In a venture capital landscape often dominated by coastal hubs, Oklahoma City-based Cortado Ventures, led by co-founder and general partner Mike Moradi, is charting a distinctive course, focusing its investment in seed-stage frontier technology companies across the U.S. Midcontinent. This strategic focus, highlighted in a recent NVCA ‘Meet a VC’ series spotlight, underscores a growing conviction that innovation is geographically unbounded, and that profound opportunities lie in regions often overlooked by traditional capital flows. Cortado’s core thesis posits that the most impactful founders, particularly those poised to transform critical industries, are often individuals with years of embedded experience within those very sectors. By strategically connecting this invaluable insider knowledge with essential capital, customer networks, and a robust support system, Cortado Ventures is actively expanding the frontiers of American innovation.
A Founder’s Journey: Lessons Forged in Ambition and Setbacks
Mike Moradi’s path to venture capital is deeply rooted in firsthand entrepreneurial experience, a journey marked by both ambitious successes and instructive failures. A six-time founder, Moradi has helmed companies across technically complex fields such as biopharmaceuticals and nanotechnology. His initial foray into entrepreneurship began dramatically: leaving dental school to launch his first venture. That company, he candidly admits, failed. However, this early setback proved to be a crucible, instilling in him an unyielding ambition and a vital lesson in resilience. "The lesson was to keep pushing past every obstacle, to not be discouraged by hearing the word ‘no,’ and to stay the course," Moradi reflects, encapsulating a philosophy that would define his subsequent endeavors.
Undeterred, Moradi’s next venture experienced rapid growth and was successfully acquired by a Fortune 100 company, demonstrating his capacity for building and scaling. Later, a San Francisco Bay Area startup he founded also reached an acquisition, but not before navigating a perilous period. Following an $18 million Series B financing round, the company teetered on the brink of collapse. This near-failure delivered a different, equally critical lesson: while capital can dramatically accelerate a company’s trajectory, speed without strategic direction is a dangerous proposition. "A high valuation and a full bank account will happily let you scale the wrong thing," Moradi asserts, highlighting the potential pitfalls of unchecked growth. This experience instilled in him a profound appreciation for the judicious application of capital, emphasizing that financing should enable founders to rigorously test assumptions, mitigate risks, and achieve meaningful milestones, rather than allowing a business to prematurely outgrow its proven capabilities. It taught him to temper entrepreneurial optimism with evidence-based discipline and a clear understanding of the next crucial validation points.
By 2020, armed with these hard-won insights, Moradi co-founded Cortado Ventures alongside a team comprising seasoned founders, CEOs, and operators. Their collective vision was to construct the very firm they had wished for during their own entrepreneurial careers: one that genuinely understood the complex decisions founders confront and could offer far more than just an initial financial injection. This foundation of empathy and operational expertise would become a cornerstone of Cortado’s approach.
The Midcontinent Advantage: A Nexus of Industry and Innovation
Cortado Ventures’ investment thesis is uniquely predicated on the strategic advantage of the U.S. Midcontinent. This vast region, often overlooked by venture capital firms concentrated on the coasts, is home to a diverse array of critical industries undergoing immense pressure to evolve and innovate. Sectors such as energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, mobility, and logistics operate within intricate physical environments, established supply chains, and demanding customer relationships. Transforming these bedrock industries, Cortado recognizes, demands more than just a compelling software application; it requires a profound, embedded understanding of their operational intricacies.
This is precisely where Cortado seeks its founders: experienced technical entrepreneurs who possess this deep, intimate knowledge. These individuals might have spent years embedded within a hospital, factory, laboratory, energy company, aerospace program, or logistics network, witnessing persistent problems firsthand before conceptualizing innovative solutions. Their lived experience provides unparalleled credibility with customers, crucial insight into implementation challenges, and a knowledge base that would be exceedingly difficult to cultivate from an external vantage point. The geographic location itself becomes a competitive edge. The Midcontinent offers immediate proximity to these vital industries and potential customers, access to a technically skilled workforce often cultivated by regional universities and vocational programs, strong research institutions fostering new technologies, complementary public funding initiatives, and significantly lower company-building costs compared to more saturated tech hubs. This combination creates a fertile ground for sustainable growth.
Cortado’s diverse portfolio vividly illustrates the breadth of innovation emerging from this environment. Their investments span companies applying cutting-edge technologies across space communications, industrial safety solutions, critical infrastructure cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing processes, digital healthcare, renewable energy technologies, and future mobility platforms. The firm’s strategy is not rooted in the notion that Midcontinent founders deserve investment merely because they have historically attracted less venture capital. Instead, it is firmly built on the conviction that direct proximity to these "hard problems" inherently produces differentiated companies and, ultimately, strong financial returns. Moradi succinctly captures this belief: "Talent is not concentrated anywhere in particular. Capital and networks have just been slower to distribute than talent has." For Moradi, expanding the geographic reach of venture capital is not just about discovering more founders; it’s about uncovering unique sources of insight and innovation that traditional, often insular, networks may have consistently overlooked.
