The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) continues its insightful "Meet a VC" series, shining a spotlight on key figures shaping the venture capital landscape beyond traditional hubs. This installment features Mike Moradi, co-founder and general partner of Cortado Ventures, an Oklahoma City-based firm making significant strides in investing in seed-stage frontier technology companies across the U.S. Midcontinent. Cortado Ventures’ distinct thesis is predicated on the belief that the most impactful founders, those poised to revolutionize critical industries, are often individuals who have garnered years of firsthand experience within those very sectors. By strategically aligning their deep operational knowledge with crucial capital, customer access, and an expansive support network, the firm is actively broadening the geographical footprint where American innovation can flourish, challenging long-held perceptions about where groundbreaking startups emerge.
The NVCA Spotlight: Unveiling Regional VC’s Growing Significance
The NVCA’s "Meet a VC" series serves as a vital platform to showcase the diverse individuals and philosophies driving the venture capital industry, particularly highlighting firms that are expanding the reach of innovation. In an era where technological advancements are increasingly democratized, the geographical concentration of venture capital has begun to shift, moving beyond established coastal strongholds. This decentralization is not merely a trend but a strategic imperative to tap into overlooked talent pools and address industry-specific challenges in regions historically underserved by venture funding. Cortado Ventures embodies this evolving landscape, positioning itself as a catalyst for growth in the Midcontinent by focusing on "frontier technology" – encompassing nascent, high-potential technologies often requiring significant R&D and long-term vision, from advanced manufacturing to sustainable energy solutions. The firm’s location in Oklahoma City, a burgeoning hub, underscores a broader national narrative of regional ecosystems gaining momentum, attracting both capital and talent with unique value propositions.
A Founder’s Journey: Forging Conviction Through Experiential Lessons
Mike Moradi’s path into venture capital is deeply rooted in his extensive and often challenging entrepreneurial experiences, illustrating a journey marked by both ambitious successes and formative failures. A six-time founder, Moradi navigated the complexities of launching and scaling companies across highly technical fields such as biopharmaceuticals and nanotechnology. His entrepreneurial odyssey commenced unconventionally when he departed dental school, driven by an innate desire to build. His inaugural venture, however, did not achieve success, providing a stark but invaluable lesson in resilience. This early setback, rather than diminishing his ambition, fortified his resolve, teaching him the critical importance of perseverance in the face of adversity and unwavering commitment when met with skepticism. "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 the foundational principle that would guide his subsequent endeavors.
Following this initial learning experience, Moradi’s subsequent company rapidly scaled and was successfully acquired by a Fortune 100 enterprise, marking a significant early triumph. Later, a venture launched in the competitive San Francisco Bay Area also achieved an acquisition, but not before confronting near-catastrophic failure post an $18 million Series B financing round. This particular experience delivered a different, equally profound lesson: while capital can indeed accelerate a company’s trajectory, such speed is only advantageous when the business is aligned with the correct strategic direction and genuinely prepared for scale. Moradi keenly observed, "A high valuation and a full bank account will happily let you scale the wrong thing," a realization that profoundly influenced his investment philosophy. This period underscored the necessity of pairing entrepreneurial optimism with rigorous evidence, disciplined execution, and a clear understanding of the immediate, provable milestones a company must achieve. These cumulative experiences as a founder directly informed his vision for Cortado Ventures, which he co-founded in 2020 alongside a team of seasoned operators, CEOs, and fellow entrepreneurs. Their collective aim was to establish the kind of venture firm they themselves wished had existed during their own startup journeys—one that possessed a nuanced understanding of founders’ decisions and could offer contributions far exceeding a mere initial capital injection.
Cortado’s Core Thesis: Investing in Industry Insiders
Cortado Ventures’ investment thesis is meticulously crafted around the principle that unparalleled domain expertise is the most potent catalyst for transformative innovation, especially within established, critical industries. The firm actively seeks out founders who have spent considerable time working within sectors like energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, mobility, and logistics—industries that are not only foundational to the American economy but are also under immense pressure to evolve and innovate. These sectors operate within intricate physical environments, are constrained by deeply entrenched supply chains, and demand robust, long-term customer relationships. Consequently, effective transformation necessitates far more than a compelling software application; it requires an intrinsic, granular understanding of how the industry fundamentally operates, its pain points, and its latent opportunities.
