In a compelling feature as part of the NVCA’s “Meet a VC” series, Mike Moradi, co-founder and General Partner of Cortado Ventures, offers an insightful look into the firm’s distinctive approach to venture capital. Based in Oklahoma City, Cortado Ventures is strategically investing in seed-stage frontier technology companies across the expansive U.S. Midcontinent, driven by a profound conviction that the most impactful founders are those forged within the industries they seek to transform. This philosophy underscores a broader movement to decentralize innovation, demonstrating that critical insights and groundbreaking solutions often emerge from the very heart of established sectors, far from traditional coastal tech hubs.
Cortado’s investment thesis is meticulously crafted around the belief that founders possessing deep, experiential knowledge of critical industries—such as energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, and manufacturing—are uniquely positioned to identify and solve persistent problems. By bridging their invaluable hands-on experience with crucial capital, strategic customer access, and an extensive support network, Cortado is actively expanding the geographic footprint of American innovation. This approach not only fosters local economic growth but also unlocks untapped potential, proving that talent and ingenuity are not confined to specific locales but are rather waiting to be discovered and cultivated across the nation’s diverse landscape.
A Founder’s Odyssey: From Setbacks to Strategic Investing
Mike Moradi’s journey into venture capital is deeply rooted in his firsthand experiences as an entrepreneur. A six-time founder, Moradi navigated the tumultuous waters of company building across technically complex fields like biopharmaceuticals and nanotechnology. His entrepreneurial saga commenced when he boldly departed dental school to launch his inaugural venture—a venture that, despite his ambition, ultimately failed. This initial setback, however, proved to be a crucible, instilling in him an unyielding resilience and a profound commitment to persistence in the face of adversity. "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, highlighting the enduring spirit that now informs his investment philosophy.
Subsequent ventures brought both triumphs and stark lessons. One company achieved rapid growth and was successfully acquired by a Fortune 100 enterprise, demonstrating his capacity for scaling innovation. Yet, a later San Francisco Bay Area startup, despite securing an $18 million Series B financing, teetered on the brink of collapse before its eventual acquisition. This near-failure delivered a crucial insight: while capital can dramatically accelerate a company’s trajectory, speed without strategic direction and market readiness can be detrimental. Moradi succinctly captures this paradox, stating, "A high valuation and a full bank account will happily let you scale the wrong thing." This experience underscored the critical importance of disciplined capital deployment, ensuring that financing serves to validate assumptions, mitigate risks, and achieve meaningful milestones, rather than merely fueling unchecked growth.
Today, Moradi’s overarching mission is to infuse the entrepreneurial dynamism of Silicon Valley into the Midcontinent. He meticulously considers the sequencing and timing of capital, emphasizing that funding should empower founders to test hypotheses and prove their business models before attempting aggressive scaling. This blend of entrepreneurial optimism with rigorous evidence and disciplined execution is the bedrock of Cortado Ventures. Launched in 2020 alongside a cohort of seasoned founders, CEOs, and operators, Cortado was conceived to be the kind of firm its founders wished had existed during their own entrepreneurial endeavors—a partner that deeply understands the intricate challenges founders face and provides support far beyond mere financial investment.
The Midcontinent: A Crucible for Frontier Technology
The U.S. Midcontinent, often overlooked by traditional venture capital, stands as a vibrant hub for industries undergoing profound transformation. Sectors such as energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, mobility, and logistics operate within highly complex physical environments, established supply chains, and demanding customer ecosystems. Revolutionizing these industries demands more than just innovative software; it requires an intimate, granular understanding of their operational mechanics and inherent challenges. This is precisely where Cortado Ventures identifies its competitive edge.
Cortado actively seeks out technical founders who possess this invaluable insider knowledge—individuals who have dedicated years working within hospitals, factories, laboratories, energy corporations, aerospace programs, or logistics networks before recognizing an opportunity for disruptive innovation. Their deep experiential background provides unparalleled credibility with customers, crucial insights into implementation hurdles, and a practical knowledge base that would be exceedingly difficult to cultivate from an external perspective. This inherent understanding significantly de-risks early-stage investments and accelerates market adoption.
Furthermore, the Midcontinent itself offers a compelling set of advantages that contribute to its growing appeal as an innovation ecosystem. The region boasts strategic proximity to critical industries and a vast potential customer base, a robust technically skilled workforce often cultivated by strong local research institutions, and access to complementary public funding initiatives. Crucially, the lower cost of company building in these areas, compared to intensely competitive coastal markets, allows startups to extend their runway, optimize resource allocation, and focus more intently on product development and market validation without the immense pressure of exorbitant operational overheads.
Supporting data from various industry reports, such as those published by PitchBook and the NVCA, increasingly highlight the accelerating growth of venture capital investment in emerging tech hubs outside the traditional strongholds of California, New York, and Massachusetts. In 2023, while overall VC funding saw a decline, regions like the Midcontinent continued to demonstrate resilience and growth in specific sectors, signaling a broader diversification of the American innovation landscape. This trend is driven by a confluence of factors: the increasing recognition of distributed talent, the lower cost of living and doing business, and the strategic advantage of proximity to legacy industries ripe for technological disruption. Cortado’s portfolio vividly illustrates this burgeoning innovation, featuring companies that are deploying cutting-edge technologies across space communications, industrial safety, critical infrastructure cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, and sustainable energy solutions.
