Today I am interviewing Les Craig of Next Frontier Ventures. Les is a Montana man who went from being a CIA spy to Venture Capitalist. He is stupid smart and has an empathetic heart for entrepreneurs. Learn his story about being a founder and having sharky VCs, being founder friendly, and being a part of regionally focused fund. You can watch the watch/listen to the video on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify.
Les joined Next Frontier Capital in 2017. During that time, he has led the investments and serves on the board of Special.tv, S2 Corporation, Bandwango, EveryoneSocial, and Gravwell.
Before joining NFC, Les served as the Executive Director of the Montana State University Innovation Campus. In less than 16 months, he successfully built a partnership between a private developer, the MSU Office of Research and Economic Development, and the MSU Alumni Foundation to develop a 42-acre Research Park in Bozeman, MT, focused on technology and research commercialization.
Les moved to Montana because of MSU’s national search to hire a Director for the Blackstone LaunchPad, a campus-based entrepreneurship program funded by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation. In February 2015, Les became the Director of MSU’s Blackstone programming, where he passionately mentored and encouraged students, alumni, and faculty to pursue entrepreneurial careers. In the Summer of 2016, Les received funding from the Small Business Administration to launch 406 Labs, Montana’s first accelerator program. The program ran its first cohort in the Fall of 2016 and is strategically positioned to focus on preparing MSU’s highest potential technologies and founders for growth and scale.
In 2014, Les Co-founded The Twenty, a data science services company based in Bethesda, MD, which operates a high-profile network of senior mathematicians and computer scientists focused on specialized project-based work for clients ranging from start-ups to publicly traded companies and even government organizations.
Before The Twenty, Les Co-founded RedOwl Analytics, a software product company that built a platform for identifying trends and anomalies in the digital trail of corporations to combat insider threats and mitigate risk in financial services, cyber security, and US government spaces. RedOwl was acquired by Forcepoint (Raytheon) in August 2017.
Previously, Les served as a Technical Operations Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency, receiving specialized training in telecommunications and computer network operations.
Before his time at the CIA, Les was a member of the professional staff of the National Security Technology Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. He led an Operations Research team developing powerful predictive and geospatial analytic products to make battlefield decisions related to the counter-improvised explosive device fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While on active duty, Les served on multiple special operations task forces and was an Aide-de-camp to a senior intelligence professional on General Stanley McChrystal’s staff at the Joint Special Operations Command.
Les is grateful for the opportunity to raise his family in Montana with his amazing wife, Anne Meree, and three beautiful children – Max, Emi, and Hunter.
What You’ll Learn:
Military to Entrepreneurship to Investing
First Experience Raising Venture Capital as a Founder
Cash Burn After Raise
Understanding the Concept of “Founder Friendly”
Investor/ Founder Relationship Strategy
Strategy changes from Fund I to Fund II
Regional and Nationwide Investing
Potential of Underserved Markets
Favorite Quote:
“If a founder has clear what I need to see, I get to a NO. I will have a 30 min call with that founder and say here is why we got to a NO.”
