In a concerted effort to spotlight the diverse landscape of the venture capital industry, the NVCA’s “Meet a VC” series recently featured Mike Moradi, co-founder and General Partner of Cortado Ventures. Based in Oklahoma City, Cortado Ventures is carving out a distinctive niche by investing in seed-stage frontier technology companies across the U.S. Midcontinent. The firm’s investment thesis is rooted in a profound conviction: that the most impactful founders, those poised to revolutionize critical industries, are often individuals who have dedicated years to working within those very sectors. By strategically connecting this invaluable, firsthand experience with essential capital, customer networks, and a broader ecosystem of support, Cortado Ventures is actively expanding the geographical footprint where American innovation can not only take root but flourish and scale. This approach challenges traditional venture capital paradigms, asserting that untapped potential and deep industry insight reside far beyond the conventional tech hubs.
A Founder’s Journey: Forging a Path to Venture Capital
Mike Moradi’s trajectory into venture capital is anything but conventional, shaped by a deeply personal understanding of the arduous and often uncertain path of company building. His entrepreneurial saga began when he departed dental school to launch his first venture, a move that culminated in failure. This initial setback, however, proved to be a crucible, instilling in him an unwavering resilience and a steadfast commitment to perseverance. As Moradi himself articulates, "The lesson was to keep pushing past every obstacle, to not be discouraged by hearing the word ‘no,’ and to stay the course.” This foundational experience underscored the importance of grit, a quality he now actively seeks in the founders Cortado supports.
Undeterred, Moradi’s subsequent ventures showcased a remarkable capacity for growth and strategic exits. One company rapidly scaled and was acquired by a Fortune 100 enterprise, a testament to his evolving business acumen. A later endeavor, based in the competitive San Francisco Bay Area, also achieved an acquisition, but only after navigating a treacherous period of near-collapse following an $18 million Series B financing round. This near-failure imparted another critical lesson: while capital can undeniably accelerate a company’s growth, speed itself is only advantageous when a business is moving in the correct strategic direction and possesses the underlying readiness to scale effectively. Moradi starkly observes, "A high valuation and a full bank account will happily let you scale the wrong thing.” This insight profoundly influences Cortado’s meticulous approach to investment, emphasizing disciplined capital deployment over unchecked acceleration.
Today, Moradi’s overarching mission extends beyond individual investments; it is about extending the entrepreneurial spark traditionally associated with Silicon Valley to the burgeoning Midcontinent region. His investment philosophy is meticulously calibrated, focusing as much on the sequencing and timing of capital infusions as on the intrinsic technological merit of a company. Financing, in Cortado’s view, should primarily serve to help founders rigorously test assumptions, mitigate inherent risks, and achieve tangible, meaningful milestones. Crucially, it should never enable a business to grow prematurely, ahead of what its proven market traction and operational readiness dictate. This balanced perspective, born from personal triumphs and tribulations, ensures that entrepreneurial optimism is tempered with robust evidence, strategic discipline, and a clear-eyed understanding of the next critical steps a company must validate.
In 2020, Moradi, alongside a cadre of experienced founders, CEOs, and operators, co-launched Cortado Ventures. Their collective ambition was to construct the very type of firm they had yearned for during their own entrepreneurial journeys: one that intimately understood the complex decisions founders confront daily and could offer substantial contributions extending far beyond merely the initial capital injection. This founder-centric ethos forms the bedrock of Cortado’s operational model, positioning them as true partners rather than mere financiers.
The Midcontinent Advantage: A New Epicenter for Innovation
Cortado Ventures’ strategic focus on the U.S. Midcontinent is not arbitrary; it is a calculated decision based on the region’s unique economic landscape and its pivotal role in numerous critical industries facing immense pressure to innovate and evolve. Sectors such as energy, aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, mobility, and logistics are predominantly characterized by complex physical environments, deeply entrenched supply chains, and demanding customer relationships. Transforming these industries necessitates far more than just a compelling software application; it requires an intrinsic, profound understanding of their operational mechanics.
Cortado actively seeks out experienced technical founders who possess this invaluable insider perspective. These are individuals who may have spent years immersed within a hospital, factory floor, research laboratory, energy conglomerate, advanced aerospace program, or sophisticated logistics network. Their deep engagement allows them to identify persistent problems and conceive innovative solutions that an outsider might easily overlook. This lived experience grants them unparalleled credibility with potential customers, provides crucial insights into the myriad challenges of implementation, and furnishes them with specialized knowledge that would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to cultivate from an external vantage point.
