Oklahoma City, OK – In a strategic move to decentralize and diversify American innovation, Mike Moradi, co-founder and general partner of Cortado Ventures, is leading a charge to unearth and empower seed-stage frontier technology companies across the U.S. Midcontinent. His firm, based in Oklahoma City, operates on a profound conviction: that the most impactful founders are often those with deep, firsthand experience within the critical industries they seek to transform. This philosophy, born from Moradi’s own arduous entrepreneurial journey, is rapidly reshaping the venture capital landscape, proving that significant innovation and robust returns can flourish far beyond Silicon Valley’s traditional confines.
The Visionary Behind the Venture: Mike Moradi’s Entrepreneurial Odyssey
Mike Moradi’s path to venture capital was forged through the crucible of company building, marked by both formidable setbacks and significant triumphs. A six-time founder, Moradi navigated the complex terrains of biopharmaceuticals, nanotechnology, and other highly technical sectors. His entrepreneurial spirit ignited early, prompting him to leave dental school to launch his first venture. That initial foray, he candidly recounts, ended in failure. This early lesson, however, did not dampen his ambition; instead, it instilled a resilient tenacity. "The lesson was to keep pushing past every obstacle, to not be discouraged by hearing the word ‘no,’ and to stay the course,” Moradi emphasizes, a mantra that would define his subsequent career.
Undeterred, Moradi’s second company experienced rapid growth, culminating in an acquisition by a Fortune 100 corporation. Later, a San Francisco Bay Area startup he led faced near collapse despite securing an $18 million Series B financing round before ultimately being acquired. This experience delivered another pivotal insight: capital, while a powerful accelerant, can also lead a company astray if not judiciously applied. "A high valuation and a full bank account will happily let you scale the wrong thing,” he cautions. This episode underscored the critical importance of strategic capital deployment—funding should facilitate the testing of assumptions, risk reduction, and the achievement of meaningful milestones, rather than enabling premature or unproven growth. Moradi learned to temper entrepreneurial optimism with rigorous evidence, disciplined execution, and a clear understanding of immediate, verifiable objectives.
By 2020, Moradi, alongside a team of seasoned founders, CEOs, and operators, co-founded Cortado Ventures. Their shared goal was to create the kind of supportive, insightful firm they wished had existed during their own entrepreneurial endeavors—one that deeply understood the challenges founders faced and could offer substantive contributions beyond mere financial investment.
Cortado Ventures: A Thesis Rooted in Industry Insight
Cortado Ventures’ investment thesis is elegantly simple yet powerfully effective: identify founders who have spent years embedded within critical industries like energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, mobility, and logistics. These are sectors characterized by complex physical environments, entrenched supply chains, and demanding customer relationships, where transformation demands more than just a compelling software application; it requires an intimate, granular understanding of operational realities.
The firm actively seeks out technical founders whose prior experience in hospitals, factories, laboratories, energy companies, aerospace programs, or logistics networks has provided them with unique insights into persistent problems and innovative solutions. This insider perspective grants them invaluable credibility with potential customers, a keen awareness of implementation challenges, and a depth of knowledge that would be nearly impossible to acquire from an external vantage point. This approach aligns with a growing trend in venture capital, which increasingly values "domain expertise" as a key de-risking factor, particularly in frontier technology where market understanding can be as crucial as technological prowess.
The Midcontinent Advantage: Unlocking Untapped Innovation
The Midcontinent region, encompassing states like Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri, is not merely a geographic focus for Cortado; it is a strategic competitive advantage. This vast area is home to the very industries most ripe for technological disruption and evolution. Historically overlooked by coastal venture capital, the Midcontinent offers a compelling combination of assets:
- Proximity to Critical Industries and Customers: Startups in these regions are often physically closer to their target markets and potential early adopters, facilitating direct engagement and rapid feedback loops.
- Technically Skilled Workforce: The region boasts strong universities and research institutions, producing a steady stream of engineers, scientists, and skilled labor. Many individuals possess deep experience in traditional industries, making them ideal candidates for frontier tech ventures.
- Complementary Public Funding and Support: State and local governments, along with economic development organizations, are increasingly investing in innovation hubs, incubators, and accelerators, creating a supportive environment for new businesses.