Cortado’s strategy is to identify experienced technical founders who possess this invaluable institutional knowledge. These individuals might have dedicated years inside a hospital, factory, laboratory, energy company, aerospace program, or logistics network, witnessing firsthand persistent inefficiencies or untapped potential before conceiving a novel solution. Their deep-seated experience provides them with instant credibility among potential customers, crucial insights into the complexities of implementation, and a reservoir of knowledge that would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to cultivate from an external perspective. This "insider" advantage mitigates significant risks associated with market fit and adoption, allowing startups to build solutions that genuinely resonate with industry needs. This approach stands in contrast to the often generalized tech-centric investment strategies, highlighting a growing recognition within the venture capital community that specialized expertise is becoming a paramount differentiator, particularly in the burgeoning field of frontier technology.
The Midcontinent Advantage: A New Frontier for Innovation
The Midcontinent region, often historically overlooked by venture capitalists, presents a compelling competitive advantage for Cortado Ventures and its portfolio companies. This geography is home to a robust concentration of the very industries facing the most significant pressures for technological evolution. States within this region, such as Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, boast strong existing infrastructure and economic activity in sectors like oil and gas, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, and defense contracting. For instance, Oklahoma is a major energy producer and is increasingly investing in aerospace research and development, while Kansas has a deep heritage in aviation manufacturing. This provides unique proximity to critical industries and potential enterprise customers, facilitating invaluable feedback loops and pilot programs for emerging technologies.
Beyond customer access, the Midcontinent offers a substantial pool of technically skilled labor, often cultivated through strong regional universities and vocational programs that cater directly to these industrial needs. Institutions like the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Tulsa are increasingly active in research commercialization, contributing to a vibrant intellectual ecosystem. Moreover, the region benefits from complementary public funding initiatives and state-backed programs designed to foster innovation and economic diversification. Crucially, company-building costs—including talent acquisition, real estate, and operational expenses—are significantly lower in the Midcontinent compared to coastal tech hubs. This economic efficiency allows seed-stage companies to extend their runway, iterate more effectively, and achieve meaningful milestones with less capital burn.
Cortado’s portfolio vividly demonstrates the breadth of innovation emerging from this environment, spanning diverse applications of new technologies across space communications, industrial safety, critical infrastructure cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and mobility. This geographic strategy is not merely a philanthropic endeavor to fund underserved regions. Instead, it is firmly built on the conviction that direct proximity to "hard problems" — complex, real-world industrial challenges — inherently produces differentiated companies and, ultimately, superior returns. As Moradi eloquently states, "Talent is not concentrated anywhere in particular. Capital and networks have just been slower to distribute than talent has." This philosophy underscores a fundamental shift in venture capital, recognizing that innovative potential is ubiquitous and that strategic investment in regional ecosystems can unlock significant, previously untapped value.
Beyond Capital: Cultivating a Robust Ecosystem
When Cortado Ventures first commenced operations, Mike Moradi, like many early-stage ecosystem builders, initially perceived a scarcity of capital as the primary impediment to growth in a nascent venture environment. The firm quickly proved its hypothesis, successfully identifying and funding promising companies within the region. However, as Cortado matured and its understanding deepened, Moradi’s perspective on the comprehensive needs of founders became considerably more expansive. "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 observed, encapsulating a crucial realization.
This pivot in perspective underscored that founders require a multifaceted support system extending far beyond mere financial injections. They need experienced operators capable of guiding them around preventable pitfalls, early-adopter customers willing to pilot unproven technologies, patient investors prepared to bridge the gaps between milestones, and, critically, a vibrant community where essential relationships can organically form. As Moradi succinctly put it, "Money can accelerate a company. It cannot stand in for experience."
