Cortado Ventures backs early-stage founders building scalable companies across the Midcontinent, with a focus on long-term value creation and regional growth.
BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)
Read about the acquisition of our portfolio company Ardley by PLACE and what this milestone means for its next chapter. Explore General Partner Mike Moradi’s feature in the National Venture Capital Association’s Meet a VC series and Managing Partner Nathaniel Harding’s perspective on founder-market fit in the age of AI.
Learn “Why We Invested” in Sober Sidekick, an Arkansas-based digital health company transforming recovery support through peer connection and behavioral data. Revisit our recent Funder Founder Dinner in Tulsa, where Startup World Cup founders and investors gathered following the regional competition.
Read the latest NextGen Insights from 2026 summer intern Simone Mullennix on how deep-tech startups can better communicate their value. Get to know Dockware in this month’s PortCo Highlight and catch up on the latest news from Watkins-Conti, Myri Health, Motive, and Sober Sidekick. Plus, see where our team is headed this month and explore career opportunities across our portfolio.
Newsletter Elements
- Cortado News
- Ardley acquired by PLACE
- Mike Moradi Featured by NVCA: Meet a VC
- Nathaniel Harding: Founder-Market Fit in the Age of AI
- Why We Invested: Sober Sidekick
- 2026 Funder Founder Dinner in Tulsa, OK
- NextGen Insights Blog: Simone Mullennix
- Events We’re Attending
- Portco News
- Portco Highlight: Dockware
- Portcos In The News
- Watkins Conti
- Myri Health
- Motive
- Sober Sidekick
- Portco Jobs
Cortado News
Ardley Acquired by PLACE
Ardley has been acquired by PLACE, marking a significant milestone for the mortgage technology company and its mission to strengthen lender relationships.
Founded by Nathan Den Herder, Ardley developed a portfolio intelligence and retention platform that helps mortgage companies and banks identify new lending opportunities within their existing customer base. By analyzing loan portfolios and delivering personalized loan offers, Ardley helps lenders improve borrower retention and generate new originations.
The acquisition brings Ardley’s technology into PLACE’s growing mortgage and real estate ecosystem, connecting portfolio intelligence with loan origination, servicing, and real estate transactions. Building on Ardley’s existing integration with Maxwell, the partnership creates new opportunities to support lenders throughout the borrower lifecycle.
Ardley will continue operating as a subsidiary of PLACE, retaining its leadership team while expanding its reach through PLACE’s national network.
Check out additional highlights from Ardley’s journey here:
Ardley launches white-label automated underwriting engine
Ardley Earns Industry Recognition
Ardley Technologies launches OneLink
Ardley Partners with Cenlar FSB on Refinance and Recapture Intelligence Platform
Ardley Named 2026 HousingWire Tech100 Mortgage Winner
Read the full update here.
Mike Moradi Featured by NVCA: Meet a VC
What does six-time founder experience bring to the other side of the table?
The National Venture Capital Association recently featured Cortado General Partner Mike Moradi in its Meet a VC series, highlighting his path from founder to investor and the experiences that shaped how he works with entrepreneurs today.
Mike also shares what Cortado looks for in experienced technical founders, why the Midcontinent remains central to the firm’s investment strategy, and the philosophy behind Cortado’s approach to founder support: speed and specificity.
Read the full spotlight on NVCA
Nathaniel Harding: Founder-Market Fit in the Age of AI
When building software gets easier, what becomes harder to replicate?
For Managing Partner Nathaniel Harding, the answer is experience.
In Founder-Market Fit in the Age of AI, Nathaniel explores how AI is shifting what gives founders an advantage. As the cost and time required to build continue to fall, lived experience, industry insight, buyer credibility, and the ability to execute become increasingly important differentiators.
It is also part of why Cortado continues to look closely at experienced operators building within industries they already understand.
Read the full blog on our website.
Why We Invested: Sober Sidekick
Recovery does not happen only during appointments. Sober Sidekick is building for everything that happens between them.
In our latest Why We Invested, Mansi Patel shares what stood out about Sober Sidekick, the market need behind its model, and why Cortado believes the team led by Founder and CEO Chris Thompson is positioned to build something meaningful in behavioral health.
Read Why We Invested: Sober Sidekick on our website now.
Keep up with Sober Sidekick: Website | LinkedIn
2026 Funder Founder Dinner in Tulsa, OK
Following Gradient‘s Chroma event and the Startup World Cup Tulsa Regional Finals, we brought participating founders and investors together for our latest Funder Founder Dinner in Tulsa.
These dinners bring founders and funders together, make room for candid conversation, and give relationships an opportunity to develop outside the structure of a pitch or meeting.
A special thank you to Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Build in Tulsa, and Gradient for helping us bring the evening together.
Interested in joining us at a future Funder Founder Dinner?
