Kim: PE megafunds scaled by capitalizing on the 2009 financial crisis
John Kim (Kimmer) · Fundraising Mastery: The Tao of Kimmer – John Kim (EP.503) · May 25, 2026 · at 54:14
Fundraiser John Kim explains to Ted Seides how private equity megafunds established institutional dominance during the 2008–2009 financial crisis.
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“When 2009 came around, there was a set of very large funds. The market went into a nuclear winter, but those mega funds already had great fundraisers and they were going out and servicing clients and making sure that they knew what was going on and the global financial crisis and doing this. The other folks are just heading the ground like, okay, I don't know what to do. The big mega funds had people holding people's hands. Every week they'd have some update on what the crisis was. What happened? What little money they had, they put to work, did incredibly well, and that's when they actually went mega. That's when six billion funds became twenty billion dollar funds.”
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