pathway to company formation and, in turn, generates more opportunities for capital, talent, and innovation to converge.
The Art of Investment: Conviction Without False Certainty
Investing in early-stage companies is inherently an exercise in navigating uncertainty. As Moradi candidly admits, "Incomplete data is my job description." Rather than attempting to eliminate uncertainty, his approach is to systematically dissect it. He distinguishes between assumptions that can be immediately tested and those that will only be resolved over a longer timeline. This rigorous process involves identifying the conditions that absolutely must hold true for a venture to succeed, considering how those conditions could potentially be disproven, and meticulously evaluating the cost associated with achieving the next meaningful milestone.
Moradi’s strongest convictions typically coalesce around three core pillars: the strength and capability of the founding team, the clarity and urgency of the customer problem being addressed, and the company’s demonstrated rate of progress. He exercises greater caution when it comes to predicting the precise timing of an emerging market’s maturation or the exact path a company might ultimately take to an exit.
This disciplined approach becomes particularly crucial when a financing round is moving at an accelerated pace. The allure of a compelling founder and the pressure of a competitive process can create an environment where decisions are rushed before central investment assumptions have been adequately scrutinized. Moradi warns against this trap: "A hard deadline is exactly when people stop asking uncomfortable questions." In such scenarios, Cortado is prepared to deliberately slow down the process, bringing in independent scientific or technical experts for additional diligence. This deeper investigation may either solidify the firm’s conviction or reveal critical reasons to step away from a potential investment. Cortado has found that its most robust founder relationships often begin with this level of scrutiny, as it sharpens thinking, identifies potential risks early, and allows time for proactive mitigation. However, slowing the decision process does not imply a slow response once a decision is made.
Moradi applies a similar discipline to valuation. He believes "a sensible entry price is a form of protection for the founder, employees, and investors alike." While an aggressive valuation can feel like an immediate triumph for a startup, if the company’s subsequent progress fails to meet the elevated expectations embedded in that number, the repercussions can be severe. These consequences can negatively impact founder ownership, dilute employee equity, constrain future fundraising options, and limit the company’s agility to adapt to market changes. This balancing act is vital, as Moradi notes, "VCs can also strangle the life out of a company. Balance is key." He stresses the long-term perspective: "The right number buys you options for years. In boom times, people forget that financial crises happen." For Cortado, this discipline is not indicative of a lack of belief in a founder’s ambition; rather, it is a pragmatic strategy designed to provide ambitious companies with the necessary flexibility and runway to ultimately succeed.
Active Engagement: Speed, Specificity, and Strategic Non-Intervention
Cortado Ventures’ commitment to supporting its portfolio companies is deeply rooted in the operating experience of its team. Having built, scaled, and successfully exited companies across many of the industries in which the firm now invests, the team possesses an intimate understanding of the entrepreneurial journey, particularly when plans deviate or difficult decisions loom. Mike Moradi distills the essence of meaningful investor support into two powerful words: "Speed and specificity."
This translates into tangible actions: "Answer in hours rather than days and show up with work already done instead of advice. Better yet, pick up the phone." Such support might involve rebuilding a complex financial model, leveraging their network for a crucial customer introduction, actively recruiting a senior executive, or taking the lead on a challenging conversation within a board meeting. It also entails the difficult but necessary task of delivering uncomfortable truths when a company’s runway is shortening or a strategic pivot becomes imperative. Moradi, having been the founder in those tense meetings, recalls what truly helped: "someone who lowered the temperature, told the truth to me and the board, and followed up after the meeting."
As Cortado and the surrounding Midcontinent ecosystem have matured, the firm’s founder support mechanisms have become increasingly sophisticated. Portfolio companies can now tap into a broad network comprising operating executives, industry specialists, expert advisers, prospective customers, experienced coaches, co-investors, and a community of fellow founders. Simultaneously, the evolving needs of founders have shifted. While capital was once the scarcest resource in the region, today, founders increasingly require access to customers, senior talent, specialized technical expertise, and candid, honest guidance.
Crucially, Cortado’s role is not to wrest control from the entrepreneur. A nuanced understanding of intervention is key; sometimes, the most valuable contribution an investor can make is knowing precisely when not to intervene. As Moradi concludes, "Other times, being helpful means staying out of the way." This discerning approach ensures that support is impactful without stifling entrepreneurial autonomy.