Join our mailing list to stay connected.
NextGen Insights Blog: Simone Mullennix
A breakthrough technology can be technically impressive and still be difficult to sell.
In the latest blog out of our NextGen Insights Series, Simone Mullennix looks at one of the challenges facing deep-tech startups: communicating the value of technology that customers may not immediately see or understand.
The piece explores why effective deep-tech marketing is less about simplifying the science and more about translating it into outcomes customers recognize, from reducing costs and errors to making faster decisions.
Using examples including Cortado portfolio company Quantum Space, Simone examines how technical companies can make complex capabilities easier to understand without losing what makes the technology compelling.
Read Simone’s full blog on our website now.
Events We’re Attending –
A look at where our team is connecting with the ecosystem this month.
10/14 – 10/15 – U.N.I.T.E. TECH Conference & Expo – St. Louis, MO
10/15 – Startup World Cup Dallas Regional – Dallas, TX
10/19 – 10/23 – OKC Tech Week – OKC
10/19 – 10/23 – RAISE Global Summit – San Francisco, CA
10/22 – Venture Dallas 2026 Annual Conference – Dallas, TX
10/22 – Crow’s Nest Mixer – Oklahoma City, OK
10/22 – The Next Frontier Fireside Chat – Dallas, TX
10/26 – 10/27 – OnwardFX – Bentonville, AR
10/26 – 10/30 – Austin Tech Week – Austin, TX
10/29- 10/30 – New Mexico Tech Fest – Albuquerque, NM
Portco News
Portco Highlight: Dockware
Meet this month’s PortCo Highlight, Dockware, a Tulsa-based technology company building computer vision systems that help logistics operators better understand freight as it moves through their facilities.
During a recent visit to Dockware’s Tulsa facility, the Cortado Ventures team got a firsthand look at systems being assembled, calibrated and tested, along with the company’s fleet-management platform for monitoring systems deployed in the field. Founder Josh Hathaway describes each deployment as a “system of systems,” using multiple vision units to capture shipment information such as labels, dimensions and visible damage without requiring workers to fundamentally change existing workflows.
In roughly a year, Dockware has moved through approximately five product iterations, bringing more hardware development in-house while reducing production costs. The company is also testing and deploying its technology with enterprise operators in the U.S. and internationally.
During a recent panel at CHROMA, Hathaway discussed how building in Tulsa gives Dockware proximity to logistics and manufacturing companies across Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas, allowing the team to better understand the challenges its technology is designed to address.
“You cannot solve a problem that you don’t fully understand.” — Josh Hathaway
Dockware is also leveraging resources through NVIDIA Inception, including software, simulation tools, and technical expertise, to support its development. During the panel, NVIDIA’s Dimitri Fernandes highlighted Dockware as an example of a startup actively using the broader NVIDIA ecosystem as it builds and scales.
Check out another one of their highlights below:
Dockware announced it has received full NTEP certification
Keep up with Dockware: Website | LinkedIn
Portcos In The News
Watkins-Conti Yoni.Fit Now In Network for Two New Insurance Plans
Watkins-Conti Products announced that Yōni.Fit Bladder Support is now in-network for members of Curative health plans and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, expanding insurance-supported access to its pelvic health solution. The milestone gives eligible members another pathway to obtain the Yōni.Fit device for managing stress urinary incontinence and represents a step forward in the company’s commercial accessibility strategy.
Read the full story – Here
Sober Sidekick Partners with Siftwell Analytics
Sober Sidekick announced a new partnership with Siftwell Analytics, pairing predictive relapse-risk analytics with 24/7 peer support to help health plans intervene earlier and reduce costly downstream care such as ER visits and readmissions. The companies plan to showcase the partnership at the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) CEO Summit in Washington, D.C.
Read the full story – Here
Myri Health Founder and CEO Dr. Pinkey Patel Recognized as Top 50 Maternal Health Builders
Myri Health Founder and CEO Dr. Pinkey Patel was recognized by Emmeline Ventures among 50 builders shaping the future of maternal health. The recognition reflects Myri Health’s focus on building connected, continuous maternal care spanning fertility through postpartum recovery.
Read the full story – Here
Motive Named Certified Website Provider for Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, RAM, and Alfa Romeo
Motive announced it is now a certified website provider for Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, RAM, Alfa Romeo, and Hyundai dealers, expanding its OEM dealer network and offering a demo for interested dealers.
Read the full story – Here
Portco Jobs –
Our portfolio companies are hiring! Explore open roles across sectors from engineering and sales to data science and operations below:
- Aalyria
- Agile Space
- Dockware
- Drov
- Motive
- Nuview
- oPRO AI
- Ox, Inc
- Pipedream Labs
- Quantum Space
- Safety Radar
- Tobe Energy
- Wilder Systems
What’s Happening in the Midcontinent?
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