It sounds like GPs make the most money from funds because they have a steady management fee regardless of the fund’s success? 

The real reward for fund managers is the performance fee, also known as “carry,” which typically amounts to 20%-25% of the fund’s profit. To simplify: if a fund has a capitalization of 50 million PLN, around 40 million PLN is allocated for investments, and 10 million PLN for management over 7-10 years. If the fund eventually sells its assets for, say, 200 million PLN, it means a profit of 150 million PLN, as the initial investment is returned to investors first. From this profit, a 20% performance fee (30 million PLN) is deducted for the managers. The pre-tax profit to be distributed among investors is 120 million PLN. This means the fund achieved a multiple of 3.4 times the capital invested in companies (170/50). This is a very good result, which also justifies the high compensation for the managers