Making Billions: The Private Equity Podcast for Fund Managers, Alternative Asset Managers, and Venture Capital Investors · Ryan Miller

How to Raise Millions: Insider Secrets from a $750M Real Estate Fund CEO

·48 min·2 clips

A $750M fund's secret: people first, deal second—why partner culture beats spreadsheets

Ryan Miller frames the show for people who want to raise money for funds and startups. He brings on a guest from Peak 15 and starts with the basic question behind every capital raise: what gets you moving, and what separates people who keep going from people who stop early? The conversation stays practical. The guest says the first job is to get to know investors and let them get to know you. That means learning what they have backed before, what went well, what did not, and which bad experiences still linger. The discussion draws a line between retail investors and institutional investors, but the core questions stay similar. Experience comes first, then preferences, then the technical details. Geography matters. Check size matters. Return parameters and expectations matter. Again and again, the guest pulls the talk back to the same idea: you need to understand what matters to the person across the room. Otherwise, you are just selling. Ryan adds advice about building a story bank when pitching investors, which reinforces the larger point that fundraising depends on the stories you can tell and how well they land. The episode treats relationship-building as a practical skill and trust as something earned through repeated attention, not a slogan. Near the end, the conversation widens to closing GP deals, where structure, trusted partners, and substantial capital are presented as a sign of the trust built in the industry. The takeaway is direct and useful: raising money is not just about asking well. It is about learning what matters, showing that you understand it, and earning the right to keep the conversation going.

As heard by us

Capital raising works better when the investor is understood before the ask.

The episode makes a plain but useful point: capital raising goes better when the investor is understood before the pitch starts. The strongest advice is to look at where someone has invested, what kind of experience they have had, what they liked or disliked, and how they think…

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Need a cleaner way to raise money without guessing what investors want?

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