He Raised $4M in 4 Hours With One Email

Key Takeaways

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  Acquisition entrepreneurship is more sustainable than starting startups

  “Innovation and acquisition coexist together. And it's just sort for me, you know, the real estate analogy is if we always defined real estate investing as only ground up construction. Like, almost all real estate investing is buying existing assets and rehabbing them and improving them. That’s basically what the whole industry is. This was really a way where we could say, hey, let's stop focusing on leaving the walled palace, giving away all of our equity in exchange for money so we can build something that's sustainable through cash flow.”

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  Seminal books require both academic and practitioner appeal

  “The average book is average. So I was like, if I ever actually write this, I actually wanna write the book that will be the seminal work in the space. And so I spent a lot of time really just trying to be like, how can I walk that line where academics will respect the effort, but also entrepreneurs will be able to implement what I’m actually talking about? I tried to walk that line and satisfy both of those markets.”

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  SBA loan changes revolutionized small business acquisitions

  “It wasn’t widely known that there was $10,000,000,000,000 in baby boomer assets that were transferring. And so, like, no one's ever said why it was that in 2016, the SBA came out and said, 'Listen. I’m gonna go ahead and allow for 90% loans on these small business acquisitions with no collateral whatsoever. You just have to have a personal guarantee.' When that happened, I actually bought three companies that year, and it was like, I have to get this out.”

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  Email lists enable rapid multi-million dollar capital raises

  “Today, we talked with Walker Deibel, who does a ton of stuff. He's the author of a famous book called Buy Them Build. We talked about how he sold over a quarter million copies of that book, how he built a category defining book that changed how entrepreneurs think, how he built his newsletter to 300,000 subscribers, and has used that email list to raise $4,000,000 in four hours.”

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  Newsletters are the most impactful assets for entrepreneurs

  “He believes newsletters are the most impactful asset any entrepreneur can build, and his framework for navigating private capital markets as what he calls the new family office. There was a crazy prediction shared at the end, which is you have about twenty four months left to build the most valuable asset any entrepreneur can have. And if you listen to the end, you'll hear that.”

Episode Description

Walker Deibel (Buy Then Build) joins Matt and Kolby to talk about how he wrote a category-defining book, built a newsletter to 300,000 subscribers, and used that list to raise $4 million in four hours. They cover his grassroots book launch strategy, why he believes newsletters are the most impactful asset any entrepreneur can build, and his framework for navigating private capital markets as what he calls the "new family office." Want to get your first 1,000 newsletter subscribers in 30 days? Go here 👉 https://www.newsletteroperator.com/subscribe Apply To Work With My Agency 👉 https://www.growletter.com Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 03:53 The Shift from Startups to Acquisitions 05:36 How Buy Then Build Changed Entrepreneurship 08:33 Grassroots Marketing and Book Launch Strategy 12:18 Creating a Movement and Defining a New Category 16:15 Frameworks for Exceptional Content 19:14 Writing the Book and Defining Entrepreneurship 22:29 Monetizing the Book and Building Community 29:14 Why In-Person Events Still Matter 35:43 Transitioning from Acquisition Lab to New Ventures 36:59 The Power of Email Lists in Investing 39:33 Building a Private Market Investing Community 43:15 Creating Value Through Direct Investments 46:35 The Economics of Being a Family Office 48:04 Newsletters as the Most Impactful Business Asset 48:59 Where to Find Walker 📌 Resources Mentioned:  Buy Then Build (book) Acquisition Lab Good to Great by Jim Collins 🔗 Connect with Walker Deibel:  LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/walkerdeibel/  Website — https://walkerdeibel.com  Newsletter — https://wealthstack1.com/