Beyond Capital: Cultivating a Thriving Ecosystem
When Cortado Ventures first launched, Mike Moradi, like many early-stage ecosystem builders, believed that the primary constraint facing a nascent venture landscape was a shortage of capital. The firm quickly proved its ability to identify and fund promising companies within the region, effectively demonstrating the market’s viability. However, as Cortado expanded its operations and deepened its engagement, Moradi’s understanding of what founders truly needed evolved significantly. "Five years ago, 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," he reflects, highlighting a crucial shift in perspective.
Founders, he realized, require a multifaceted support system that extends far beyond mere financial injection. This includes experienced operators who can guide them away from preventable mistakes, early-adopter customers willing to pilot unproven technologies, patient investors prepared to bridge funding gaps between milestones, and a vibrant community where crucial relationships can organically form. "Money can accelerate a company," Moradi states, "It cannot stand in for experience." This profound realization reshaped Cortado’s role, transforming it from a mere investment vehicle into an active catalyst for the broader Midcontinent ecosystem.
The firm proactively works to forge connections among founders, funders, academic institutions, large corporations, policymakers, and technical experts, deliberately extending these relationships beyond its proprietary portfolio. A flagship initiative is its annual Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit, which convenes investors, limited partners, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the nation, fostering collaboration and visibility for the region. Cortado also partners with vital regional entrepreneurship organizations and The Verge, an Oklahoma City-based incubator and accelerator that provides essential company-building resources, specialized programming, and critical capital connections. Each of these interactions, Moradi believes, has the potential to help a founder secure a customer, identify an adviser, recruit a key employee, find a collaborator, or attract additional investment. Collectively, these myriad relationships construct the fundamental infrastructure that enables a greater number of companies to both start and successfully scale. For Moradi, this is where venture capital’s true impact transcends a single investment; a robust ecosystem offers more entrepreneurs a viable pathway to company formation, simultaneously creating more opportunities for capital, talent, and groundbreaking innovation to converge.
The Discipline of Investment: Conviction Without False Certainty
Early-stage venture investing is inherently characterized by incomplete information, a reality Moradi embraces. "Incomplete data is my job description," he quips. Rather than futilely attempting to eliminate all uncertainty, his approach is to systematically differentiate between assumptions that can be immediately tested and those that will only resolve over time. He meticulously identifies the conditions that must hold true, critically considers how they could be disproven, and carefully evaluates the cost associated with achieving the next meaningful milestone.
Moradi’s strongest convictions typically center on the core elements of a venture: the founding team’s capabilities and vision, the genuine existence and severity of the customer problem being addressed, and the company’s demonstrable rate of progress. He exercises greater caution when it comes to predicting the precise timing of an emerging market or dictating the exact path a company might ultimately take to an exit. This discipline becomes particularly vital during rapidly moving financing rounds. The combination of a compelling founder and a competitive investment process can exert significant pressure to rush a decision before central investment assumptions have been thoroughly vetted. "A hard deadline is exactly when people stop asking uncomfortable questions," Moradi warns, highlighting a common pitfall.
When necessary, Cortado will deliberately slow down the process, bringing in independent scientific or technical experts to conduct additional, rigorous diligence. This extra scrutiny might either solidify the firm’s conviction or, critically, reveal compelling reasons to step away. Intriguingly, many of Cortado’s most enduring founder relationships have originated from this very level of intense scrutiny, as it sharpens strategic thinking and identifies potential risks while there is still ample time to address them. However, slowing the decision-making process does not equate to a delayed response once a commitment is made.
Moradi applies the same disciplined approach to company valuation. "A sensible entry price is a form of protection for the founder, employees, and investors alike," he emphasizes. While an aggressive valuation might feel like an immediate triumph, if the company’s subsequent progress fails to meet the inflated expectations tied to that number, the repercussions can be severe. These consequences can adversely affect founder ownership, dilute employee equity, constrain future fundraising options, and severely limit the company’s ability to adapt to unforeseen market changes. This dynamic, he notes, cuts both ways, as venture capitalists can also inadvertently stifle a company’s potential by imposing overly punitive terms. The key, Moradi insists, lies in striking a delicate balance. "The right number buys you options for years. In boom times, people forget that financial crises happen," he cautions, underscoring the long-term strategic value of prudent valuation. For Cortado, this discipline is not indicative of a lack of belief in a founder’s ambition; rather, it is a deliberate strategy to provide an ambitious company with the essential flexibility and time required to truly succeed.
Meaningful Support: Speed, Specificity, and Strategic Non-Intervention
Cortado Ventures’ operational DNA is deeply ingrained in its team’s collective experience of building, scaling, and exiting companies across many of the very industries in which the firm now invests. This practical, hands-on background profoundly shapes how they support founders when strategic plans inevitably shift or difficult decisions emerge. Moradi distills the essence of meaningful support into two potent words: "Speed and specificity." He elaborates, "Answer in hours rather than days and show up with work already done instead of advice. Better yet, pick up the phone."