The geographic positioning of the Midcontinent itself is a significant component of Cortado’s investment advantage. The region offers unparalleled proximity to these critical industries and their potential customers, providing fertile ground for market validation and rapid deployment. Furthermore, the Midcontinent boasts a technically skilled workforce, often available at a more competitive cost than in traditional tech hubs. The presence of strong research institutions, coupled with access to complementary public funding initiatives, creates a robust ecosystem for technological development. Lower company-building costs further enhance the region’s appeal, allowing startups to stretch their capital further and achieve more with less.
Cortado’s diverse portfolio vividly reflects the breadth and depth of innovation emerging from this environment. Their portfolio companies are actively deploying cutting-edge technologies across a wide spectrum, including advanced space communications, industrial safety solutions, critical infrastructure cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing techniques, innovative healthcare delivery, sustainable energy technologies, and next-generation mobility platforms. This broad scope underscores the varied, high-impact problems being addressed by Midcontinent entrepreneurs.
The firm’s strategy is not predicated on the notion that Midcontinent founders deserve investment simply because they have historically attracted less venture capital. Instead, it is built upon a firm conviction that direct proximity to "hard problems"—the complex, systemic challenges facing foundational industries—can uniquely produce differentiated companies and generate superior financial returns. As Moradi succinctly puts it, “Talent is not concentrated anywhere in particular. Capital and networks have just been slower to distribute than talent has.” For Moradi, expanding the geographic reach of venture capital is not merely about discovering more founders; it is fundamentally about uncovering new sources of insight, innovation, and economic dynamism that traditional, concentrated networks may have historically overlooked. This expansion is crucial for a more equitable and robust national innovation economy.
Beyond Capital: Cultivating a Thriving Ecosystem
When Cortado Ventures first commenced its operations, Mike Moradi initially believed that the primary constraint impeding the growth of a nascent venture ecosystem in the Midcontinent was a fundamental shortage of capital. The firm quickly demonstrated its capacity to identify and fund promising companies within the region, validating its initial hypothesis regarding investment opportunities. However, as Cortado expanded its operations and deepened its engagement with the entrepreneurial community, Moradi’s understanding of what founders truly required evolved dramatically.
His updated perspective reveals a nuanced truth: “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 underscores a critical shift in understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystem building. Founders, he now recognizes, need a multifaceted support system that extends far beyond mere financial injections. This includes access to experienced operators who can guide them in avoiding preventable mistakes, pioneering customers willing to embrace and test unproven technologies, supportive investors prepared to sustain a company through the often-protracted periods between significant milestones, and, crucially, a vibrant community where vital relationships can naturally form and flourish. Moradi emphasizes, “Money can accelerate a company. It cannot stand in for experience.”
This profound realization has been instrumental in shaping Cortado’s expansive role within the broader Midcontinent ecosystem. The firm actively works to bridge connections among a diverse array of stakeholders: founders, fellow funders, academic institutions, large corporations, influential policymakers, and specialized technical experts. This collaborative approach ensures that these critical relationships are not exclusively reserved for Cortado’s own portfolio companies but are instead disseminated more broadly, fostering a healthier, more interconnected environment for all.
A cornerstone of these efforts is Cortado’s annual Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit, an event that convenes investors, limited partners, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the country. This summit serves as a vital nexus for networking, knowledge exchange, and deal flow generation, further solidifying the region’s position on the national venture capital map. Additionally, Cortado actively collaborates with regional entrepreneurship organizations and The Verge, a prominent Oklahoma City-based incubator and accelerator. The Verge provides a comprehensive suite of company-building resources, specialized programming, and crucial capital connections, creating a powerful synergy with Cortado’s investment activities.
Each interaction facilitated by Cortado and its partners has the potential to connect a founder with a vital customer, an invaluable adviser, a key employee, a strategic collaborator, or a future investor. Collectively, these relationships gradually construct the essential infrastructure that enables a greater number of companies to successfully launch, grow, and scale within the Midcontinent. For Moradi, this is where venture capital’s impact transcends the confines of a single investment, extending to the transformative power of ecosystem development. A stronger, more vibrant ecosystem provides a viable pathway for a greater number of entrepreneurs to realize their company formation goals, simultaneously creating expanded opportunities for capital, talent, and innovation to converge and interact dynamically.