Cortado’s strategy is not merely about compensating for historical underinvestment in the Midcontinent. Instead, it is firmly grounded in the conviction that direct engagement with complex, real-world problems inherently produces differentiated companies and generates superior financial returns. As Moradi asserts, "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 is fundamentally about unearthing unique sources of insight and innovation that traditional, insular networks have historically overlooked, thereby enriching the entire national innovation economy.
Beyond Capital: The Imperative of Ecosystem Building
When Cortado Ventures first embarked on its mission, Mike Moradi believed that the primary impediment facing a nascent venture ecosystem was a conspicuous shortage of capital. The firm rapidly demonstrated that promising companies could indeed be identified and successfully funded within the region. However, as Cortado matured and expanded its reach, Moradi’s understanding of what founders truly require evolved considerably. "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," Moradi states, reflecting on this crucial realization.
Founders, particularly in developing ecosystems, need a much broader spectrum of support. This includes experienced operators who can provide invaluable guidance to circumvent preventable missteps, pioneering customers willing to embrace and pilot unproven technologies, supportive investors prepared to sustain a company through the often-protracted periods between significant milestones, and a vibrant community where crucial relationships can organically form and flourish. Moradi emphatically notes, "Money can accelerate a company. It cannot stand in for experience."
This profound understanding has profoundly shaped Cortado’s expansive role within the broader Midcontinent ecosystem. The firm actively works to forge connections among founders, funders, academic institutions, corporations, policymakers, and technical experts, consciously avoiding the common practice of reserving such relationships exclusively for its own portfolio companies. Cortado’s commitment to ecosystem development is manifest in initiatives such as its annual Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit, which convenes investors, limited partners, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the country to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange. Additionally, the firm partners with regional entrepreneurship organizations and The Verge, an Oklahoma City-based incubator and accelerator that provides essential company-building resources, specialized programming, and vital capital connections.
Each interaction facilitated by Cortado serves as a potential conduit for a founder to discover a new customer, secure a critical advisor, recruit a key employee, find a strategic collaborator, or attract additional investment. Collectively, these interconnected relationships establish the foundational infrastructure that enables a greater number of companies to not only launch but also to successfully scale. For Moradi, this is where the transformative impact of venture capital truly transcends individual investments, culminating in the creation of a stronger, more resilient ecosystem. Such an environment offers more entrepreneurs a viable pathway to company formation, while simultaneously amplifying opportunities for capital, talent, and innovation to converge.
Conviction Without False Certainty: A Disciplined Investment Approach
Investing in early-stage ventures inherently involves navigating a landscape characterized by incomplete information. Moradi candidly acknowledges this reality: "Incomplete data is my job description." Rather than attempting to eradicate uncertainty, his approach is to meticulously distinguish between assumptions that can be immediately tested and those that will only be resolved over an extended period. He systematically identifies the critical conditions that must hold true for an investment to succeed, rigorously considers how these conditions could be disproven, and diligently evaluates the cost associated with achieving the next meaningful milestone.
Moradi’s strongest convictions typically center on the caliber of the founding team, the clarity and urgency of the customer problem being addressed, and the company’s demonstrable rate of progress. He maintains a more cautious stance regarding precise market timing predictions or the exact eventual exit path a company might take. This disciplined approach becomes particularly vital when a financing round is moving at a rapid pace. A charismatic founder and a highly competitive process can generate immense pressure to make swift decisions before the central investment assumptions have been thoroughly vetted. "A hard deadline is exactly when people stop asking uncomfortable questions," Moradi warns, highlighting the risk of overlooking critical red flags under pressure.
When circumstances demand it, Cortado is prepared to deliberately slow down the investment process, engaging independent scientific or technical experts for additional, rigorous evaluation. This supplementary due diligence either fortifies the firm’s conviction in the investment or, conversely, uncovers compelling reasons to withdraw. Cortado’s most enduring founder relationships often begin with this level of scrutiny, as it sharpens strategic thinking and identifies potential risks early enough for them to be effectively addressed. However, slowing the decision-making process does not equate to a delayed response once a decision is made.
Moradi applies an equally rigorous discipline to valuation. He champions the concept that "A sensible entry price is a form of protection for the founder, employees, and investors alike." While an aggressive valuation might initially feel like a victory, if the company’s subsequent progress fails to meet the elevated expectations tied to that valuation, the repercussions can be severe. These can impact founder ownership, dilute employee equity, constrain future fundraising options, and severely limit the company’s ability to adapt to unforeseen market changes. As Moradi sagely observes, "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 strategic mechanism to afford an ambitious company the essential flexibility and time required for long-term success.
