How a once-unlikely region became a launchpad for frontier tech, dual-use startups, and a new wave of American builders.
Authored by Nathaniel Harding, Managing Partner
Read the full story here.
Five Years of Building in Public: The Midcontinent Steps Into the Frontier
Five years ago, Mike Moradi, David Woods, and I started Cortado Ventures with a simple idea: build the kind of firm we wished had existed when we were entrepreneurs. It was early 2020, the height of Covid, and the world felt paused. The Google algorithm didn’t hide its opinion: “starting a venture fund right now is a terrible idea.” Especially in a region that had historically seen little venture capital.
But what we saw from inside the Midcontinent was different. This region had always been full of builders — engineers, operators, scientists, and stubborn optimists — people who knew how to solve hard problems far from the spotlight. We believed that if those people had access to early capital, mentorship, and a firm willing to bet on them, the Midcontinent could become one of the most important emerging innovation markets in the country.
Five years in, that belief is no longer theoretical.
Building a Firm — and a Market
From the beginning, we wanted to “build in public.” We shared our thinking, our theses, and even our missteps. We believed that transparency could attract opportunities, build trust, and inspire others to join us. In a nascent market, a rising tide benefits everyone.
The tide has risen faster than we imagined. Silicon Valley Bank recently published a data-rich analysis of the Midcontinent VC ecosystem, noting that startup activity and venture deployment in the region have multiplied dramatically since 2020. Industries with deep regional roots — manufacturing, aerospace, logistics, energy — are now converging with software, automation, and AI. And new funds are forming at a pace that would have seemed impossible just five years ago.
For our part, Cortado Ventures has grown alongside this movement. Our Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit — born as a small regional gathering — now attracts hundreds of funders and founders representing more than $1 trillion in capital. It has helped establish Oklahoma and the surrounding states as an important node in the national innovation conversation.
Doing What We Said We’d Do
One of our LPs once told us, after conducting 14 reference calls, “People say you do what you said you’d do.” That remains the highest compliment we’ve received.
When we launched Fund I, we set out to build top performance, contribute to the ecosystem, and create a recognizable brand. Five years later, that is happening.
But none of this was inevitable. Many funds launched in 2020 never made it to a second vehicle; only 11% did. Markets tightened, fund cycles elongated, and the time between Seed and Series A stretched to the breaking point. We learned, adapted, and sharpened where we invest and how we support founders.
We made mistakes. We tried ideas that didn’t work. But we stayed focused on doing what we promised — building enduring companies in a part of the country too often overlooked.
The Midcontinent’s Shift Into Frontier Tech
One of the most striking developments over these five years is how quickly “frontier tech” has moved from fringe curiosity to central national priority.
SVB’s ecosystem report captured this perfectly: industries traditionally associated with the Midcontinent — energy, aerospace, advanced manufacturing — are now at the leading edge of technological reinvention. The lines between commercial and national-security innovation are blurring. Companies are solving problems that matter deeply to the country’s economic resilience and geopolitical competitiveness.
A few forces are driving this shift:
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
Massive federal investment in critical infrastructure, energy, and advanced technologies has created once-in-a-generation opportunities for new entrants to scale quickly. The OBBBA opened the door for private innovation to matter in areas traditionally dominated by large institutions.
The “Musk Effect.”
The speed of execution demonstrated across SpaceX, Tesla, and other Elon Musk-led ventures has permanently changed expectations. It showed that private companies could move faster, take bigger risks, and win in arenas once considered the exclusive territory of governments and incumbents.
Demand for dual-use technology.
In every segment we track — cybersecurity, aerospace, logistics, autonomy, energy systems — commercial and defense needs are converging. What’s good for the market is increasingly what’s good for national security. That dynamic is driving unprecedented attention to early-growth companies solving hard, technical problems.
These forces have opened what we often describe as Pandora’s Box for innovative private companies. The appetite for new solutions — from federal agencies, prime contractors, Fortune 500s, and global partners — is accelerating, not slowing down.
Seeing the Frontier Up Close
Cortado has a front-row seat to this shift.
We work with founders building mission-critical technologies in the Midcontinent — satellite-based Earth imaging, autonomous systems, predictive maintenance, immersive training for frontline workers, cybersecurity for critical infrastructure, and advanced materials for energy and defense applications.
We’ve also seen what happens when frontier innovation meets exceptional execution. No company embodies this better than Anduril, a frontier-tech category leader that has shown how fast a dual-use company can scale when it pairs cutting-edge technology with bold strategy. Anduril’s rise has become a reference point — not because we claim any credit for it, but because it proved what is possible in this era. The next decade will be defined by companies that build for both commercial markets and national interest.
The Midcontinent is uniquely positioned to produce more of them. The region’s industrial heritage, research institutions, engineering talent, and cost efficiency are an ideal foundation for frontier innovation. The SVB article highlighted this directly: this part of the country is no longer a fringe player in venture capital; it is emerging as a frontier hub.
The Next Evolution of Our Work
As Cortado Ventures enters its sixth year, our conviction is stronger than ever: the Midcontinent will play a defining role in the next era of American innovation.
We are continuing to deepen our work in frontier technology — space, aerospace, manufacturing, mobility, cyber, telecom, and advanced computing. We are expanding our relationships across NASA, allied space agencies, industry partners, and national-security networks. These connections give us visibility into problems that matter and into founders capable of solving them.
We are leaning into this domain with seriousness and long-term intent. Frontier tech is not a trend; it is the new architecture of the global economy. And the Midcontinent is increasingly where the frontier is being built.
Five Years Behind Us. The Frontier Ahead.
When we wrote our first Medium article about starting a venture capital fund in Oklahoma, the idea felt bold. Today, it feels like the starting line.
Five years ago we bet on a region.
Today, we’re betting on the frontier that region is helping build.
And we’re just getting started.