The venture capital landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, moving beyond traditional coastal hubs to uncover innovation in previously overlooked regions. At the forefront of this shift is Mike Moradi, co-founder and General Partner of Cortado Ventures, an Oklahoma City-based firm making strategic investments in seed-stage frontier technology companies across the U.S. Midcontinent. Through its participation in the NVCA’s "Meet a VC" series, Cortado Ventures offers a compelling narrative of how deep industry experience, coupled with a commitment to regional ecosystem building, can unlock significant value and redefine the geography of American innovation.
A Founder’s Journey to Venture Capital
Mike Moradi’s path to venture capital is deeply rooted in firsthand entrepreneurial experience, offering him a unique vantage point from which to assess and support founders. A six-time founder himself, Moradi navigated the complex and often unforgiving world of company building across diverse and technically intricate sectors, including biopharmaceuticals and nanotechnology. His entrepreneurial odyssey began unconventionally, leaving dental school to launch his first venture. This initial endeavor, though ultimately unsuccessful, instilled in him an invaluable lesson: the critical importance of resilience and unwavering commitment 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 on that foundational experience.
His subsequent ventures showcased a remarkable trajectory. A second company experienced rapid growth, culminating in its acquisition by a Fortune 100 enterprise, demonstrating his capacity for successful scaling. However, it was a later San Francisco Bay Area venture that provided another pivotal learning moment. Despite securing an $18 million Series B financing round, the company teetered on the brink of failure before ultimately being acquired. This experience revealed a crucial insight: while capital can accelerate growth, speed without direction can be detrimental. "A high valuation and a full bank account will happily let you scale the wrong thing," Moradi notes, highlighting the dangers of premature or misdirected expansion. This period reinforced his belief in pairing entrepreneurial optimism with rigorous evidence, disciplined execution, and a clear understanding of the next verifiable milestones a company must achieve. These hard-won lessons directly inform Cortado’s investment philosophy today, emphasizing the strategic sequencing and timing of capital deployment to help founders test assumptions, mitigate risks, and achieve meaningful progress without outrunning their proven capabilities.
The Midcontinent Advantage: Unlocking Untapped Potential
Cortado Ventures’ core thesis is predicated on the belief that the Midcontinent region possesses an inherent competitive advantage for developing frontier technology. This expansive area, encompassing states like Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri, is home to a robust concentration of critical industries ripe for technological transformation. Sectors such as energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, mobility, and logistics operate within complex physical environments, entrenched supply chains, and demanding customer relationships. Innovating in these fields requires more than just a brilliant software solution; it demands a profound, insider’s understanding of how these industries truly function.
Cortado actively seeks out experienced technical founders who possess this deep domain expertise. These are individuals who may have spent years working within a hospital, a factory, a research laboratory, an energy company, an aerospace program, or a logistics network. Their intimate familiarity with operational challenges and market needs allows them to identify persistent problems and devise solutions that are not only technologically advanced but also practically implementable. This insider perspective provides them with invaluable credibility among potential customers, unique insights into implementation hurdles, and a knowledge base that would be exceptionally difficult for outsiders to cultivate.
The geographic location itself amplifies this investment advantage. The Midcontinent offers unparalleled proximity to these critical industries and their potential customers, fostering shorter feedback loops and more efficient market validation. Furthermore, the region boasts a technically skilled workforce, often trained through strong local research institutions and universities. Complementary public funding initiatives and significantly lower company-building costs compared to traditional tech hubs further enhance the appeal for startups. This combination of factors creates a fertile ground for innovation, allowing companies to stretch their capital further and focus resources on product development and market penetration.
Cortado’s diverse portfolio stands as a testament to the breadth of innovation emerging from this environment, with investments spanning space communications, industrial safety, critical infrastructure cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and mobility. The firm’s strategy is not merely to invest in the Midcontinent because it has historically attracted less venture capital. Rather, it is built on a strong conviction that proximity to "hard problems" — complex, real-world industrial challenges — inherently produces differentiated companies capable of generating strong returns. As Moradi aptly puts it, "Talent is not concentrated anywhere in particular. Capital and networks have just been slower to distribute than talent has." This philosophy underscores a broader national trend: the decentralization of innovation, driven by lower operational costs, improved connectivity, and a growing recognition that valuable insights often originate closest to the challenges they seek to solve.
Beyond Capital: Cultivating a Thriving Ecosystem
When Cortado Ventures launched in 2020, Moradi initially believed that the primary constraint facing the nascent venture ecosystem in the Midcontinent was a simple shortage of capital. The firm quickly proved that promising companies could indeed be identified and funded within the region. However, as Cortado matured and its understanding of the entrepreneurial journey deepened, Moradi’s perspective on what founders truly needed became 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 critical evolution in his strategic thinking.