Building What Outlasts a Fund: A Legacy of Ecosystem Development
Mike Moradi firmly believes that a venture firm’s responsibility extends far beyond the immediate performance of its own portfolio. His conviction is encapsulated in the ethos, "We must build things that outlast a single fund." For Cortado Ventures, this translates into a proactive and sustained effort to strengthen the foundational connections across the entire regional ecosystem—linking founders, funders, universities, corporations, and policymakers.
A significant aspect of this long-term vision involves fostering the growth of other investment firms within the Midcontinent. Moradi rejects the notion of a zero-sum game, instead advocating for collaborative expansion: "This is not a zero-sum game. We want to enable a dozen other firms in our geography, and bring in outside funds for later rounds. We need to create scalable structures where everyone can win." A larger, more interconnected investment community inherently provides founders with a broader array of potential capital sources and expertise. It simultaneously creates more opportunities for investors to collaborate and participate in promising ventures. Over time, this collective effort aims to establish a more durable and robust pathway between regional innovation and national capital markets.
Moradi’s commitment to ecosystem building is, however, balanced with an unwavering dedication to fiduciary responsibility. His experience as a trustee and audit committee member for a state retirement system instilled in him the paramount importance of being direct and transparent about investment risk, duration, and the potential for losses. He emphasizes, "Ecosystem building matters, and it does not excuse any of us from being disciplined fiduciaries first." This dual commitment ensures that Cortado’s broader impact initiatives are always underpinned by rigorous financial stewardship.
He also identifies the NVCA (National Venture Capital Association) as a vital component of the connective infrastructure that supports firms and founders nationwide. Policy issues—ranging from capital formation and research commercialization to immigration, government procurement, tax treatment, and securities regulations—are not abstract concepts. They directly influence the ability of an emerging manager to raise a fund, a startup to attract critical talent, and a new technology to reach the customers and institutions that desperately need it. "NVCA helps each of us make policy concrete and stay on top of the issues that matter in D.C. and beyond," Moradi states. Participation in the NVCA also affords Cortado a crucial platform to bring the unique perspectives and insights from the Midcontinent into national dialogues concerning innovation, capital formation, and the future trajectory of the venture industry.
Expanding the Map of American Innovation
Mike Moradi hopes that the story of Cortado Ventures can contribute to a broader and more nuanced understanding of American venture capital. While the industry’s largest and most visible firms often garner the most attention, a significant and vital portion of the venture ecosystem comprises smaller, often specialized investors. These firms are typically writing early checks into niche sectors, specific technologies, underserved communities, or distinct geographic regions. As Moradi observes, "Most of VC looks nothing like the caricature. The bulk of the industry is small firms writing early checks into some niche, be it industrial, geographic, demographic, or otherwise. And a VC firm is also a startup until fund 3 or 4."
These specialized firms play an indispensable role in the innovation landscape. They are adept at identifying founders before their target markets become obvious, skillfully connecting specialized knowledge with the necessary capital, and providing crucial support as companies navigate the challenging chasm between a promising idea and a sustainable business model. "The hardest work happens after the money moves," Moradi asserts, highlighting the operational intensity required in early-stage investing.
The current technological landscape, characterized by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, advanced manufacturing, energy innovation, biotechnology, and space technology, is making this work even more consequential. These innovations are dramatically reducing the cost of pursuing ambitious ideas, enabling small, agile teams to tackle opportunities that once demanded the vast resources of large corporations or national programs. Many of these pioneering teams, Moradi predicts, will emerge in locations intimately connected to the very problems they are striving to solve.
This is the profound, broader impact of strategically expanding venture capital across America. When investors consciously look beyond familiar networks and actively meet founders in regions where critical industries operate, they catalyze a virtuous cycle: more innovative ideas transform into viable companies, more groundbreaking technologies successfully reach the market, and, critically, more communities are empowered to participate fully in the nation’s dynamic innovation economy. For Mike Moradi, the enduring optimism stems from the relentless drive of founders who dare to attempt what others deem impossible. "Never forget that we’re here for them. When we do this right, everyone, including humanity, wins."
The NVCA proudly recognizes Cortado Ventures as a vital part of its membership, contributing significantly to the evolving narrative of American innovation. Further information about the firm and its impactful work can be found at cortado.ventures.
