May 25, 2026
John Kim, or Kimmer, has raised more than $70
billion across his career for leading
venture capital and private equity
firms. Kimmer recently distilled three decades of lessons
into The Tao of Fundraising, the best book I’ve ever
read on fundraising for investment managers. Since
then, Kimmer joined a General Catalyst portfolio company,
Lila Sciences, as Chairman and President of Corporate
Development.
Our conversation covers Kimmer’s philosophy about raising
capital, the sales process, art of persuasion, best practices
in a meeting, frameworks determining fundraising
success, taxonomy of institutional
investors, ideal sales team structure and
compensation, and the features he carried over from
capital formation for funds to a new operating role.
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