What Investors Look For & Why Personal Relationships Matter in VC

Nathaniel Harding, Managing Partner of Cortado Ventures, discusses venture capital and investing in the mid-continent region. He emphasizes the importance of personal relationships and proximity in the investment process, especially for founders outside of traditional tech hubs. He also discusses the challenges of raising capital and the criteria they look for in potential investments.

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📌TALKING POINTS

06:39 Creating Opportunities in Underserved Markets

12:24 Investment Criteria and Value-Add

26:53 Stacking the Deck for Success

36:36 The Challenges and Rewards of Being a VC

🌟ABOUT NATHANIEL HARDING

Nathaniel Harding is Managing Partner of Cortado Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in growth-driven technology companies. He is also Board Member for Antioch Energy. He is an accomplished senior executive, entrepreneur, technologist, thought leader, and community advocate. Nathaniel was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and a Most Admired CEO in Oklahoma by the Journal Record. Previously, he and his partner developed a midcontinent resource play which they sold in 2013 for $120M. His broad areas of expertise include operational strategy, financial modeling, statistical analysis, leveraging big data, connecting science with commercial strategy, energy, fundraising, and public speaking.

🔗CONNECT WITH NATHANIEL

• Company Website: https://cortado.ventures/ 

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🎙️ABOUT THE PODCAST

Every week on the Talent Empowerment Podcast, Tom Finn, the dynamic Co-Founder and CEO of LeggUP, ventures into the minds of trailblazing CEOs, HR executives, and talent development savants from various industries to dive deep into their career paths, dissect their strategies for growing people-first culture in their organizations, and uncover how they’re driving talent innovation.