The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) recently highlighted Mike Moradi, co-founder and General Partner of Cortado Ventures, an Oklahoma City-based firm making significant strides in seed-stage frontier technology. Moradi’s journey into venture capital is deeply rooted in his extensive entrepreneurial experience, shaping Cortado’s unique thesis: empowering founders who possess intrinsic, industry-specific knowledge to transform critical sectors from within the U.S. Midcontinent. This strategic focus aims to expand the geographical footprint of American innovation, fostering growth in regions historically overlooked by traditional venture capital hubs.
A Founder’s Perspective: Lessons from the Entrepreneurial Trenches
Mike Moradi’s path to becoming a venture capitalist is a testament to resilience and learning from both triumphs and setbacks. A six-time founder, Moradi navigated the challenging landscapes of biopharmaceuticals, nanotechnology, and other technically complex industries. His entrepreneurial odyssey commenced with a bold decision to depart from dental school to launch his first company—an endeavor that ultimately failed. This early experience, rather than deterring him, instilled a profound lesson in persistence. Moradi recounts, "The lesson was to keep pushing past every obstacle, to not be discouraged by hearing the word ‘no,’ and to stay the course." This ethos became a cornerstone of his approach to company building and, later, to investment.
Following this initial setback, Moradi’s subsequent venture achieved rapid growth and was successfully acquired by a Fortune 100 company, demonstrating his capacity for innovation and execution. Another San Francisco Bay Area-based company he co-founded also saw a successful acquisition, though not without its challenges. This particular venture faced near-collapse after securing an $18 million Series B financing round. The experience yielded a critical insight: while capital can accelerate a company’s trajectory, speed without strategic direction can be detrimental. "A high valuation and a full bank account will happily let you scale the wrong thing," Moradi observed, emphasizing the perils of growing too fast without validated market fit or operational readiness. This firsthand understanding of capital’s dual nature—as both an accelerant and a potential trap—informs Cortado’s meticulous approach to financing.
Cortado’s Genesis: Bringing Silicon Valley’s Spark to the Midcontinent
Armed with these invaluable lessons, Moradi co-founded Cortado Ventures in 2020 alongside a team of seasoned founders, CEOs, and operators. Their collective vision was to construct the type of venture firm they wished had existed during their own entrepreneurial endeavors: one that deeply understood the complex decisions founders confront and could offer far more than just initial investment. This ‘built by founders, for founders’ philosophy is central to Cortado’s operational model, prioritizing mentorship, strategic guidance, and network access alongside financial backing.
Moradi’s personal mission has evolved into bridging the perceived innovation gap between traditional tech hubs and the Midcontinent. He meticulously considers the sequence and timing of capital deployment, ensuring that financing serves to validate assumptions, mitigate risks, and help companies achieve meaningful milestones, rather than simply fueling premature expansion. This disciplined approach marries entrepreneurial optimism with evidence-based decision-making, preparing companies for sustainable, scalable growth.
The Midcontinent Advantage: A Nexus for Frontier Technology
Cortado Ventures’ core investment thesis is strategically anchored in the U.S. Midcontinent, a region often overlooked by mainstream venture capital but uniquely positioned for innovation in critical sectors. This expansive region, encompassing states like Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri, is home to industries undergoing immense pressure to evolve and modernize. These include energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, mobility, and logistics—sectors characterized by complex physical environments, established supply chains, and demanding customer relationships. Transforming these industries demands more than just novel software; it requires a profound, nuanced understanding of their operational intricacies.
Cortado actively seeks out experienced technical founders embedded within these industries. These entrepreneurs, having spent years inside hospitals, factories, laboratories, energy companies, or logistics networks, possess an intimate understanding of persistent problems and innovative solutions. Their lived experience grants them unparalleled credibility with customers, crucial insights into implementation challenges, and a knowledge base that is exceedingly difficult to cultivate from an external perspective.
The geographic location itself provides a competitive edge. The Midcontinent offers proximity to vital industries and a robust pool of potential customers. The region also boasts a technically skilled workforce, strong research institutions, complementary public funding initiatives, and significantly lower company-building costs compared to coastal tech hubs. These factors collectively create an fertile ground for startups to establish, test, and scale their solutions efficiently.
Recent data underscores the burgeoning potential of regional innovation. While Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston continue to dominate venture capital inflows, the Midcontinent has seen consistent, albeit slower, growth. According to PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor reports, venture investment in non-traditional hubs has been steadily increasing, with a growing number of seed and early-stage deals closing outside the top three metropolitan areas. This trend validates Cortado’s conviction that "talent is not concentrated anywhere in particular. Capital and networks have just been slower to distribute than talent has." By tapping into these underexplored markets, Cortado aims to uncover sources of insight and innovation that traditional networks have historically overlooked, generating differentiated companies and robust returns for its limited partners.