This profound insight directly shaped Cortado’s expansive role within the broader Midcontinent ecosystem. The firm proactively endeavors to connect founders with funders, universities, established corporations, policymakers, and technical experts, rather than exclusively reserving these vital relationships for its own portfolio companies. This collaborative approach is exemplified by initiatives such as Cortado’s annual Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit, which convenes investors, limited partners, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the nation to foster dialogue and partnership. Furthermore, Cortado actively collaborates with regional entrepreneurship organizations and The Verge, an Oklahoma City-based incubator and accelerator that provides crucial company-building resources, targeted programming, and vital capital connections. Each of these interactions serves as a potential conduit for a founder to secure a customer, find an adviser, recruit an employee, forge a collaboration, or attract an investor. Collectively, these efforts meticulously construct the intricate infrastructure necessary to enable a greater number of companies to both launch and successfully scale within the region. For Moradi, this ecosystem-building philosophy represents the point where venture capital’s impact transcends individual investments, creating a stronger regional foundation that offers more entrepreneurs a viable path to company formation while simultaneously increasing opportunities for capital, talent, and innovation to intersect and thrive.
Navigating Uncertainty: Diligence, Valuation, and Fiduciary Responsibility
In the dynamic and often opaque world of early-stage investing, perfect information is a rare commodity. Mike Moradi embraces this inherent ambiguity, stating candidly, "Incomplete data is my job description." Rather than futilely attempting to eliminate uncertainty, his approach is to systematically differentiate between assumptions that can be immediately tested and those that will only resolve over time. This disciplined framework involves identifying the precise conditions that must hold true for an investment to succeed, rigorously considering how these conditions might be disproven, and meticulously evaluating the capital cost required to achieve the next significant, measurable milestone.
Moradi’s strongest convictions typically coalesce around the founding team’s capabilities, the clarity and urgency of the customer problem being addressed, and the company’s demonstrable rate of progress. Conversely, he maintains a more cautious stance when it comes to predicting the exact timing of an emerging market or the precise path a company might ultimately take to an exit event. This disciplined approach becomes particularly critical during rapidly moving financing rounds. The allure of a compelling founder, coupled with a competitive investment process, can exert immense pressure to expedite a decision before core 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 in the rush.
When circumstances necessitate, Cortado is prepared to deliberately slow down the investment process, integrating independent scientific or technical experts into the evaluation. This additional layer of diligence serves a dual purpose: it can either fortify the firm’s conviction in the investment or, equally importantly, reveal compelling reasons to withdraw. Significantly, Cortado’s most robust founder relationships have often originated from this very scrutiny, as it sharpens strategic thinking and identifies potential risks while there remains ample opportunity to address them proactively. However, slowing down the decision-making process does not equate to a delayed response once a commitment is made.
Moradi applies an equally rigorous discipline to valuation. He champions a "sensible entry price" not as a concession, but as a fundamental form of protection for all stakeholders involved—the founder, employees, and investors alike. While an aggressively high valuation might initially feel like an immediate victory for a startup, if the company’s subsequent progress fails to meet the inflated expectations tied to that number, the repercussions can be severe. These consequences can negatively impact founder ownership, dilute employee equity, constrain future fundraising options, and ultimately diminish the company’s crucial ability to adapt and pivot. This balance is critical, as Moradi points out that excessive VC demands can also stifle a company’s potential. "The right number buys you options for years. In boom times, people forget that financial crises happen," Moradi cautions, reflecting on the cyclical nature of financial markets and the importance of building in resilience. For Cortado Ventures, this fiscal discipline is not indicative of a lack of belief in a founder’s ambition; rather, it is a strategic mechanism to afford ambitious companies the essential flexibility and extended timeframe required to ultimately achieve sustainable success.
The Art of Support: Speed, Specificity, and Strategic Non-Intervention
Cortado Ventures’ team brings a wealth of hands-on operating experience, having built, scaled, and successfully exited companies across many of the very industries in which the firm now invests. This profound operational background profoundly shapes their approach to supporting founders, particularly when unforeseen challenges arise or difficult strategic decisions loom. Moradi distills the essence of meaningful support into two critical attributes: "Speed and specificity." He advocates for rapid engagement, stating, "Answer in hours rather than days and show up with work already done instead of advice. Better yet, pick up the phone."