Conviction Without False Certainty: A Disciplined Investment Philosophy
Early-stage venture investing is inherently characterized by significant uncertainty and incomplete information. Mike Moradi readily acknowledges this fundamental reality, stating, “Incomplete data is my job description.” Rather than futilely attempting to eliminate uncertainty, Cortado Ventures employs a disciplined approach centered on discerning which assumptions can be immediately tested and which will only resolve over a longer temporal horizon. The firm meticulously identifies the critical conditions that must hold true for an investment to succeed, rigorously considers how these conditions could be disproven, and carefully evaluates the cost associated with achieving the next meaningful milestone.
Cortado’s strongest conviction typically coalesces around three core pillars: the strength and vision of the founding team, the clarity and urgency of the customer problem being addressed, and the company’s demonstrated rate of progress. Conversely, Moradi adopts a more cautious stance when it comes to predicting the precise timing of an emerging market or foretelling the exact path a company might eventually take towards an exit. This judicious balance between conviction and caution is particularly crucial during rapidly moving financing rounds. The allure of a compelling founder, coupled with the competitive pressures of a swift fundraising process, can often create an environment where decisions are rushed before central investment assumptions have been thoroughly vetted.
Moradi cautions against this impulsive tendency, noting, “A hard deadline is exactly when people stop asking uncomfortable questions.” When circumstances demand it, Cortado is prepared to deliberately slow down the investment process, bringing in independent scientific or technical experts to bolster the diligence efforts. This additional scrutiny serves a dual purpose: it can either significantly strengthen the firm’s conviction in an investment or, conversely, reveal critical reasons to step away. Interestingly, Cortado’s most robust founder relationships have frequently originated from this very process of rigorous scrutiny, as it sharpens strategic thinking and identifies potential risks while there is still ample opportunity to proactively address them. However, slowing down the decision-making process does not equate to a sluggish response once a commitment is made.
Moradi applies a similar discipline to valuation, viewing a sensible entry price as a fundamental form of protection for all stakeholders involved – 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 align with the elevated expectations attached to that valuation, the repercussions can be severe. These consequences can adversely affect founder ownership, dilute employee equity, constrain future fundraising options, and ultimately impair the company’s crucial ability to adapt to unforeseen challenges. Moradi highlights the cyclical nature of markets: “The right number buys you options for years. In boom times, people forget that financial crises happen.” He further emphasizes that this discipline cuts both ways, acknowledging that VCs can also inadvertently "strangle the life out of a company" through overly aggressive terms. The key, he asserts, lies in finding a balanced, sustainable approach. 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 equip an ambitious company with the essential flexibility and extended runway it needs to ultimately achieve success.
Proactive Support: Showing Up With Work Already Done
The operational experience embedded within Cortado’s team is a defining characteristic, differentiating their approach to venture capital. Team members have successfully built, scaled, and exited companies across many of the same industries in which the firm now invests. This profound operating background fundamentally shapes how Cortado supports its founders, particularly when strategic plans inevitably shift or difficult, pivotal decisions emerge.
Moradi distills the essence of meaningful support into two key attributes: “Speed and specificity.” He elaborates on this philosophy: “Answer in hours rather than days and show up with work already done instead of advice. Better yet, pick up the phone.” This pragmatic, hands-on approach translates into tangible actions. It might involve meticulously rebuilding a financial model to provide clarity, facilitating a crucial customer introduction to accelerate market entry, actively recruiting a senior executive to fill a critical leadership gap, or taking personal responsibility for navigating a particularly challenging aspect of a board conversation. Crucially, it also entails the willingness to articulate uncomfortable truths when a company’s runway is rapidly shortening or its foundational strategy demands a fundamental re-evaluation.
Moradi vividly recalls his own experiences as a founder in such high-stakes meetings, reflecting, “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, informs Cortado’s commitment to transparent, actionable guidance.
As Cortado Ventures and the surrounding Midcontinent ecosystem have matured, the firm’s founder support mechanisms have become increasingly sophisticated. Portfolio companies can now tap into a rich network comprising operating executives, industry specialists, expert advisers, prospective customers, seasoned coaches, fellow investors, and other founders within Cortado’s expansive network. This multi-layered support system provides a comprehensive safety net and a powerful accelerant for growth.
