John Kim - How to Raise a Few Billion Dollars - [Invest Like the Best, EP.482]

2026-07-14

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Today my guest is John Kim. John is one of the world's top and most prolific fundraisers. He was chief client officer at General Catalyst, where he helped raise many of the firm's flagship funds. He is now chairman and president of corporate development at Lila Sciences, a company building scientific superintelligence, where he has helped raise several hundred million dollars. He is also the author of The Tao of Fundraising. This conversation is really a guide on how to raise money from someone who has done it at the highest level. We talk about why persuasion equals desire minus fear,...

Today my guest is John Kim. John is one of the world's top and most prolific fundraisers.

He was chief client officer at General Catalyst, where he helped raise many of the firm's flagship funds. He is now chairman and president of corporate development at Lila Sciences, a company building scientific superintelligence, where he has helped raise several hundred million dollars.

He is also the author of The Tao of Fundraising.

This conversation is really a guide on how to raise money from someone who has done it at the highest level. We talk about why persuasion equals desire minus fear, the difference between belief and trust, the laws of fundraising, and how to build the consensus that moves big pools of capital.

Please enjoy my conversation with John Kim.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant.

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best

(00:02:02) Introduction of John Kim

(00:02:39) Money Moves at the Speed of Trust

(00:05:06) How to Start a Fundraising Campaign

(00:08:03) Persuasion Equals Desire Minus Fear

(00:12:20) How to Raise a Few Billion Dollars

(00:15:58) The Benchmark Story

(00:18:36) The Law of Differentiation

(00:24:13) Law of Tradeoffs and Law of Pipeline