In a dynamic landscape where innovation is increasingly decentralized, Mike Moradi, co-founder and general partner of Cortado Ventures, stands as a prominent figure reshaping the venture capital narrative in the U.S. Midcontinent. Featured in the NVCA’s "Meet a VC" series, Cortado Ventures, an Oklahoma City-based firm, exemplifies a strategic approach to investing in seed-stage frontier technology companies, recognizing that the most transformative ideas often originate from those deeply embedded within critical industries. This approach not only seeks to generate robust financial returns but also aims to expand the geographical footprint of American innovation, demonstrating that talent and groundbreaking solutions are not confined to traditional coastal hubs.
Mike Moradi’s Entrepreneurial Odyssey: From Setback to Strategic Insight
Moradi’s journey into venture capital is deeply rooted in a rich tapestry of firsthand entrepreneurial experiences, marked by both formidable challenges and significant triumphs. A six-time founder across diverse and technically complex sectors such as biopharmaceuticals and nanotechnology, Moradi embarked on his first venture after making the unconventional decision to leave dental school. This initial foray into company building, however, met with failure, a formative experience that, rather than deterring him, instilled an unyielding resilience. This early setback taught him the critical importance of perseverance in the face of adversity, reinforcing his commitment to a path often questioned by others. "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, highlighting the foundational grit required for entrepreneurial success.
His subsequent ventures painted a more successful picture, including one company that achieved rapid growth and was ultimately acquired by a Fortune 100 enterprise. Another significant undertaking in the highly competitive San Francisco Bay Area also culminated in an acquisition, but only after navigating a perilous period post an $18 million Series B financing round that nearly led to its demise. This experience delivered a different, equally profound lesson: capital, while essential for acceleration, can be a double-edged sword. Speed, Moradi learned, is only advantageous when a business is fundamentally sound and progressing in the right direction, ready for sustainable scale. He observed, "A high valuation and a full bank account will happily let you scale the wrong thing." This insight underscored the necessity of pairing entrepreneurial optimism with rigorous evidence, disciplined execution, and a clear understanding of immediate, verifiable milestones. It cemented his conviction that financing should strategically enable founders to test assumptions, mitigate risk, and achieve demonstrable progress, rather than allowing a business to expand beyond what it has unequivocally proven. These hard-won lessons directly inform Cortado’s investment philosophy today, prioritizing methodical growth and robust validation over unchecked expansion.
Cortado Ventures: A New Paradigm for Frontier Tech Investment
Born from these deeply personal experiences, Cortado Ventures was co-founded by Moradi in 2020 alongside a cohort of seasoned founders, CEOs, and operators. Their collective aspiration was to establish the kind of venture capital firm they had yearned for during their own entrepreneurial careers: one that genuinely comprehended the intricate decisions founders confront and could offer value extending far beyond a mere financial injection. Cortado’s investment thesis is elegantly simple yet powerfully effective: the most impactful founders, particularly those poised to revolutionize critical industries, are often individuals who have dedicated years to working within those very sectors. By strategically connecting their invaluable experiential knowledge with vital capital, access to customers, and an expansive network of support, Cortado Ventures is actively nurturing and expanding the fertile ground where American innovation can firmly take root.
The firm’s focus on "frontier technology" encompasses a broad spectrum of deep tech and hard tech innovations, ranging from advanced manufacturing and biotechnology to novel energy solutions and space technology. These are sectors characterized by significant technical challenges, long development cycles, and often substantial capital requirements, but also by the potential for immense societal and economic impact. Cortado’s commitment to these areas reflects a belief that fundamental breakthroughs, not just incremental software improvements, are necessary to address some of humanity’s most pressing problems.
The Strategic Advantage of the Midcontinent
A cornerstone of Cortado’s strategy is its unwavering conviction in the U.S. Midcontinent as a strategic hub for innovation. This region is home to many of the nation’s foundational industries – energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, mobility, and logistics – all of which are under immense pressure to evolve and innovate. These sectors typically operate within complex physical environments, rely on established supply chains, and demand rigorous performance, making their transformation a challenge that goes beyond mere software applications. It necessitates a profound, nuanced understanding of their operational intricacies.
Cortado actively seeks out experienced technical founders who possess this intimate industry knowledge. These are often individuals who have spent years immersed in a hospital, factory floor, research laboratory, energy company, aerospace program, or logistics network, identifying persistent problems and conceiving innovative solutions from within. Their firsthand experience grants them unparalleled credibility with potential customers, invaluable insight into implementation hurdles, and a depth of knowledge that would be exceedingly difficult for outsiders to cultivate.