This actionable support might manifest in various forms: meticulously rebuilding a financial model, making a critical customer introduction, actively recruiting a senior executive, or taking personal responsibility for navigating a contentious aspect of a board conversation. It also encompasses the courage to deliver uncomfortable truths when a company’s runway is shrinking or its core strategy urgently requires a pivot. Moradi vividly recalls being the founder on the receiving end of such crucial, albeit difficult, conversations. "What helped was someone who lowered the temperature, told the truth to me and the board, and followed up after the meeting," he recounts, emphasizing the importance of calm, honesty, and consistent follow-through.
As Cortado and the surrounding Midcontinent ecosystem have matured, the sophistication of the firm’s founder support has likewise evolved. Portfolio companies can now tap into an expansive network of operating executives, industry specialists, expert advisers, prospective customers, experienced coaches, follow-on investors, and a peer group of other founders within Cortado’s extensive network. Concurrently, the needs of founders have also shifted. In the region’s earlier days, Cortado’s investment and its ability to attract additional investors into a round were uniquely valuable. Today, founders increasingly prioritize access to customers, senior talent, specialized technical expertise, and candid, honest guidance. Crucially, the firm’s role is not to usurp control from the entrepreneur. Sometimes, Moradi notes, the most valuable contribution an investor can make is recognizing precisely when not to intervene. "Other times," Moradi concludes, "being helpful means staying out of the way."
Building Legacies: What Outlasts a Fund
Moradi holds a strong conviction that a venture firm’s responsibility extends far beyond the confines of its own portfolio companies and the lifespan of a single fund. "We must build things that outlast a single fund," he declares, articulating a vision for enduring impact. For Cortado, this translates into a proactive commitment to strengthening the intricate web of connections among founders, funders, universities, corporations, and policymakers throughout the region. It also encompasses a deliberate effort to foster the formation and growth of more investment firms within the Midcontinent.
Moradi firmly believes this is "not a zero-sum game." Instead, he champions a collaborative approach: "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 offers founders a greater diversity of potential capital sources and expertise. It also creates more opportunities for investors to collaborate and participate in promising companies, ultimately establishing a more durable pathway between regional innovation and national capital markets.
This commitment to ecosystem building, however, does not diminish a firm’s primary responsibility to its limited partners. Moradi’s experience serving as a trustee and audit committee member for a state retirement system profoundly reinforced the imperative of absolute transparency regarding investment risk, duration, and potential losses. "Ecosystem building matters, and it does not excuse any of us from being disciplined fiduciaries first," he asserts, underscoring the non-negotiable nature of fiscal responsibility.
Moradi also recognizes the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) as a critical component of the connective infrastructure supporting firms and founders across the country. Policy issues such as capital formation, research commercialization, immigration policies affecting talent, government procurement, tax treatment, and securities regulations are not abstract concepts. They directly influence an emerging manager’s ability to raise a fund, a startup’s capacity to attract essential talent, and a new technology’s pathway 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, emphasizing the organization’s vital advocacy role. Furthermore, Cortado’s active participation in the NVCA provides a crucial platform to infuse a Midcontinent perspective into national conversations concerning innovation, capital formation, and the evolving future of the venture industry.
Expanding the Map of American Innovation
Mike Moradi hopes Cortado Ventures’ story will serve as a powerful testament to the broad and diverse nature of American venture capital. While the industry’s largest, most visible firms often garner the lion’s share of attention, the vast majority of venture capital activity, he points out, involves smaller, specialized investors writing early checks into niche markets – be they industrial, geographic, demographic, or otherwise. "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," Moradi explains, challenging common misconceptions.
These specialized firms play an indispensable role in identifying founders before their markets become obvious, skillfully connecting specialized knowledge with essential capital, and guiding companies through the challenging chasm between a promising idea and a sustainable, thriving business. "The hardest work happens after the money moves," Moradi reminds us, underscoring the intensive, hands-on effort required post-investment.
New technological advancements are making this work even more consequential. The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, automation, advanced manufacturing techniques, energy innovation, biotechnology, and space technology is dramatically reducing the cost and barriers to attempting ambitious ideas. Consequently, small, agile teams can now pursue opportunities that once demanded the vast resources of a large corporation or a national program. Many of these pioneering teams, Moradi predicts, will emerge in locations intimately connected to the complex problems they are working to solve.
This decentralization of innovation, fueled by strategically distributed venture capital, represents the broader impact of expanding venture investment across America. When investors consciously look beyond familiar networks and actively meet founders where critical industries operate, they catalyze a virtuous cycle: more innovative ideas transform into viable companies, more groundbreaking technologies reach the market, and a greater number of communities actively participate in the nation’s dynamic innovation economy. For Mike Moradi, the unwavering optimism ultimately stems from the founders themselves – those daring individuals attempting what others deem impossible. "Never forget that we’re here for them. When we do this right, everyone, including humanity, wins," he concludes, encapsulating the profound purpose driving Cortado Ventures.
