Worth your time if you're raising capital or trying to understand how institutional money actually moves.
John Kim spent 30 years raising $70B+ across venture funds at General Catalyst and now at Lila Sciences. His book The Tao of Fundraising is one of the better practical guides out there — not theory, just what works.
Key ideas from the conversation:
• Money moves at the speed of trust (not pitch decks)
• Persuasion = desire minus fear (simple, but most people only focus on stoking desire)
• The GP/LP relationship is everything — it's not transactional, it's long-term reputation and alignment
• How General Catalyst built consensus internally before going external (process matters more than most admit)
If you've ever wondered why some founders/funds seem to raise effortlessly while others with better metrics struggle, this explains a lot of it. It's not magic — it's understanding human psychology, building trust early, and reducing friction.
Raising capital is sales. And like all sales, the best operators make it look easy because they've done the unsexy work upfront.
John Kim spent 30 years raising $70B+ across venture funds at General Catalyst and now at Lila Sciences. His book The Tao of Fundraising is one of the better practical guides out there — not theory, just what works.
Key ideas from the conversation:
• Money moves at the speed of trust (not pitch decks)
• Persuasion = desire minus fear (simple, but most people only focus on stoking desire)
• The GP/LP relationship is everything — it's not transactional, it's long-term reputation and alignment
• How General Catalyst built consensus internally before going external (process matters more than most admit)
If you've ever wondered why some founders/funds seem to raise effortlessly while others with better metrics struggle, this explains a lot of it. It's not magic — it's understanding human psychology, building trust early, and reducing friction.
Raising capital is sales. And like all sales, the best operators make it look easy because they've done the unsexy work upfront.