The geographical location itself confers a significant competitive advantage. The Midcontinent offers immediate proximity to these critical industries and their potential customers, a robust and technically skilled workforce, strong research institutions, complementary public funding initiatives, and significantly lower company-building costs compared to coastal tech hubs. While Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York have historically dominated venture capital activity, recent trends indicate a growing dispersion of funding. Data from organizations like PitchBook and NVCA reveal a steady increase in VC investment in emerging ecosystems, with regions like the Midcontinent attracting more attention due to their untapped potential and cost efficiencies. This shift is not merely about rebalancing historical disparities; it is, as Moradi asserts, "built on the conviction that proximity to hard problems can produce differentiated companies and strong returns." His philosophy challenges the notion that talent is geographically concentrated, arguing instead that "Talent is not concentrated anywhere in particular. Capital and networks have just been slower to distribute than talent has." This perspective drives Cortado’s mission to uncover and nurture sources of insight and innovation that traditional networks may have historically overlooked.
Cortado’s diverse portfolio vividly illustrates the breadth of innovation emerging from this environment, with companies applying cutting-edge technologies across space communications, industrial safety, critical infrastructure cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and mobility. This strategic focus ensures that Cortado is not merely participating in the Midcontinent’s growth but actively catalyzing it by backing ventures that promise to redefine these crucial sectors.
Beyond Capital: Cultivating a Thriving Ecosystem
When Cortado Ventures first launched, Moradi initially believed that the primary constraint stifling the growth of a nascent venture ecosystem was a simple scarcity of capital. The firm quickly demonstrated that promising companies could indeed be identified and funded within the region. However, as Cortado matured and its understanding deepened, Moradi’s perception of founders’ needs evolved dramatically, becoming far 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, highlighting a pivotal realization.
Founders, he recognized, require a multifaceted support system that extends well beyond mere financial investment. They need experienced operators who can provide guidance to help them circumvent preventable mistakes, early adopter customers willing to embrace unproven technologies, and a network of supportive investors prepared to bridge the gaps between critical milestones. Crucially, they also need a vibrant community where vital relationships can naturally form and flourish. Moradi emphatically states, "Money can accelerate a company. It cannot stand in for experience."
This profound realization profoundly shaped Cortado’s role within the broader Midcontinent ecosystem. Rather than reserving these invaluable relationships exclusively for its own portfolio companies, the firm actively works to connect founders, funders, leading universities, established corporations, influential policymakers, and technical experts across the entire region. This collaborative approach fosters a synergistic environment where knowledge, resources, and opportunities are widely shared.
A prime example of this commitment is Cortado’s annual Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit, an event that convenes investors, limited partners, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the nation, creating a powerful nexus for networking and collaboration. Furthermore, Cortado actively collaborates with regional entrepreneurship organizations and The Verge, an Oklahoma City-based incubator and accelerator that provides crucial company-building resources, specialized programming, and essential capital connections. Each of these interactions, whether a summit, a workshop, or an informal meeting, holds the potential to help a founder secure a critical customer, recruit a key adviser, hire a talented employee, find a valuable collaborator, or attract a crucial investor. Collectively, these relationships meticulously build the fundamental infrastructure necessary for more companies to successfully start, grow, and scale within the region. For Moradi, this is where the true impact of venture capital transcends individual investments, creating a stronger, more resilient ecosystem that offers more entrepreneurs a viable path to company formation and generates expanded opportunities for capital, talent, and innovation to connect.
The Art of Disciplined Investing: Moradi’s Philosophy
In the unpredictable world of early-stage investing, perfect information is a rare commodity. Moradi succinctly captures this reality, stating, "Incomplete data is my job description." Rather than attempting to eliminate uncertainty entirely, his approach is to systematically categorize assumptions: those that can be immediately tested are prioritized, while those that will only resolve over time are acknowledged and monitored. He meticulously identifies the fundamental conditions that must hold true for an investment to succeed, rigorously considers how these conditions could potentially 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 exercises greater caution when it comes to predicting the precise timing of an emerging market or the exact path a company might ultimately take to an exit. This disciplined methodology becomes particularly crucial during rapidly moving financing rounds. The combination of a compelling founder and a competitive process can generate intense pressure to make a swift decision before the central 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 under pressure.
When necessary, Cortado will deliberately slow down the investment process, bringing in independent scientific or technical experts to conduct additional, in-depth diligence. This extra scrutiny either strengthens the firm’s conviction in the investment or, conversely, reveals a compelling reason to step away. Moradi believes that Cortado’s most robust founder relationships often originate from this rigorous scrutiny, as it sharpens strategic thinking and identifies potential risks while there is still ample opportunity to address them. However, slowing down the decision-making process does not equate to slowing down the subsequent response once a commitment is made.