- Lower Company-Building Costs: Operating expenses, including real estate and talent acquisition, are significantly lower in the Midcontinent compared to major coastal tech hubs, allowing startups to extend their runway and achieve more with less capital. According to recent reports by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PitchBook, while the bulk of VC funding remains concentrated in coastal areas, investment in "emerging ecosystems" like the Midcontinent has seen steady, albeit slower, growth, indicating a recognition of their untapped potential. For instance, data from 2023 showed a marginal but consistent increase in deal activity outside of the top three VC markets, signaling a gradual geographic diversification.
Cortado’s diverse portfolio—spanning space communications, industrial safety, critical infrastructure cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and mobility—is a testament to the breadth of innovation emerging from this fertile environment. The firm’s strategy is not predicated on the notion of investing in Midcontinent founders simply because they have historically received less venture capital. Rather, it is built on the firm conviction that proximity to "hard problems" in foundational industries naturally yields differentiated companies and, consequently, strong financial returns. Moradi succinctly puts it: "Talent is not concentrated anywhere in particular. Capital and networks have just been slower to distribute than talent has.” This perspective challenges the long-held belief in the geographical exclusivity of innovation, advocating instead for an expanded map of American ingenuity.
Beyond Capital: Cultivating a Robust Ecosystem
When Cortado Ventures launched, Mike Moradi initially believed that the primary impediment to a burgeoning venture ecosystem was a scarcity of capital. The firm quickly demonstrated its ability to identify and fund promising regional companies, attracting co-investors and validating the region’s potential. However, as Cortado matured, Moradi’s understanding of founders’ true needs expanded 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.
Founders require more than just funding. They need experienced operators who can guide them away from common pitfalls, forward-thinking customers willing to pilot unproven technologies, supportive investors committed through various 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 realization fundamentally shaped Cortado’s role within the broader Midcontinent ecosystem. The firm actively works to connect founders with a diverse array of stakeholders: funders, universities, established corporations, policymakers, and technical experts. These vital relationships are not reserved exclusively for Cortado’s portfolio companies; they are fostered across the entire regional innovation landscape.
Cortado’s commitment to ecosystem building is exemplified by initiatives like its annual Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit, which convenes investors, limited partners, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the nation, fostering crucial networking and collaboration. Furthermore, the firm partners with regional entrepreneurship organizations and The Verge, an Oklahoma City-based incubator and accelerator that provides company-building resources, programming, and essential capital connections. Each interaction, whether at a summit or through a mentorship program, represents an opportunity for a founder to find a customer, an advisor, a key employee, a collaborator, or a future investor. Collectively, these relationships construct the foundational infrastructure necessary for more companies to successfully launch and scale. For Moradi, this comprehensive approach ensures that venture capital’s impact extends far beyond individual investments, creating a stronger, more resilient ecosystem that offers viable pathways to company formation for a broader spectrum of entrepreneurs.
Disciplined Investing in the Early Stage
Investing in early-stage companies inherently involves operating with incomplete information. Moradi succinctly describes his professional reality: "Incomplete data is my job description.” Rather than attempting to eliminate uncertainty entirely, his approach is to strategically dissect it. He distinguishes between assumptions that can be immediately tested and those that will only resolve over time. His process involves identifying critical conditions that must hold true, rigorously considering how those conditions might be disproven, and meticulously evaluating the cost associated with achieving the next meaningful milestone.
Moradi’s strongest convictions typically revolve around three pillars: 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 exercises greater caution when predicting the precise timing of an emerging market or the exact trajectory a company might take towards an eventual exit. This discipline becomes particularly vital when a financing round is moving at an accelerated pace. The allure of a charismatic founder combined with a competitive fundraising process can often generate undue pressure to make a decision before core investment assumptions have been adequately scrutinized. "A hard deadline is exactly when people stop asking uncomfortable questions,” Moradi warns. When necessary, Cortado will deliberately slow down the process, engaging independent scientific or technical experts for additional diligence. This rigorous evaluation may either solidify the firm’s conviction or uncover critical reasons to step away. Paradoxically, some of Cortado’s most robust founder relationships have blossomed from this initial scrutiny, as it sharpens strategic thinking and identifies potential risks early enough to address them proactively.
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 asserts. While an aggressive valuation might feel like an immediate victory, if the company’s subsequent progress fails to meet the inflated expectations tied to that number, the repercussions can be severe. These can include dilution of founder ownership and employee equity, limited future fundraising options, and a diminished ability for the company to adapt to market changes. As Moradi notes, "This cuts both ways, as VCs can also strangle the life out of a company. Balance is key.” He stresses the importance of foresight: "The right number buys you options for years. In boom times, people forget that financial crises happen.” For Cortado, this discipline is not a lack of belief in a founder’s ambition but rather a strategic mechanism to provide ambitious companies with the essential flexibility and time required for long-term success.
