The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) recently highlighted Mike Moradi, co-founder and general partner of Cortado Ventures, in its "Meet a VC" series, casting a spotlight on a firm that is redefining the landscape of venture capital from its base in Oklahoma City. Cortado Ventures operates with a distinctive thesis, focusing its seed-stage investments on frontier technology companies across the U.S. Midcontinent, driven by the conviction that the most transformative founders are often those with deep, firsthand experience within the critical industries they aim to revolutionize. This approach seeks to bridge the historical gap in venture capital distribution, fostering innovation in regions often overlooked by traditional coastal hubs.
A Founder’s Journey: From Setback to Strategic Vision
Mike Moradi’s path to venture capital is deeply rooted in his extensive entrepreneurial experience, a journey marked by both significant triumphs and crucial learning experiences. A six-time founder, Moradi has navigated the complexities of launching and scaling companies in technically demanding sectors such as biopharmaceuticals and nanotechnology. His initial foray into entrepreneurship began unconventionally, leaving dental school to pursue his first startup endeavor. This venture, however, did not succeed. Instead of being deterred, this early failure instilled in Moradi an unyielding resilience and a profound lesson in perseverance. He learned to "keep pushing past every obstacle, to not be discouraged by hearing the word ‘no,’ and to stay the course." This foundational experience underscores a core tenet of successful entrepreneurship: the ability to learn from setbacks and maintain commitment when faced with adversity.
Following this initial learning curve, Moradi’s subsequent ventures achieved remarkable success. One company experienced rapid growth and was acquired by a Fortune 100 enterprise, demonstrating his capacity for building high-value businesses. Later, a San Francisco Bay Area startup he co-founded also secured an acquisition, but not before confronting a near-failure scenario after an $18 million Series B financing round. This particular experience proved pivotal, revealing a critical insight into the relationship between capital and growth: "A high valuation and a full bank account will happily let you scale the wrong thing." This realization highlighted that while capital can accelerate a company’s trajectory, speed without strategic direction and market readiness can be detrimental. It taught Moradi the importance of pairing entrepreneurial optimism with rigorous evidence, disciplined execution, and a clear understanding of the next crucial milestones a company must achieve.
This rich tapestry of entrepreneurial experiences, encompassing both the exhilaration of success and the stark realities of failure, directly informs Moradi’s current mission. He aims to infuse the Midcontinent with the same innovative "spark" often associated with Silicon Valley, but with a nuanced understanding of capital deployment. At Cortado Ventures, the focus extends beyond mere investment; it delves into the "sequence and timing of capital," ensuring that financing strategically supports founders in testing assumptions, mitigating risks, and reaching meaningful, validated milestones, rather than encouraging premature or misdirected scaling.
Cortado Ventures: Building for Founders, By Founders
The genesis of Cortado Ventures in 2020 was a direct response to Moradi’s and his co-founders’ collective experiences as entrepreneurs. The team, comprising seasoned founders, CEOs, and operators, set out to create the kind of venture firm they wished had existed during their own company-building journeys. This vision centered on a firm that not only understood the intricate decisions founders face but could also contribute substantially beyond the initial capital injection. Their operational background allows them to empathize with the challenges of product-market fit, team building, and strategic pivots, offering guidance rooted in practical experience rather than purely theoretical advice.
Cortado’s investment thesis is elegantly simple yet powerfully strategic: the founders best equipped to drive transformation in critical industries are often those who have spent years immersed within them. This "insider" advantage grants them unparalleled credibility with potential customers, deep insight into implementation hurdles, and a nuanced understanding of industry mechanics that is difficult to acquire from an external vantage point. By connecting these experienced founders with essential capital, customer networks, and a broader ecosystem of support, Cortado is actively expanding the geographic footprint of American innovation, demonstrating that groundbreaking ideas are not confined to a few established tech hubs.