Providing Meaningful Support: Speed, Specificity, and Empathy
Cortado Ventures’ team brings extensive operational experience, having built, scaled, and successfully exited companies across many of the very industries in which the firm now invests. This invaluable hands-on experience profoundly shapes how Cortado supports its founders when strategic plans inevitably shift or difficult decisions must be made. Moradi distills meaningful support into two potent words: "Speed and specificity."
He elaborates on this ethos: "Answer in hours rather than days and show up with work already done instead of advice. Better yet, pick up the phone." This proactive, hands-on approach might entail rebuilding a complex financial model, facilitating a crucial customer introduction, assisting in the recruitment of a senior executive, or taking direct responsibility for navigating a challenging board conversation. It also encompasses the courage to articulate uncomfortable truths when a company’s runway is dwindling or a fundamental strategy pivot is imperative. Moradi, having been the founder in such high-stakes meetings, recalls, "What helped was someone who lowered the temperature, told the truth to me and the board, and followed up after the meeting."
As Cortado and the surrounding ecosystem have matured, the sophistication of its founder support has grown commensurately. Portfolio companies now have access to a rich network comprising operating executives, industry specialists, expert advisors, prospective customers, experienced coaches, follow-on investors, and a peer group of other founders within the firm’s extensive network. The evolving needs of founders in the region have also influenced this approach. While capital scarcity once made Cortado’s direct investment and ability to attract additional investors particularly valuable, today’s founders increasingly require critical customer access, senior talent acquisition support, specialized technical expertise, and candid, honest guidance. Crucially, the firm’s role is not to usurp control from the entrepreneur. Sometimes, the most valuable contribution an investor can make is discerning precisely when not to intervene. "Other times," Moradi concludes, "being helpful means staying out of the way."
Building What Outlasts a Fund: A Legacy of Ecosystem Growth
Moradi firmly believes that a venture firm’s responsibility extends far beyond the confines of its own portfolio. "We must build things that outlast a single fund," he asserts, emphasizing a long-term vision for sustainable impact. For Cortado, this translates into actively strengthening the intricate connections among founders, funders, universities, corporations, and policymakers. It also means fostering the formation and growth of more investment firms within the region, thereby diversifying and fortifying the local venture landscape.
Moradi views this collaborative approach as fundamentally non-zero-sum. "This is not a zero-sum game," he declares. "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 broader array of potential capital sources and specialized expertise. It simultaneously 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.
Ecosystem building, however, does not diminish a firm’s paramount responsibility to its limited partners. Moradi’s prior experience as a trustee and audit committee member for a state retirement system profoundly reinforced the critical importance 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 affirms, underscoring the delicate balance between community development and fiduciary duty.
Moradi also recognizes the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) as an indispensable component of the connective infrastructure that supports venture firms and founders nationwide. Policy issues such as capital formation, research commercialization, immigration, government procurement, tax treatment, and securities regulations are not abstract concepts; they directly influence whether an emerging manager can successfully raise a fund, whether a startup can attract top-tier talent, and whether groundbreaking new technologies can reach the customers and institutions that desperately need them. "NVCA helps each of us make policy concrete and stay on top of the issues that matter in D.C. and beyond," Moradi highlights. Cortado’s active participation in the NVCA further ensures that a vital Midcontinent perspective is integrated into national conversations about innovation, capital formation, and the future trajectory of the entire venture industry.
Expanding the Map of American Innovation: A Vision for the Future
Moradi hopes that the narrative of Cortado Ventures can illuminate the remarkable breadth and diversity of American venture capital. While the industry’s largest and most visible firms often garner the lion’s share of attention, the vast majority of venture activity is driven by smaller, specialized investors who write early-stage checks into niche industries, specific technologies, underserved communities, and emerging regions. "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, demystifying the industry’s true composition.
These specialized firms play an absolutely essential role in identifying founders before their markets become obvious, skillfully connecting specialized knowledge with critical capital, and guiding companies through the arduous period between a promising idea and a sustainable, thriving business. As Moradi pointedly states, "The hardest work happens after the money moves."
The advent of new technologies is rendering this work even more consequential. The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, advanced manufacturing, energy innovation, biotechnology, and space technology are dramatically reducing the cost and barriers to attempting ambitious ideas. Small, agile teams can now pursue opportunities that, in previous eras, would have demanded the immense resources of a large corporation or a national program. Many of these groundbreaking teams will naturally emerge in locales intimately connected to the complex problems they are diligently working to solve.
This decentralization represents the profound broader impact of expanding venture capital across America. When investors consciously look beyond familiar networks and actively engage with founders in regions where critical industries operate, they facilitate the transformation of more ideas into viable companies, enable more innovative technologies to reach the market, and empower more communities to actively participate in the nation’s dynamic innovation economy. For Mike Moradi, the founders who dare to attempt what others deem impossible remain the single greatest reason for unwavering optimism. "Never forget that we’re here for them. When we do this right, everyone, including humanity, wins," he concludes, encapsulating the profound purpose behind Cortado Ventures’ mission.
The NVCA proudly recognizes Cortado Ventures as a vital part of its membership, championing the firm’s dedication to fostering innovation and economic growth beyond traditional boundaries. To explore Cortado Ventures’ pioneering work and portfolio, visit cortado.ventures.
