Apollo

Blackstone was turned down by 97% of the investors it pitched for fund one

Rubenstein says the big private equity firms (Blackstone, Apollo, KKR) all started with no money. Steve Schwarzman wrote in his autobiography that Blackstone was turned down by 97% of the people it pitched for its first fund.

“Anybody that's built a successful company is always going to have a hard time at the beginning. And, you know, we had a hard time at the beginning, but Blackstone and Apollo and KKR, they all had similar stories of having no money at the beginning. And then they started Blackstone, which is the biggest of the private equity firms these days. Steve Schwarzman wrote in his autobiography that, you know, they got turned down by 97% of the people they went to to raise their first fund.”