The Midcontinent’s Untapped Potential: A Competitive Edge
The U.S. Midcontinent region, often overlooked in the national venture capital narrative, represents a significant strategic advantage for Cortado Ventures. This vast geographical expanse is home to many of the nation’s most foundational industries, including energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, mobility, and logistics. These sectors are currently undergoing immense pressure to evolve and innovate, operating within complex physical environments, established supply chains, and demanding customer relationships. True transformation in these areas, Cortado recognizes, necessitates more than just a compelling software application; it requires a profound, granular understanding of how these industries fundamentally operate.
Cortado actively seeks out technical founders who possess this deep industry knowledge—individuals who may have spent years within hospitals, factories, laboratories, energy companies, aerospace programs, or logistics networks before identifying a persistent problem and conceiving an innovative solution. Their lived experience provides an invaluable edge, offering unique insights into the nuances of these sectors that external innovators might struggle to grasp.
Beyond human capital, the Midcontinent itself offers a compelling investment advantage. The region provides close proximity to critical industries and a vast potential customer base, a technically skilled workforce often cultivated through regional universities and vocational programs, robust research institutions, and complementary public funding initiatives. Crucially, the cost of company building in the Midcontinent is significantly lower than in traditional tech epicenters, allowing startups to stretch their capital further and focus more resources on product development and market penetration. This economic efficiency can be a decisive factor for early-stage companies striving to achieve meaningful milestones on limited budgets.
Cortado’s diverse portfolio vividly reflects the breadth of innovation emerging from this environment. The firm’s investments span a wide array of cutting-edge technologies, from space communications and industrial safety to critical infrastructure cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and mobility solutions. This strategic focus is not merely an act of regional patronage. It is built on the firm conviction that proximity to "hard problems" — the complex, deeply embedded challenges within established industries — inherently produces differentiated companies capable of generating strong returns for investors. As Moradi succinctly states, "Talent is not concentrated anywhere in particular. Capital and networks have just been slower to distribute than talent has." This philosophy underscores Cortado’s belief that expanding the geographic reach of venture capital is not just about finding more founders, but about uncovering entirely new sources of insight and innovation that traditional, centralized networks may have historically overlooked.
Capital as a Catalyst, Not a Panacea: Building an Ecosystem
When Cortado Ventures first launched, Mike Moradi, like many early-stage ecosystem builders, initially perceived the primary constraint facing a nascent venture environment as a sheer shortage of capital. The firm’s early successes in identifying and funding promising companies in the region indeed helped to validate this initial hypothesis. However, as Cortado matured and its understanding of the regional ecosystem deepened, Moradi’s perspective on what founders truly needed became significantly more expansive. He articulated this evolution with candid clarity: "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."
This realization underscored a fundamental truth about startup ecosystems: money alone cannot create a thriving innovation hub. Founders require a multifaceted support system that extends far beyond a check. This includes access to experienced operators who can guide them in avoiding common, preventable mistakes; customers willing to take a chance on unproven, innovative technologies; investors prepared to offer sustained support between critical milestones; and a vibrant community where vital relationships can naturally form and flourish. As Moradi observed, "Money can accelerate a company. It cannot stand in for experience."
This expansive view profoundly shaped Cortado’s broader role within the Midcontinent ecosystem. The firm actively works to connect a diverse array of stakeholders: founders, funders, universities, corporations, policymakers, and technical experts. Crucially, these relationships are not reserved exclusively for Cortado’s portfolio companies but are fostered across the entire regional innovation community. A prime example of this commitment is Cortado’s annual Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit, which convenes investors, limited partners, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the country, facilitating invaluable networking and knowledge exchange. Furthermore, Cortado collaborates closely with regional entrepreneurship organizations and The Verge, an Oklahoma City-based incubator and accelerator that provides essential company-building resources, programming, and vital capital connections.
Each of these interactions, whether a formal summit or an informal connection, has the potential to help a founder secure a new customer, gain an adviser, recruit a key employee, find a collaborator, or attract an additional investor. Collectively, these relationships gradually build the essential infrastructure that enables more companies to successfully launch, grow, and scale within the region. For Moradi, this is where venture capital’s impact truly extends beyond a single investment. A stronger, more interconnected ecosystem provides a viable pathway for a greater number of entrepreneurs to realize their visions, simultaneously creating more opportunities for capital, talent, and innovation to converge and thrive.
