Disclosure certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Kim: Structures almost every conversation using IBM's classic sales call framework

John Kim (Kimmer) · Fundraising Mastery: The Tao of Kimmer – John Kim (EP.503) · May 25, 2026 · at 1:08:44

Fundraiser and investor John Kim discusses how his early career sales training at IBM in the late 1980s still dictates his communication habits today.

0:00 / 0:09exact quote · 9.8s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“For 30 plus years, almost every conversation I have fits that structure. It's a habit. Anybody I ever meet, that is how I will structure a conversation.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from John Kim (Kimmer)

Insight
Kim: PE IR hiring is broken, prioritizing external personas over actual skills
“The whole industry is upside down. People aren't looking for skills, they're looking for personas. If you have a great persona that actually fits, you'll get the job even though you have no experience.”
John Kim (Kimmer) May 25, 2026 ▶ 59:44 Fundraising Mastery: The Tao of Kimmer – John Kim (EP.503)
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kim: Junior IR professionals out-earn deal peers; IR partners earn less
“So what's kind of interesting is that the younger you are in their career, actually the more money you make relative to your peers because the younger professional gets to do some of the selling. Occasionally actually gets to advise the GP because you're trave…”
John Kim (Kimmer) May 25, 2026 ▶ 1:02:33 Fundraising Mastery: The Tao of Kimmer – John Kim (EP.503)
Insight
Kim: LP fundraising meetings are auditions to match a preconceived persona
“You need to know what you're auditioning for. Because it's not a sales pitch. It's not an interview. It's an audition. The idea that you're walking in, they know what they think they're looking for.”
John Kim (Kimmer) May 25, 2026 ▶ 44:53 Fundraising Mastery: The Tao of Kimmer – John Kim (EP.503)
Insight
Kim: GPs hire IR heads based on the external persona they desire
“GPs tend to put in that position the person they want other people to think they are before they meet them.”
John Kim (Kimmer) May 25, 2026 ▶ 58:13 Fundraising Mastery: The Tao of Kimmer – John Kim (EP.503)
Insight
Kim: IR professionals should receive equal pay to investment deal counterparts
“If you're a vice president, you should get paid like a vice president. When I'm looking at the vice president, we're equal. If I'm in the Navy and you're in the Army and we're the same rank, we should be paid the same. You're doing something very different tha…”
John Kim (Kimmer) May 25, 2026 ▶ 1:03:44 Fundraising Mastery: The Tao of Kimmer – John Kim (EP.503)
Insight
Kim: Treating IR as second-class citizens breeds victimhood and industry dystopia
“The whole idea of ego deprivation, of walking around being a second-class citizen in a job, that creates a dystopia. That creates a victimhood for a lot of people in the industry. If I actually think about the A thing that people complain about most in the job…”
John Kim (Kimmer) May 25, 2026 ▶ 1:04:43 Fundraising Mastery: The Tao of Kimmer – John Kim (EP.503)
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 700 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.