John Kim
Former Chief Development Officer, General Catalyst. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
executiveauthoroperator
2shows
2appearances
27statements
1resolved
1supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything John Kim said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Kim: VCs who pledged against weapons in 2019 now lead defense
“You can go back at 2019, and the vast majority of venture capital firms say, we will never invest in weapons. This is the hottest area right now. The same people who said they would never invest in weapons are actually now leading the weapons charge.”
Kim: Funds generally tap out at twice their first close amount
“If your first close is a billion dollars, you tend to tap out at two billion. Because your first close almost always is your hard re-elect number. That has been my experience.”
Kim: Investors are not risk-loving, they rationalize risk away
“I don't really think there's such thing as risk loving, risk aversion. I think that there are only people who actually Perceive there's no risk. I think that no one actually really invests with a lot of risk. I think that, that people actually convince themsel…”
Kim: Friends and family capital is the most expensive money
“I think the most expensive money is borrowing money from your friends, because if you don't give the money back, your friendship is not the same anymore, but they trust you, and they want to see you do well, and their desire minus fear, which is, we talked abo…”
Kim: Very few limited partners are compensated on fund returns
“The dirty secret to the relationship is that very few, some do, very few limited partners are actually Compensated on the returns that the general partner makes.”
Kim: Investment committees never make contrarian bets by default
“I have never seen a committee, a consensus decision-making process, make a contrarian bet, unless the group is designed to make contrarian bets.”
Kim: Scaling VC funds must accept losing early contrarian LPs
“You have to have the courage, then, To lose the people who actually were the people who invest with you because you were contrarian. In other words, you have to have the courage to get past the innovator's dilemma. And so, if there's a set of folks, high net w…”
Kim: Logic is the output of a sales pitch, not the input
“So the first mistake that everybody makes is that they think that the logic Is where you're winning it. The logic actually is an output of a successful sales pitch, not the input.”
Kim: Ex-deal partners and investment bankers make the wrong fundraisers
“So when I meet somebody who says, well, the reason why I could be such a great fundraiser as an investment banker, as an ex-deal partner, is because I understand the system. I look and go, that's exactly the wrong person. The person that you want as Secretary …”
Kim: Fundraising is a way of life, not mere persuasion
“Fundraising isn't just a idea of persuasion. It's actually a way of life, that, that the actual interacting with people through the lens of them as the center of your conversation is a way of life, and that way of life requires a certain Level of responsibilit…”
Kim: Logic creates belief, but closing capital requires emotional trust
“So many people do such a good job of using logos or logic to actually get somebody to a yes. And they still say no, because it's the difference between belief and trust.”
Kim: Fundraising power is track record plus differentiation divided by complexity
“This is your track record plus your differentiation, and you divide all that by the complexity of your story.”
Kim: Identifying a prospect's perceived victimization enables heroic pitch positioning
“In a sales pitch, when, if you already know that this person is feeling victimized or feeling something somehow, some ways happening to them, if you can find out what that is, it is very easy then to craft a story that allows you to alleviate that pain. And if…”
Kim: A great fundraiser must function as a fund's Secretary of State
“So therefore you have to have a secretary of state that actually allows you to interact with them and helps you create that and can represent you when you're not there. That's what a great fundraiser is. When You can send that person in and say, ah, this perso…”
Kim: Sendbird Powers Top Global On-Demand Platforms Except Uber
“We haven't yet won the Uber account, but we pretty much work with Uber like companies all across the world. We practically work with the number one companies in almost all countries except Uber.”
Kim: Sendbird Retains Majority of $102M Series B Capital
“So we still have majority of the money we raised from Series B. So we're not in a rush to raise any money anytime soon, but we've been creating multiple different plans and scenarios.”
Kim: Sendbird has surpassed the $20M ARR milestone
“Twenty million. I'll run it. Yeah. We've certainly broken, broken the milestone. We won't, I won't mention the specific traction, but that's good math.”
Kim: In-house chat tool generated more revenue than Sendbird's original B2C app
“So we ended up building the entire chest like ourselves and then started selling that on the sideline. And that actually generated more revenue and more customers than our main B to C application.”
Sendbird Powers About 100 Million Monthly Active Chat Users
“And today we currently power about a hundred million users that chat through our platform every month.”
Sendbird ACVs Average Tens of Thousands, Reaching Millions Annually
“So overall ACV, I would say, is in the tens of thousands. But as small as a couple of thousand bucks a month, a year, all the way up to millions of dollars a year.”
Kim: Majority of Sendbird revenue comes from inbound developer inquiries
“So still to this day, a majority of our revenue do come from inbound inquiries from developers around the world.”
Kim: Sendbird's customer base is 40% US, 30% EMEA, 30% APAC
“Geo-distribution wise, we have customers in US, about 40% come from US, about 30% come from UMEA, 30% come from Apex, so it's very globally distributed.”
The other half of the tape: John Kim's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
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Invest Like the Best 1
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens John's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INVEST LIKE THE BESTLEDGER | Former Chief Development Officer, General Catalyst | 1 | 14 | 100% 1/1 | full record on Invest Like the Best → |
 TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | 1 | 13 | — | full record on Top Founders → |