Concurrently, the needs of founders in the region have also evolved. In the earlier days, when capital was scarce, Cortado’s direct investment and its ability to attract additional investors into a funding round were particularly invaluable. Today, while capital remains important, founders increasingly seek customer access, senior talent acquisition support, specialized technical expertise, and candid, honest guidance from experienced mentors. Cortado’s role, however, is not to usurp control from the entrepreneur. In fact, sometimes the most valuable contribution an investor can make is precisely knowing when not to intervene. As Moradi wisely states, “Other times, being helpful means staying out of the way.” This nuanced understanding of founder dynamics underscores Cortado’s commitment to empowering entrepreneurs while providing judicious, impactful support.
Building What Outlasts a Fund: A Vision for Enduring Impact
Mike Moradi firmly believes that a venture firm’s responsibility extends far beyond the immediate confines of its own investment portfolio. His vision is encapsulated in the imperative: “We must build things that outlast a single fund.” For Cortado Ventures, this commitment manifests in a proactive dedication to strengthening the intricate web of connections among founders, funders, academic institutions, corporations, and policymakers across the Midcontinent. Furthermore, it explicitly includes fostering the formation and growth of more investment firms within the region, a testament to a collaborative, rather than competitive, mindset.
Moradi dismisses the notion of a zero-sum game, asserting, “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.” This expansive, inclusive philosophy recognizes that a larger, more interconnected investment community yields manifold benefits. It provides founders with a broader array of potential capital sources and specialized expertise. It creates increased opportunities for investors to collaborate on promising ventures, thereby diversifying risk and amplifying impact. Over time, this collective effort can establish a more robust and durable pathway between regional innovation and the broader national capital markets, ensuring that promising ideas in the Midcontinent receive the attention and resources they deserve.
While deeply committed to ecosystem building, Moradi also emphasizes that this vital work 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, Moradi’s experience reinforced the paramount importance of being direct and transparent about investment risk, expected duration, and potential losses. He underscores this duality: “Ecosystem building matters, and it does not excuse any of us from being disciplined fiduciaries first.” This balanced perspective highlights Cortado’s commitment to both regional development and rigorous financial stewardship.
Moradi also identifies the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) as a crucial component of the connective infrastructure that supports firms and founders nationwide. Policy issues such as capital formation, research commercialization, immigration policies, government procurement regulations, tax treatment, and securities rules are not abstract academic concepts. They have tangible, direct impacts on the ground, influencing whether an emerging manager can successfully raise a fund, whether a startup can attract essential talent, and whether a groundbreaking 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 explains. Furthermore, Cortado’s active participation in NVCA provides a vital platform to inject a Midcontinent perspective into national conversations concerning innovation, capital formation, and the future trajectory of the broader venture industry.
Expanding the Map of American Innovation: A Broader Horizon
Mike Moradi hopes that the story of Cortado Ventures can contribute to a richer, more nuanced understanding of the vast breadth and diversity of American venture capital. While the industry’s largest and most prominent firms frequently capture the lion’s share of media attention, a significant portion of venture capital activity is driven by smaller, specialized investors. These firms are typically engaged in writing early-stage checks into highly specialized industries, emerging technologies, distinct communities, and specific geographic regions. Moradi notes, “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 smaller, specialized firms play an absolutely essential role in the innovation ecosystem. They are often the first to identify promising founders before their markets become obvious, adeptly connecting specialized knowledge with crucial capital. They also provide critical support in helping companies navigate the incredibly difficult period between a promising initial idea and the establishment of a sustainable, scalable business. As Moradi aptly puts it, “The hardest work happens after the money moves.”
The current technological landscape, characterized by advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, advanced manufacturing, energy innovation, biotechnology, and space technology, is further amplifying the significance of this work. These innovations are dramatically reducing the cost of attempting ambitious, transformative ideas. Consequently, small, agile teams are now capable of pursuing opportunities that, in previous eras, would have necessitated the immense resources of a large corporation or a national program. Many of these groundbreaking teams, Moradi predicts, will inevitably emerge in locations that are intimately connected to the complex problems they are diligently working to solve.
This is the profound, broader impact of expanding venture capital across America. When investors consciously look beyond familiar networks and actively seek out founders in the very regions where critical industries operate, they catalyze a virtuous cycle. More innovative ideas are transformed into viable companies, a greater number of essential technologies reach the market, and more communities actively participate in, and benefit from, 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. He concludes with a powerful reminder of the ultimate purpose: “Never forget that we’re here for them. When we do this right, everyone, including humanity, wins.”
The NVCA proudly recognizes Cortado Ventures as a vital member of its community, contributing significantly to the evolving narrative of American innovation. To delve deeper into the firm’s mission and portfolio, interested parties can visit cortado.ventures.