Investment Philosophy: Conviction Without False Certainty
Investing in early-stage companies inherently involves operating with imperfect information. Moradi encapsulates this reality with characteristic directness: "Incomplete data is my job description." Rather than attempting the impossible task of eliminating uncertainty, Cortado’s investment philosophy centers on a disciplined approach to managing it. Moradi distinguishes between assumptions that can be tested immediately and those that will only resolve over time. His process involves meticulously identifying the critical conditions that must be true for an investment to succeed, rigorously considering how these conditions could be proven false, and carefully evaluating the cost of reaching the next meaningful milestone.
Cortado’s strongest convictions typically revolve around the founding team’s capabilities, the clarity and urgency of the customer problem being addressed, and the company’s demonstrated rate of progress. Conversely, Moradi approaches predictions regarding the precise timing of an emerging market or the exact path a company might eventually take to an exit with a healthy degree of caution. This discipline becomes particularly vital when a financing round is moving at an accelerated pace. The combination of a compelling founder and a competitive investment process can generate significant pressure to make a swift decision, potentially before central investment assumptions have been adequately tested. Moradi warns against this trap: "A hard deadline is exactly when people stop asking uncomfortable questions."
When necessary, Cortado will deliberately slow down the investment process, bringing in independent scientific or technical experts for deeper evaluation. This additional diligence serves a dual purpose: it can either strengthen the firm’s conviction in the investment or, equally importantly, reveal a fundamental reason to step away. Many of Cortado’s most robust founder relationships have begun with this level of intense scrutiny, as it sharpens thinking, identifies potential risks early, and allows time to address them proactively. Crucially, slowing down the decision-making process does not equate to slowing down the subsequent response or support for the company.
Moradi applies a similar discipline to valuation. He firmly believes that "A sensible entry price is a form of protection for the founder, employees, and investors alike." 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 number, the consequences can be severe. These can impact founder ownership, dilute employee equity, constrain future fundraising options, and ultimately hinder the company’s agility and ability to adapt. This dynamic, Moradi notes, "cuts both ways, as 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 a reflection of a lack of belief in a founder’s ambition; rather, it is a strategic approach designed to provide an ambitious company with the flexibility, time, and financial runway necessary to navigate challenges and ultimately succeed.
Beyond the Check: Showing Up With Work Already Done
The operational experience embedded within Cortado’s team is a cornerstone of its founder support model. Having built, scaled, and successfully exited companies across many of the industries in which the firm now invests, the team offers guidance rooted in practical, firsthand knowledge. This experience is particularly invaluable when plans inevitably shift or difficult decisions emerge. Moradi distills the essence of meaningful support into two critical qualities: "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 hands-on approach can manifest in various ways: rebuilding a financial model, making a crucial customer introduction, assisting in recruiting a senior executive, or taking responsibility for navigating a challenging board conversation. It also means having the courage to deliver uncomfortable truths when a company’s runway is shortening or its strategic direction requires a significant pivot. Moradi vividly recalls being the founder in such meetings, noting, "What helped was someone who lowered the temperature, told the truth to me and the board, and followed up after the meeting." This empathy, born from shared experience, allows Cortado to provide support that is both candid and constructive.
As Cortado and the surrounding ecosystem have matured, the firm’s founder support mechanisms have become increasingly sophisticated. Portfolio companies can now leverage a vast network comprising operating executives, industry specialists, advisers, prospective customers, coaches, fellow investors, and other founders. The needs of founders in the Midcontinent have also evolved. While capital scarcity once made Cortado’s investment and ability to attract additional investors particularly valuable, today, founders also increasingly seek customer access, senior talent acquisition, technical expertise, and, crucially, individuals willing to offer honest and actionable guidance. The firm’s role, however, is not to usurp control from the entrepreneur. Moradi acknowledges that sometimes, the most valuable contribution an investor can make is knowing precisely "when not to intervene." He states, "Other times, being helpful means staying out of the way." This nuanced understanding of when to lead and when to empower is a hallmark of Cortado’s founder-centric approach.
