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Les Craig

General Partner, Next Frontier Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

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investorfounderoperatoracademicLinkedIn ↗nextfrontiercapital.com ↗

Les Craig is a General Partner at Next Frontier Capital, leading early-stage investments across the Rocky Mountain region. Previously, he co-founded RedOwl Analytics and served as Executive Director of the Montana State University Innovation Campus.

10statements → 2claims → 1claims resolved → 3.8/5average certainty → 2.2/5average debate potential →

0 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 2 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 assertions · 6 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 2 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Les argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Next Frontier Capital was Montana's first and only VC firm in 2015
“It's funny, when our firm started in 2015, we were the first and only venture capital firm in Montana. And now there, there's another one up in Whitefish, Two Bear Capital.”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 3:18 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Les Craig on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Les Craig said on Innovators & Investors that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Oversized early funds trap startups on a valuation 'hamster wheel of death'
“Why do companies end up in the Bay Area getting on the ham, what I would like to call the hamster wheel of death, where you're just like always trying to catch up with your last post money. It's because in a lot of cases, check size, mandatory check size of th…”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 7:03 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig
Insight
Startups waiting 24 months to raise again fall off the venture tracks
“If you wait 24 months to raise, you're not gonna raise. I don't care how amazing you are, how amazing your technology is, you're off the venture tracks.”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 23:13 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig
Insight
Early ARR is meaningless if founders lack intangible skills to fundraise
“This company is doing 600 K in ARR. They might as well be doing zero, because it makes about the same difference in terms of the inflection point of the company. And some people are like, oh, we want to see at least a million. I still go to the fact it's a mil…”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 18:45 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig
Insight
An uncontested seed round is the greatest signal of future fundraising failure
“The greatest sign that a founder is fundable is when you are running a process with them, and they are running a process towards convergence, there is competition in the deal. When you get a deal, when you get a deal and nobody else is competing for it, you mi…”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 19:38 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig
Insight
A startup CEO's primary job from Seed to Series B is fundraising
“A CEO's job is to fundraise. Literally, the successful CEO's Are, and this is of an early stage company, right? Don't take that quote and make like a meme of me. It's really, no, that's not independent. It's like series seed to really, I would say series B. Yo…”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 21:01 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rocky Mountain region lacks VC firms servicing seed to Series A startups
“There's not a whole lot of firms in this region that have raised funds, especially recently that service that area, especially on a per capita basis or on a, you know, per capita startup basis.”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 2:22 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig
Insight
Founders should pitch 60 or more VC firms for one term sheet
“You should be having conversations with probably 60 plus VCs, and expect that will lead to one term sheet.”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 29:14 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig
Disclosure
Next Frontier Capital manages a $102M fund writing $2M-$3M early checks
“Our current fund is, I say, only a hundred and two million. I know it sounds like a lot, but given our strategy of investing in seed to series A-stage companies, that's the right size for a fund in our operating, in our region, writing entry checks in kind of …”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 6:14 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig
Disclosure
Next Frontier Capital heavily deployed capital in 2024 following a prolonged slowdown
“Anecdotally, I'll say, I look at our firm's activity from like Q four of 20, 22 to Q one of 20, 20 four. So like a little over a year timeframe, I think we closed two net new investments, maybe three. And then since then we've closed eight just to put that int…”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 28:38 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig
Assertion Contradicted
Next Frontier Capital was Montana's first and only VC firm in 2015
“It's funny, when our firm started in 2015, we were the first and only venture capital firm in Montana. And now there, there's another one up in Whitefish, Two Bear Capital.”
Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 ▶ 3:18 28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
28 - Investing in the Mountain West with Next Frontier Capital General Partner Les Craig Feb 27, 2025 24m
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