Founders, particularly in emerging ecosystems, require far more than just financial investment. They need experienced operators who can provide guidance and help them sidestep common, preventable mistakes. They need customers willing to take a chance on unproven, yet promising, technologies. They need a network of investors prepared to offer sustained support between major milestones. Crucially, they need a vibrant community where vital relationships can naturally form and flourish. "Money can accelerate a company," Moradi stated, "It cannot stand in for experience."
This realization profoundly shaped Cortado’s role within the broader Midcontinent ecosystem. The firm has actively positioned itself as a central connector, working to weave together a diverse fabric of founders, funders, universities, corporations, policymakers, and technical experts. Unlike firms that might reserve such relationships exclusively for their portfolio companies, Cortado embraces a more expansive, collaborative approach. This commitment is exemplified by initiatives such as its annual Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit, which convenes investors, limited partners, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the country to foster dialogue and partnership. Cortado also collaborates closely with regional entrepreneurship organizations and The Verge, an Oklahoma City-based incubator and accelerator that provides crucial company-building resources, programming, and capital connections. Each interaction, whether at a summit or through an accelerator program, has the potential to help a founder discover a new customer, secure an invaluable advisor, recruit a key employee, find a strategic collaborator, or attract additional investment. Collectively, these relationships construct the essential infrastructure that enables more companies to successfully launch, scale, and thrive within the region. For Moradi, this ecosystem-building approach represents where venture capital’s true impact begins to extend far beyond the confines of a single investment. A stronger, more interconnected ecosystem offers a more viable and robust pathway for a greater number of entrepreneurs, simultaneously creating increased opportunities for capital, talent, and innovation to converge.
Disciplined Investing in an Uncertain World
Investing in early-stage companies inherently involves navigating a landscape characterized by imperfect information. Moradi candidly acknowledges this reality, stating, "Incomplete data is my job description." Rather than attempting to eliminate uncertainty – an impossible task in early-stage venture – his approach focuses on strategic management of unknowns. He systematically separates assumptions that can be immediately tested and validated from those that will only resolve over a longer timeframe. He rigorously identifies the critical conditions that must be true for a venture to succeed, then proactively considers how those conditions could be disproven, and meticulously evaluates the cost associated with reaching the next meaningful milestone.
Moradi’s strongest convictions typically center on the founding team’s capabilities, the authenticity and scale of the customer problem being addressed, and the company’s demonstrated rate of progress. He exercises greater caution when it comes to predicting the precise timing of an emerging market or dictating the exact path a company may eventually take to an exit. This discipline becomes particularly vital when a financing round is moving quickly, as the allure of a compelling founder and a competitive process can generate significant pressure to rush a decision before central investment assumptions have been thoroughly vetted. "A hard deadline is exactly when people stop asking uncomfortable questions," Moradi warns, highlighting a common pitfall in high-pressure investment scenarios.
When necessary, Cortado is prepared to deliberately slow down the investment process, bringing in independent scientific or technical experts to conduct additional diligence. This meticulous evaluation process can either significantly strengthen the firm’s conviction in a company or, critically, reveal a fundamental reason to step away from the investment. Paradoxically, some of Cortado’s most robust founder relationships have begun with this intense scrutiny, as it sharpens strategic thinking and identifies potential risks while there is still ample time to address them proactively. However, slowing the decision-making process does not equate to slowing the response time to founders once a decision is made.
Moradi applies the same rigorous discipline to valuation. He views a sensible entry price not as a concession, but as a crucial form of protection for the founder, employees, and investors alike. While an aggressive valuation might feel like an immediate victory, if the company’s subsequent progress fails to meet the elevated expectations tied to that number, the consequences can be far-reaching. Such discrepancies can negatively impact founder ownership, dilute employee equity, constrain future fundraising options, and hinder the company’s ability to adapt to unforeseen market changes. This dynamic, Moradi stresses, cuts both ways, as excessively low valuations can equally stifle a company’s growth and ambition. The key, he asserts, is finding a balance. "The right number buys you options for years. In boom times, people forget that financial crises happen," Moradi cautions, underscoring the importance of long-term financial prudence. For Cortado, this discipline is not an indication of a lack of belief in a founder’s ambition; rather, it is a strategic method to endow an ambitious company with the flexibility and time it needs to truly succeed.