Building What Outlasts a Fund: A Legacy of Ecosystem Development
Mike Moradi holds a profound belief that a venture firm’s responsibility extends beyond the confines of its own portfolio. He articulates this vision as a commitment to "build things that outlast a single fund." For Cortado Ventures, this translates into a dedicated effort to strengthen the foundational connections among founders, funders, universities, corporations, and policymakers across the Midcontinent. It also encompasses actively fostering the formation and growth of more investment firms within the region, a strategy that runs counter to conventional competitive thinking. Moradi emphasizes, "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 yields significant benefits for all stakeholders. It provides founders with a broader array of potential capital sources and expertise, increases opportunities for investors to collaborate and participate in promising companies, and, over time, establishes a more durable pathway between regional innovation and national capital markets. This ecosystem-building imperative, however, does not diminish a firm’s fundamental responsibility to its limited partners. Moradi’s experience as a trustee and audit committee member for a state retirement system has profoundly reinforced the critical importance of being direct and transparent about investment risk, duration, and potential losses. He asserts, "Ecosystem building matters, and it does not excuse any of us from being disciplined fiduciaries first." This dual commitment to both regional development and rigorous fiduciary duty defines Cortado’s approach.
Moradi also recognizes the NVCA as an indispensable part of the connective infrastructure that supports venture firms and founders nationwide. Policy issues such as capital formation, research commercialization, immigration policies, government procurement, tax treatment, and securities rules are not abstract concepts. They directly influence the ability of an emerging manager to raise a fund, a startup to attract top 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. Furthermore, Cortado’s active participation in the NVCA provides a vital platform to inject a Midcontinent perspective into national dialogues concerning innovation, capital formation, and the future trajectory of the venture industry, ensuring that diverse regional voices are heard.
Expanding the Map of American Innovation
Mike Moradi hopes that the narrative of Cortado Ventures can significantly broaden the public’s understanding of the true breadth and diversity of American venture capital. While the industry’s largest, most visible firms often garner the greatest attention, the vast majority of venture activity is undertaken by smaller, specialized investors. These firms write early checks into niche industries, specific technologies, underserved communities, and particular 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 absolutely essential role in the innovation ecosystem. They are adept at identifying founders before their markets become obvious, skillfully connecting specialized knowledge with necessary capital, and providing crucial support to companies navigating the arduous period between a promising idea and a sustainable business. "The hardest work happens after the money moves," Moradi emphasizes, highlighting the intensive, hands-on engagement required to nurture nascent ventures.
The current technological epoch, characterized by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, advanced manufacturing, energy innovation, biology, and space technology, is further amplifying the significance of this work. These technologies are dramatically reducing the cost and barriers to attempting ambitious ideas, enabling small, agile teams to pursue opportunities that once demanded the vast resources of large corporations or national programs. Many of these groundbreaking teams, Moradi predicts, will emerge in locations intimately connected to the complex problems they are working to solve.
This decentralization of innovation and investment represents the broader, transformative impact of expanding venture capital across America. When investors consciously look beyond familiar networks and actively seek out founders where critical industries operate, they facilitate a cascade of positive outcomes: more innovative ideas evolve into viable companies, more groundbreaking technologies reach the market, and more communities actively participate in, and benefit from, the nation’s dynamic innovation economy. For Mike Moradi, the ultimate source of optimism remains the founders themselves—those intrepid individuals who dare to attempt what others deem impossible. His closing sentiment encapsulates the profound human element at the heart of venture capital: "Never forget that we’re here for them. When we do this right, everyone, including humanity, wins." Cortado Ventures, with its distinctive vision and unwavering commitment, stands as a powerful testament to this expanding and enriching future of American innovation.