Cortado’s diverse portfolio exemplifies the breadth of innovation emerging from this environment, spanning companies applying new technologies in space communications, industrial safety, critical infrastructure cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and mobility. This strategic focus is not merely about supporting underfunded regions; it is built on the firm belief that proximity to hard, real-world problems can produce exceptionally resilient and impactful companies.
Beyond Capital: Cultivating a Thriving Ecosystem
Initially, Moradi believed that a scarcity of capital was the primary constraint impeding the growth of nascent venture ecosystems. Cortado Ventures successfully demonstrated that promising companies could indeed be identified and funded within the Midcontinent. However, as the firm expanded, Moradi’s understanding of founders’ needs became more comprehensive. "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.
Founders require a multifaceted support system that extends far beyond financial investment. This includes experienced operators who can help avoid common pitfalls, early-adopter customers willing to pilot unproven technologies, patient investors prepared to support a company between milestones, and a vibrant community where crucial relationships can naturally form. As Moradi succinctly puts it, "Money can accelerate a company. It cannot stand in for experience."
This realization has profoundly shaped Cortado’s role in the broader Midcontinent ecosystem. The firm actively works to forge connections among founders, funders, universities, corporations, policymakers, and technical experts, intentionally extending these relationships beyond its own portfolio companies. Cortado’s annual Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit serves as a pivotal gathering, uniting investors, limited partners, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the country. Additionally, the firm collaborates closely with regional entrepreneurship organizations and The Verge, an Oklahoma City-based incubator and accelerator that provides vital company-building resources, programming, and capital connections.
These interactions are designed to be catalytic, enabling founders to discover potential customers, advisors, employees, collaborators, or follow-on investors. Collectively, these relationships construct the essential infrastructure that empowers more companies to launch and scale successfully. From a regional economic development perspective, such initiatives are invaluable. Local leaders often express the need for integrated support systems that foster indigenous innovation. A strong, interconnected venture ecosystem, facilitated by firms like Cortado, not only creates viable pathways for entrepreneurs but also enhances talent retention and attracts external investment, thereby strengthening regional economies and contributing to national technological leadership.
Investment Discipline: Conviction Without False Certainty
Investing at the early stage inherently involves navigating significant uncertainty. Moradi readily acknowledges this, stating, "Incomplete data is my job description." Rather than attempting to eliminate uncertainty entirely, his approach involves a disciplined process of distinguishing between assumptions that can be tested immediately and those that will only be resolved over time. He meticulously identifies critical conditions that must hold true, actively considers how these conditions could be disproven, and carefully evaluates the cost associated with achieving the next meaningful milestone.
Moradi’s strongest convictions typically revolve around the founding team’s capabilities, the authenticity and scale of the customer problem being addressed, and the company’s demonstrable rate of progress. He maintains a more cautious stance regarding predictions about the precise timing of an emerging market or the exact path a company might ultimately take to an exit.
This rigorous discipline becomes especially crucial when a financing round is progressing rapidly. The allure of a compelling founder and the pressure of a competitive process can often incentivize hasty decisions before central investment assumptions have been thoroughly vetted. "A hard deadline is exactly when people stop asking uncomfortable questions," Moradi warns. When necessary, Cortado will deliberately slow down the diligence process, bringing in independent scientific or technical experts to provide objective assessments. This additional scrutiny either strengthens the firm’s conviction or reveals critical reasons to step away from an investment. Moradi notes that Cortado’s most robust founder relationships have often originated from this initial scrutiny, as it sharpens strategic thinking and allows for the identification and mitigation of risks while there is still ample time to address them. However, slowing the decision process does not imply a slow response to the founders; thoroughness precedes agility.
Moradi applies the same unwavering discipline to valuation. "A sensible entry price is a form of protection for the founder, employees, and investors alike," he asserts. While an aggressive valuation might feel like an immediate victory for a startup, if the company’s subsequent progress fails to meet the elevated expectations tied to that valuation, the consequences can be severe. These can impact founder ownership, dilute employee equity, constrain future fundraising options, and hinder the company’s ability to adapt to unforeseen market shifts. This balance is crucial, as excessively low valuations can also stifle a company’s potential. As Moradi wisely 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 equip ambitious companies with the necessary flexibility and time to achieve enduring success.