This commitment to proactive, tangible support can manifest in various forms: meticulously rebuilding a complex financial model, facilitating a crucial customer introduction, actively recruiting a senior executive, or taking ownership of a challenging segment of a board conversation. It also encompasses the courage to deliver difficult truths when a company’s runway is dwindling or its core strategy demands a fundamental shift. Moradi vividly recalls his own experiences as a founder in such high-stakes meetings, noting, "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 Midcontinent ecosystem have matured, the firm’s founder support mechanisms have become increasingly sophisticated. Portfolio companies now have access to a comprehensive network encompassing operating executives, industry specialists, expert advisers, prospective customers, dedicated coaches, fellow investors, and a peer group of other founders. This multi-layered support system addresses a broader spectrum of needs. While capital scarcity once made Cortado’s investment and ability to attract additional investors uniquely valuable, today’s founders increasingly seek customer access, senior talent acquisition, specialized technical expertise, and, perhaps most critically, candid, honest guidance. Crucially, the firm’s role is never to usurp control from the entrepreneur. Sometimes, the most valuable contribution an investor can make is discerning precisely when not to intervene. As Moradi acknowledges, "Other times, being helpful means staying out of the way." This nuanced understanding of founder dynamics underscores Cortado’s empathetic and effective partnership model.
Building for Longevity: Sustaining Innovation Beyond a Single Fund
Mike Moradi firmly believes that a venture firm’s responsibility extends beyond the immediate performance of its own portfolio companies. It encompasses a broader mandate to cultivate an enduring ecosystem that outlives the lifecycle of any single fund. "We must build things that outlast a single fund," he asserts, outlining Cortado’s strategic commitment to long-term regional development. For Cortado, this translates into actively strengthening the intricate web of connections among founders, funders, academic institutions, large corporations, and influential policymakers. It also means fostering an environment conducive to the formation and growth of other investment firms within the Midcontinent region.
Moradi explicitly rejects a zero-sum mentality, advocating instead for collaborative growth. "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 yields manifold benefits: it provides founders with a broader array of potential capital sources and expertise, creates more opportunities for investors to collaborate and participate in promising ventures, and, over time, establishes a more durable and efficient pathway between regional innovation and national capital markets.
This commitment to ecosystem building, however, does not diminish a firm’s fundamental responsibility to its limited partners. Moradi’s prior experience as a trustee and audit committee member for a state retirement system instilled in him a profound appreciation for transparency and directness regarding investment risk, duration, and potential losses. "Ecosystem building matters, and it does not excuse any of us from being disciplined fiduciaries first," he emphasizes, underscoring the critical balance between community development and stringent financial stewardship.
Moradi also views the 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 policies affecting talent, government procurement processes, 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 new technology can effectively 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 crucial conduit for bringing a Midcontinent perspective into national dialogues concerning innovation, capital formation, and the future trajectory of the venture industry.
Redrawing the Map: The Broader Impact of Decentralized Venture Capital
Mike Moradi hopes that the narrative of Cortado Ventures will 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 lion’s share of attention, the vast majority of venture activity is driven by smaller, specialized investors. These firms are typically writing early checks into niche areas, whether defined by industrial focus, geographic location, demographic segment, or other specific criteria. Moradi also highlights a crucial internal reality: "And a VC firm is also a startup until fund 3 or 4," acknowledging the inherent challenges and growth trajectory even within the venture capital world itself.
These specialized firms play an absolutely essential role in the innovation ecosystem. They are adept at identifying founders and promising technologies before their markets become obvious, skillfully connecting specialized knowledge with the necessary capital, and providing crucial guidance to companies navigating the arduous period between a nascent idea and a sustainable, thriving business. As Moradi aptly puts it, "The hardest work happens after the money moves."
The current technological landscape further amplifies the significance of this work. Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, advanced automation, sophisticated manufacturing techniques, novel energy innovations, cutting-edge biology, and space technology are dramatically reducing the cost and barriers to attempting ambitious ideas. This paradigm shift means that small, agile teams can now pursue opportunities that, just a few decades ago, would have demanded the immense resources of a large corporation or a national government program. Critically, many of these innovative teams are increasingly emerging in locations intimately connected to the complex problems they are striving to solve.
This decentralization represents the broader, transformative 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 a cascade of positive outcomes. More nascent ideas are successfully transformed into viable companies, a greater number of innovative technologies reach the market, and more communities actively participate and benefit from the country’s innovation economy. For Moradi, the unwavering optimism lies with the founders themselves—those intrepid 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 Cortado Ventures’ profound belief in the power of entrepreneurship to drive not just economic growth, but also societal progress. Cortado Ventures’ ongoing journey exemplifies a powerful model for the future of American innovation, demonstrating that talent and opportunity are indeed everywhere, awaiting the right blend of capital, expertise, and conviction.