Operational Empathy: Support That Delivers
The Cortado Ventures team differentiates itself through its extensive operating experience, having collectively built, scaled, and successfully exited companies across many of the very industries in which the firm now invests. This deep, practical knowledge profoundly shapes how Cortado supports its founders, particularly when unforeseen challenges arise, plans shift, or difficult decisions become inevitable. Moradi distills the essence of meaningful support into two crucial elements: "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 commitment to active, hands-on engagement translates into tangible assistance. It might involve rebuilding a complex financial model from scratch, leveraging their network to make a critical customer introduction, actively recruiting a senior executive, or taking responsibility for navigating a challenging part of a board conversation. It also encompasses the difficult but necessary task of delivering uncomfortable truths when a company’s runway is shortening or its strategic direction needs a drastic pivot. Moradi, having been the founder in those very meetings, vividly recalls the kind of support that truly made a difference. "What helped was someone who lowered the temperature, told the truth to me and the board, and followed up after the meeting."
Cortado’s founder support mechanisms have become increasingly sophisticated as both the firm and the surrounding Midcontinent ecosystem have matured. Portfolio companies now benefit from a comprehensive network that includes operating executives, industry specialists, expert advisors, prospective customers, dedicated coaches, fellow investors, and a community of other founders. The needs of founders in the region have also evolved. While capital scarcity once made Cortado’s investment and ability to attract additional investors particularly valuable, today’s founders increasingly seek customer access, senior talent acquisition, specialized technical expertise, and, perhaps most importantly, individuals willing to offer candid and honest guidance. The firm’s role is not to usurp control from the entrepreneur; in fact, sometimes the most valuable contribution an investor can make is recognizing when not to intervene. "Other times," Moradi concludes, "being helpful means staying out of the way."
Building a Legacy Beyond Fund Cycles
Moradi articulates a profound belief that a venture firm’s responsibility extends far beyond the performance of its own portfolio. "We must build things that outlast a single fund," he asserts, outlining a vision that prioritizes enduring ecosystem development over short-term gains. For Cortado, this translates into a relentless effort to strengthen the foundational connections among founders, funders, universities, corporations, and policymakers across the Midcontinent. It also means actively fostering the formation and growth of more investment firms within the region, rather than viewing them as competitors. "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 numerous benefits. It provides founders with a broader array of potential capital sources and expertise, increases opportunities for investors to collaborate on promising companies, and, over time, establishes a more durable pathway between regional innovation and national capital markets. This ecosystem-building ambition, however, does not diminish a firm’s primary 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 deep appreciation for the importance of 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 states, drawing a clear line between aspirational impact and core financial accountability.
Moradi also recognizes the critical role played by organizations like the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) as a vital piece of the connective infrastructure supporting firms and founders nationwide. Issues such as capital formation policies, research commercialization pathways, immigration regulations, government procurement practices, tax treatment, and securities rules are not abstract policy debates; 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 need it most. "NVCA helps each of us make policy concrete and stay on top of the issues that matter in D.C. and beyond," Moradi highlights. Furthermore, Cortado’s active participation in the NVCA provides a crucial platform to infuse a Midcontinent perspective into national conversations about innovation, capital formation, and the future trajectory of the venture industry.
Expanding the Innovation Map of America
Moradi hopes that the story of Cortado Ventures can help broaden the public perception of American venture capital, moving beyond the often-caricatured image of a few monolithic firms. While the industry’s largest players may command the most attention, a significant portion of venture capital comprises smaller, highly specialized investors writing early 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 typical venture capital journey.
These specialized firms play an indispensable role in the innovation economy. They are adept at identifying promising founders before their markets become obvious, connecting highly specialized knowledge with crucial capital, and guiding companies through the arduous period between a nascent idea and a sustainable business. "The hardest work happens after the money moves," Moradi emphasizes, highlighting the intensive, hands-on support required for early-stage success.
The advent of new technologies further amplifies the significance of this work. Advances in artificial intelligence, automation, advanced manufacturing techniques, energy innovation, biotechnology, and space technology are dramatically reducing the cost and complexity of pursuing ambitious ideas. This paradigm shift means that small, agile teams can now tackle opportunities that once demanded the vast resources of large corporations or extensive national programs. Critically, many of these transformative teams will emerge in places intimately connected to the problems they are striving to solve, not solely in established tech enclaves.
This decentralization of venture capital across America carries profound broader implications. When investors look beyond familiar networks and actively seek out founders where critical industries operate, they not only help more innovative ideas become viable companies but also ensure that more groundbreaking technologies reach the markets and institutions that desperately need them. This expanded reach ultimately enables more communities to actively participate in and benefit from the country’s dynamic innovation economy. For Mike Moradi, the founders who dare to attempt what others deem impossible remain the greatest source of optimism. "Never forget that we’re here for them. When we do this right, everyone, including humanity, wins." Cortado Ventures, as a proud member of the NVCA, exemplifies this forward-thinking approach, charting a course for a more inclusive and impactful future for venture capital.