"Showing Up With Work Already Done": Actionable Support
Cortado Ventures’ operational experience is a distinct differentiator in its approach to founder support. The team has collectively built, scaled, and successfully exited companies across many of the very industries in which the firm now invests. This firsthand operating knowledge profoundly shapes how Cortado supports founders when strategic plans inevitably shift or difficult decisions emerge.
Moradi encapsulates meaningful support in two key words: "Speed and specificity." He advocates for responses "in hours rather than days" and for showing up "with work already done instead of advice. Better yet, pick up the phone." This actionable support can manifest in various ways, from rebuilding complex financial models, making targeted customer introductions, and recruiting senior executives, to taking ownership of difficult aspects of board conversations. It also includes the crucial, albeit uncomfortable, task of delivering candid feedback when a company’s runway is shortening or its core strategy requires a pivotal change.
Moradi vividly recalls his own experiences as a founder in such challenging meetings. "What helped was someone who lowered the temperature, told the truth to me and the board, and followed up after the meeting," he remembers. This empathetic yet direct approach defines Cortado’s engagement model.
As Cortado and the surrounding ecosystem have matured, the sophistication of its founder support has evolved. Portfolio companies now have access to a comprehensive network comprising operating executives, industry specialists, expert advisors, prospective customers, coaches, and a peer network of fellow founders and investors. The needs of founders in the region have also progressed. While initial capital and the ability to attract additional investors were once paramount, today’s founders increasingly seek customer access, senior talent acquisition, deep technical expertise, and partners willing to offer honest, constructive guidance. Crucially, Cortado’s role is not to usurp control from the entrepreneur; often, the most valuable contribution an investor can make is recognizing when not to intervene. "Other times," Moradi notes, "being helpful means staying out of the way."
Building Legacies Beyond a Single Fund
Mike Moradi firmly believes that a venture firm’s responsibility extends beyond the immediate confines of its own portfolio. "We must build things that outlast a single fund," he asserts. For Cortado, this translates into a proactive commitment to strengthening the connective tissue among founders, funders, universities, corporations, and policymakers throughout the Midcontinent. It also means actively fostering the formation and growth of other investment firms within the region.
"This is not a zero-sum game," Moradi emphasizes. "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 wider array of potential capital sources and expertise, while simultaneously creating more opportunities for investors to collaborate and participate in promising ventures. Over time, this collaborative approach establishes a more durable pathway between regional innovation and broader national capital markets. This strategy aligns with growing national recognition of "place-based innovation" and federal initiatives aimed at decentralizing technological growth.
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 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 states, highlighting the critical balance between regional development and investor returns.
Cortado Ventures also recognizes the NVCA as an indispensable component of the connective infrastructure supporting 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 an emerging manager’s ability to raise a fund, a startup’s capacity to attract talent, and a new technology’s potential 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 confirms. Cortado’s active participation in the NVCA also ensures that a vital Midcontinent perspective is integrated into national dialogues concerning innovation, capital formation, and the future trajectory of the venture industry.
Expanding the Map of American Innovation: A Broader Vision
Moradi envisions Cortado Ventures’ story as a compelling narrative illustrating the true breadth and diversity of American venture capital. While the industry’s largest, most visible firms often capture the lion’s share of attention, the vast majority of venture capital activity is driven by smaller, specialized investors. These firms write early-stage checks into niche sectors—be they industrial, geographic, or demographic. "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 points out, underscoring the entrepreneurial journey inherent even in venture capital itself.
These specialized firms play an indispensable role in identifying founders long before their target markets become obvious, connecting specialized knowledge with essential capital, and guiding companies through the arduous period between a promising idea and a sustainable business. "The hardest work happens after the money moves," Moradi emphasizes, highlighting the critical post-investment support.
The current technological landscape, marked by advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, advanced manufacturing, energy innovation, biotechnology, and space technology, is dramatically lowering the cost of pursuing ambitious ideas. Small, agile teams can now undertake opportunities that once demanded the vast resources of large corporations or national programs. Many of these innovative teams will naturally emerge in regions intimately connected to the very problems they are striving to solve.
This is the profound, broader impact of decentralizing and expanding venture capital across America. When investors intentionally look beyond familiar networks and engage with founders where critical industries operate, they facilitate the transformation of more ideas into viable companies, enable more groundbreaking technologies to reach the market, and empower a greater number of communities to actively participate in and benefit from the nation’s innovation economy.
For Mike Moradi, the unwavering optimism lies with the founders themselves—those courageous individuals 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," he concludes, encapsulating the ultimate purpose of Cortado Ventures’ mission. The NVCA proudly includes Cortado Ventures among its membership, recognizing its vital contribution to shaping the future of venture capital and American innovation.
