Walker Deibel

Most entrepreneurs are playing a rigged game. 96% of businesses never reach $1M in revenue. 75% of VC-backed startups go completely to zero. Yet we keep following the same playbook. After buying 7 companies in 10 years, I discovered why: ⬇️

$500B → $2.1T in a decade. McKinsey says the U.S. private credit opportunity could exceed $30T. The firms that win the next decade won't have the flashiest models. They'll understand operators best.

Private credit isn't an "alternative asset" story. It's an operator story. Founders got tired of being lent to like institutions, and once they tasted speed and flexibility, they didn't go back. That's the real $2.1T shift.

"You never really know a borrower during good markets." The most underrated line in private credit. The shift from $500B → $2.1T isn't about rates. It's about which lenders show up when things get hard.

I structure private deals for a living… …and I still had 6 figures sitting in cash for years. Turns out I’m not alone. Vanguard found that many investors leave rollover accounts sitting 100% in cash long-term. The problem: Cash feels safe, but can quietly become one of the most expensive forms of liquidity. This week in Wealth Stack Weekly: → the liquidity spectrum → why more cash ≠ more safety → and how a 1% cash position can sometimes be safer than 7.5% We break it all down in this week’s Wealth Stack Weekly. wealthweekly.com

But because they were closer to the reality on the ground. By the time retail investors feel “certain” that something is wrong, the repricing often has already happened. Markets move on whispers long before they move on announcements. Makes you wonder: How much of investing is actually analysis… and how much is simply access?

The biggest edge in investing usually isn’t intelligence. It’s information timing. Some people exit before the panic ever reaches the headlines. Not because they predicted the future perfectly…

Since 2022, the stock market and the job market have been moving in opposite directions. Translation: Your portfolio may benefit from the same automation threatening jobs. That’s why real diversification won't come solely from the stock market. It’s now about building income streams that are non-correlated with public markets and your employer. This week in #WealthStackWeekly : → How to think like an allocator → How to evaluate your balance sheet in 2 steps → Why private assets matter more than ever Join free: wealthstackweekly.com

And for a while, that mindset helps. But eventually, you realize the business will always ask for more. More time. More energy. More attention. It never naturally says, “That’s enough for today.” You have to decide that. Now, looking back, I don’t regret working hard. I just understand something I didn’t back then: Some memories compound more than money does. What’s a moment where work quietly took over more space than it should’ve?

I really thought taking my honeymoon to a conference was normal at the time 😅 I had just bought my first company and couldn’t shake the feeling that if I missed a few days of networking or trend spotting, I’d fall behind. So while most people were relaxing, I was walking conference halls, talking shop with people twice my age. That’s the thing about building a business: it slowly trains you to believe every moment should be productive. -You stop taking real vacations. -You check emails during dinner. -You convince yourself the business can’t function without you for 48 hours.

Scopely built on brands the world already knew: The Walking Dead. WWE. Star Trek. Marvel. Monopoly. Scrabble. The architect of that playbook was Andy Kleinman. After the deal closed: Monopoly GO became the fastest mobile game to cross $6B in revenue, then Scopely bought Niantic’s gaming division (incl. Pokémon GO) for $3.5B. Andy is now applying the same model at Delphi. Same architect. Same playbook. Scopely ran it on mobile free-to-play. Delphi runs it on AAA console (title economics ~10x larger). I was the first investor to back Delphi. To learn more about how I’ve invested in franchise IP, “like” this post and I’ll DM you an invite to a private webinar I’m having this week. *This is not financial advice. Consult your financial advisor.

Let me tell you about Andy (he’s on the right). In 2023, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund paid $4.9B for Scopely. Most people don’t know the name Scopely, but everyone in gaming knows what it proved: A model that scales. License iconic IP + elite external dev + a lean internal operating core.

You’re not limited. You’re being limited. The Internal Revenue Service allows far more inside an IRA than most people realize: real estate, private equity, private credit, and more. But most custodians show you a much smaller menu… usually what they sell. So most investors build their strategy around what’s available, not what’s possible. Same account. Same rules. Very different outcomes. That gap can be worth millions. We break it all down in this week’s #WealthStackWeekly 👇 wealthstackweekly.com

Septic. Propane. Logistics. Niche services. Unsexy. Overlooked. Extremely valuable. This isn’t a trend, it’s a shift. And it rewards the people willing to look where others don’t.

There’s a window opening right now that won’t be around forever. An entire generation of owners is stepping away… and leaving behind real, cash-flowing businesses. Not startups. Not hype.

People treat those like two different careers. They weren’t. A film and a small business are the same thing if you’re paying attention: a project-based asset that cash-flows when structured correctly. That overlap is where I learned how IP really works. Rights + built-in audience = leverage. It’s why studios chase franchises and why the rights holder makes the money. I met Casper Daugaard at the premiere of my Bill Nye documentary at SXSW 2018. By 2020, he was applying that exact logic to gaming: license iconic IP and build AAA games on top.

The biggest shift in value since 1975: Value is no longer tied to physical assets. A large portion now comes from: -Brand -IP -Distribution Things you can’t physically touch. These assets do something unique: They create demand before a product is even sold. That lowers acquisition costs and accelerates growth. If you don’t know how to evaluate them, I’ll break this down in this week’s issue 🔻 wealthstackweekly.com

I sold it for almost what I paid. After clearing the debt, it looked like a win. But the real lesson: I didn’t build; I just endured. That’s when it clicked: Buy + build is the real game. ⬇️ Learn more here: buythenbuild.com

My first 7-figure exit… It was basically a break-even. Bought a book printing company → Then Kindle, iPad, and industry collapse hit. We were laying people off, just trying to survive.

At that level, it’s less about the number… and more about how you plan to live. Travel? Family support? Security? Legacy? All of that changes the math. So, what do you think: Is $5M enough to retire comfortably in the U.S.?

The “retirement number” keeps moving. $1M used to sound like enough. Now… not so much. So what about $5M? It sounds like a lot until you factor in: inflation, healthcare, longer lifespans, and lifestyle.