Strategic Support: The Operator’s Edge
The Cortado Ventures team comprises individuals who have built, scaled, and successfully exited companies across many of the industries in which the firm now invests. This invaluable operating experience profoundly shapes how Cortado supports founders, particularly when unforeseen challenges arise or difficult decisions loom. Moradi distills the essence of meaningful support into two crucial elements: "Speed and specificity.” He advocates for rapid responses, stating, "Answer in hours rather than days and show up with work already done instead of advice. Better yet, pick up the phone.”
This hands-on approach can manifest in diverse ways: from meticulously rebuilding a financial model to facilitating a critical customer introduction, assisting in the recruitment of a senior executive, or taking ownership of a challenging aspect of a board conversation. Crucially, it also involves the courage to deliver uncomfortable truths when a company’s runway is shrinking or its strategic direction requires a fundamental shift. Moradi vividly recalls being the founder in such meetings: "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 the firm’s founder support has also evolved. Portfolio companies now have access to a rich network of operating executives, industry specialists, advisors, prospective customers, coaches, and fellow founders. The needs of entrepreneurs have similarly expanded; while capital was once the most scarce resource in the region, today founders also actively seek customer access, senior talent, specialized technical expertise, and candid, honest guidance. The firm’s role is not to usurp control from the entrepreneur; often, the most valuable contribution an investor can make is knowing precisely when not to intervene. "Other times,” Moradi concludes, "being helpful means staying out of the way.”
Building Enduring Legacies: Beyond Fund Cycles
Moradi holds a firm belief that a venture firm’s responsibility extends beyond the confines of its own portfolio. "We must build things that outlast a single fund,” he declares. For Cortado, this translates into a steadfast commitment to strengthening the connective tissue among founders, funders, universities, corporations, and policymakers across 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 multiple benefits: it provides founders with a broader array of potential capital sources and expertise, creates more opportunities for investors to collaborate on promising companies, and, over time, establishes a more durable conduit between regional innovation and national capital markets. This ecosystem-building effort, however, does not diminish a firm’s primary fiduciary duty to its limited partners. Moradi, having served as a trustee and audit committee member for a state retirement system, deeply understands 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 asserts.
Cortado Ventures also views its participation in the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) as a crucial component of the connective infrastructure supporting 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 essential talent, and whether a groundbreaking technology can 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. This engagement also provides Cortado with a vital platform to inject a Midcontinent perspective into national conversations surrounding innovation, capital formation, and the future trajectory of the venture industry, ensuring that regional voices are heard in shaping national policy.
Reshaping the Map of American Innovation
Moradi hopes that the story of Cortado Ventures can serve as a compelling narrative, expanding the public’s perception of American venture capital. While the industry’s largest firms often capture the most media attention, the vast majority of venture capital activity involves smaller, specialized investors writing early checks into niche markets, specific geographies, particular demographics, or specialized technologies. "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 observes.
These smaller, specialized firms play an indispensable role in identifying founders before their markets become obvious, seamlessly connecting specialized knowledge with necessary capital, and guiding companies through the challenging chasm between a promising idea and a sustainable business. "The hardest work happens after the money moves,” Moradi emphasizes. This work is becoming even more consequential with the advent of new technologies. Artificial intelligence, automation, advanced manufacturing, energy innovation, biotechnologies, and space technology are dramatically lowering the cost of pursuing ambitious ideas. Small, agile teams can now tackle opportunities that once demanded the colossal resources of large corporations or extensive national programs. Many of these innovative teams will naturally emerge in regions intimately connected to the complex problems they are striving to solve.
The broader impact of geographically expanding venture capital across America is profound. When investors consciously look beyond familiar networks and actively seek out founders in regions where critical industries operate, they catalyze a virtuous cycle: more innovative ideas evolve into viable companies, more groundbreaking technologies reach the market, and more diverse communities gain active participation in the nation’s dynamic innovation economy. For Mike Moradi, the relentless spirit of founders who dare to attempt what others deem impossible remains the greatest source of optimism. "Never forget that we’re here for them. When we do this right, everyone, including humanity, wins.”
Cortado Ventures stands as a shining example of how regional venture capital, anchored by deep industry experience and a commitment to ecosystem building, is not only generating strong returns but also fundamentally reshaping the landscape of American innovation, ensuring that talent and ingenuity are recognized and supported wherever they emerge.