Moradi applies the same unwavering 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 initially feel like an immediate victory, if the company’s subsequent progress fails to meet the lofty expectations tied to that valuation, the consequences can be severe. These can include significant dilution of founder ownership, erosion of employee equity, constrained future fundraising options, and a diminished ability for the company to adapt to unforeseen market shifts. This is a nuanced balance; as Moradi notes, "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 mechanism designed to provide ambitious companies with the crucial flexibility and essential time they need to achieve sustainable success.
Active Partnership: More Than Just a Board Seat
The Cortado team’s collective experience in building, scaling, and successfully exiting companies across many of the industries in which they invest profoundly shapes their approach to supporting founders. This operating expertise is invaluable when plans inevitably shift or difficult decisions must be made. Moradi distills meaningful support into two core principles: "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: meticulously rebuilding a financial model, leveraging their network for a crucial customer introduction, assisting in the recruitment of a senior executive, or taking ownership of a challenging aspect of a board conversation. It also encompasses the difficult but necessary task of articulating uncomfortable truths when a company’s runway is dwindling or a fundamental shift in strategy is imperative. Moradi vividly recalls being the founder in such high-stakes 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 firm’s founder support has become increasingly sophisticated. Portfolio companies now have access to a rich network of operating executives, industry specialists, expert advisers, prospective customers, coaches, fellow investors, and other experienced founders within the firm’s extensive ecosystem. The evolving needs of founders in the region have also shaped this support. While early on, Cortado’s investment and its ability to attract additional investors were particularly valuable in a capital-scarce region, today, founders increasingly require customer access, senior talent acquisition, specialized technical expertise, and 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 recognizing precisely when not to intervene. "Other times," Moradi acknowledges, "being helpful means staying out of the way."
Building What Outlasts a Fund: A Vision for Enduring Impact
Moradi holds a profound belief that a venture firm’s responsibility extends far beyond the confines of its own portfolio. He articulates this vision succinctly: "We must build things that outlast a single fund." For Cortado, this translates into a relentless 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 more investment firms within the region, rather than viewing them as competitors. "This is not a zero-sum game," Moradi asserts. "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 numerous benefits. It provides founders with a broader array of potential capital sources and expertise, and it creates more opportunities for investors to collaborate and participate in promising companies. Over time, this collective effort can establish a more robust and durable pathway connecting regional innovation with national capital markets.
However, Moradi is quick to emphasize that ecosystem building does not in any way diminish a firm’s fundamental responsibility to its limited partners. Having served as a trustee and audit committee member for a state retirement system, he possesses a keen understanding of the critical importance of transparently communicating investment risk, duration, and potential losses. "Ecosystem building matters, and it does not excuse any of us from being disciplined fiduciaries first," he states, underscoring the dual imperative of fostering growth while maintaining rigorous financial stewardship.
Moradi also recognizes the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) as a vital component of the connective infrastructure that supports firms and founders across the entire country. Policy issues such as capital formation, research commercialization, immigration policies, government procurement, tax treatment, and securities regulations are far from abstract; they directly influence an emerging manager’s ability to raise a fund, a startup’s capacity to attract top 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 explains. Furthermore, Cortado’s active participation in the NVCA provides a crucial platform to infuse a Midcontinent perspective into national conversations surrounding innovation, capital formation, and the future trajectory of the venture industry.
Expanding the Map of American Innovation
Moradi hopes that the story of Cortado Ventures can illuminate the true breadth and diversity of American venture capital. While the industry’s largest, most high-profile firms often garner the lion’s share of attention, the vast majority of venture capital activity, he argues, involves smaller, specialized investors writing early-stage checks into niche markets – be they industrial, geographic, demographic, or otherwise. As Moradi puts it, "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 indispensable role in identifying founders before their markets become obvious, skillfully connecting specialized knowledge with critical capital, and guiding companies through the arduous period between a promising initial idea and the establishment of a sustainable business. "The hardest work happens after the money moves," Moradi emphasizes, highlighting the intensive, hands-on support required.
The advent of new technologies is making this work even more consequential. Advances in artificial intelligence, automation, advanced manufacturing, energy innovation, biotechnology, and space technology are dramatically lowering the cost and complexity of pursuing ambitious ideas. Consequently, small, agile teams can now undertake opportunities that once demanded the vast resources of large corporations or extensive national programs. Many of these innovative teams are emerging precisely in locations intimately connected to the problems they are striving to solve.
This decentralization of innovation, fueled by expanding venture capital across America, has profound implications. When investors actively look beyond familiar networks and engage with founders in regions where critical industries operate, they facilitate the transformation of more ideas into viable companies, enable more groundbreaking technologies to reach the market, and empower more communities to actively participate in the nation’s vibrant innovation economy. For Moradi, the unwavering optimism lies with the founders themselves – those audacious 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 profound impact of their mission. Cortado Ventures, as a proud member of the NVCA, stands as a testament to this expanding vision, actively charting a course for a more inclusive and resilient future for American innovation.
