This week’s episode of Funding & Disrupting presented by Oura Collective introduces Nathaniel Harding, the Managing Partner of Cortado Ventures. Keith Herman interviews Harding to dig deep into venture capitalism.
Cortado Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in ambitious, growth-driven companies. It looks forward to bringing economic prosperity to Oklahoma.
Cortado Ventures: Bringing Massive Change in Oklahoma
When many companies were struggling to survive during the pandemic, one company evolved like never before. Cortado Ventures, founded in early 2020 came out strong amidst Covid restrictions. Keith asks Nathaniel to talk more about the evolution of Cortado and how it came into life.
Nathaniel Harding shares that he saw tremendous opportunities outside the traditional limitations. He saw new technologies evolve during this time and came up with the concept of Cortado Ventures. Later, Cortado organized pre-seed rounds, seed rounds, and a series of follow-ons across various B2B industries similar to their area of expertise. Some industries with a similar background that Cortado prefers include, energy, logistics, life sciences, and future of work.
Cortado Ventures saw strength in the mid-continent and around Oklahoma. Nathaniel Harding also tells how these fundamental sectors that relate to infrastructure are useful in the development of the country. Harding also shares how these sectors remain underfunded and overlooked most of the time. It is how Cortado started seed-stage funding in such areas.
Team-Building & Investment Rounds at Cortado Ventures
Keith further asks Nathaniel about his partners and coming together to build Cortado. Nathaniel tells how he knew his co-founder Mike Moradi for over 13 years. They came together to build Cortado Ventures. He also shares how Mike has known David Woods, Co-Partner for a long time. It is how Cortado’s team came together.
Nathaniel Harding tells how all the partners talked about having a VC firm around their area of expertise in the middle of the country. They often talked about this big gap in the market and how they can fill it. Harding also shares how three of them had a history and built a career in Oklahoma. Being from this country helped them learn the competitive edge. They decided to find and source early-stage companies. Harding and his team formed Cortado Ventures after coming together in 2019.
Adding to this, Nathaniel talks about the various investment rounds Cortado arranges. He talks about having the seed round in March last year with Recuro Health, followed by other rounds this summer. The final rounds ended up oversubscribed with around 15 million funding.
Keith asks Nathaniel about their investment strategy. Nathaniel tells that Cortado looks if each funding round is big enough to take them to the next milestone. Nathaniel also tells how Cortado plans different strategies for pre-revenue or early-revenue companies.
The Latest Investment in Recuro Health
Keith continues the conversation to know more about the latest investment by Cortado Ventures. At this point, Nathaniel talks about Cortado’s recent investment in Recuro Health. Harding talks about what Recuro offers and how they bring innovation in the digital health space.
Keith asks more about the vision of Recuro and how they want to bring change. Recuro aims at bringing the hospital to your home. It offers a single unified platform to offer all hospital services.
Recuro has a sick-care health system. Nathaniel Harding passionately shares how most people wait to get sick to avail themselves of healthcare, however, people should not consider health as a luxury. He believes that if we empower individuals about health information, massive changes can happen in this sector. He further adds that they attract Fortune 500 companies to avail Recuro’s service.
When Keith asks Nathaniel to share their first meeting with the founders of Recuro, he told how he met the founders through a common friend even before Recuro was a concept. They formed a connection and frankly an Oklahoma personal connection. During the first zoom meeting, Cortado went through Recuro’s deck and planned an in-person meeting for further discussions. The meeting helped Nathaniel understand the strategy of Recuro and know the members more closely. Soon, they started meeting the other team members, and things started working.
Overall, he calls the experience fascinating as they had a unique strategy and experience. Harding also shares the amazing work of Recuro before the early-stage funding. He tells how seeing the team of Recuro work with full zeal even before investment and seeing their executional transactions ready amazed him. As Nathaniel Harding states, “Recuro was achieving meaningful milestones.”
Nathaniel Harding: A Walk Through His Career Journey
When we talk about transitioning career journeys, Nathaniel has a long list to share. He completed his mechanical engineering at the University of Oklahoma. From being a Petroleum Engineer to being the captain and commander in the United States Air Force, Nathaniel has numerous experiences to share. Nathaniel talks about his bucket list and how he’s ticking his dreams.
Nathaniel Harding worked as a petroleum Engineer that was running the family business. With over 30 years of experience in the field, Nathaniel loved working in science. Furthermore, Harding talks about his life while working in the U.S. Air Force. Keith talks about how he respects and appreciates the people who serve our country and thanks Harding for his service in the Air Force.
Keith asks about Nathaniel’s transition to entrepreneurship after so much experience in various fields. When talking about entrepreneurship, Nathaniel considers entrepreneurship as more art than science. He tells how at this point he decided to help new start-ups grow by entering venture capitalism.
Cortado Ventures Story Notes
- The career journey of Nathaniel Harding
- Establishment of Cortado Ventures
- Evolution & Team-building
- Recent investment in Recuro Health
- First meeting & much more
- Funding rounds & Investment strategies