Les Craig is a General Partner at Next Frontier Capital. He discusses market momentum and deal velocity recovering in late 2024.
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…”
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.”
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…”
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…”
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…”
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.”