The 5 Investor Archetypes That Build $20M Portfolios

Institutions know theirs. Take the quiz to find yours.

September 30, 2025

Hi ,

“How will you make your fortune? And what do you want that journey to look like?”

That question haunted me early in my career. Back then, I thought wealth-building was supposed to be one-size-fits-all: max out the 401(k), diversify into ETFs, hold your breath during downturns, stay the course, and trust the market to deliver.

Over time, I realized there was a better path. Diversifying into alternatives gave me durability, cash flow, and control I never found in public markets. Institutions figured this out long ago. They now allocate 30 to 50 percent of their portfolios into private credit, real assets, and private equity. Preqin projects alternatives will reach 24 trillion dollars AUM by 2028, a surge that shows how fast this shift is accelerating. Accredited investors who fail to adapt will risk being left behind.

The real shift isn’t in the investments themselves. It’s in adopting a new mindset about how you build wealth. We were trained to stay the course inside someone else’s system. The real work is taking ownership of your financial journey. That is the shift from most investors playing defense to making your money work as hard as you do.

Some investors chase adrenaline. Others build brick by brick. Some want absolute control. Others are perfectly happy collecting quiet cash flow. And, let’s be honest, some just want their chicken to pick trades for them.

Credit: @propfirmkid. Watch the full chicken video!

(Of course, not recommended unless it’s a really smart chicken.)

This week’s issue is about discovering your personal Investor Archetype. You’ll see how one investor blends archetypes to balance downside discipline with opportunistic bets. You’ll also have the chance to uncover your own.

In this issue, you’ll learn:

  • Stack Shift: Why institutions rewrote the script decades ago and how accredited investors are catching up.

  • Case Study: How one seasoned investor blends discipline with opportunism — and what it teaches about downside protection.

  • Playbook: How to uncover your Investor Archetype so you can align your portfolio with the way you’re wired. Get ready to take the quiz. 

Because here is the rebellion: the old wealth model was designed for institutions chasing liquidity. It’s time to design yours for freedom — and the sooner you start, the sooner compounding tilts in your favor.

— Walker Deibel
WSJ & USA Today Bestselling Author of Buy Then Build
Founder, Build Wealth

P.S. Want to jump straight to the Investor Archetype Quiz? Check it out here.

SHIFT YOUR STACK

Most Americans still think “investing” means buying stocks. And yes, 61% of U.S. adults own equities. But dig deeper: stock ownership is almost universal at higher incomes, while more than 70% of households earning under $50K aren’t in the market at all.

That gap matters. It shows how tightly Wall Street has trained us to equate wealth-building with public markets. But institutions don’t play by those rules.

Institutions—pensions, insurers, endowments—don’t stop at stocks and bonds. They’ve shifted 30–50% of their portfolios into private equity, credit, and real assets. Why? Because they know their type. They don’t need weekly liquidity. They need durability, cash flow, and compounding they can control.

When many start investing, we fall into the same trap as most accredited investors—thinking we are making rational choices while unknowingly playing someone else’s game. It can leave you  significantly over-allocated to one giant, correlated, emotional asset class that could evaporate 40% of its value overnight, while ignoring the underlying fundamentals.

The reality is our wiring works against us: overconfidence, loss aversion, bad timing. The average investor loses about 1.7% a year simply by mistiming contributions and withdrawals. That may sound small, but compounded over 20 years it can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars left on the table.

Now, as accredited investors adopt the institutional playbook, they’re being forced to think differently. For the first time, many are actually having to become investors.

It’s a challenge worth taking on. Preqin projects alternative investments to grow to $24 trillion AUM by 2028. That’s capital migration from volatility to visibility, nearly double the expected pace of global GDP growth over the same period.

But that raises the real question: what mindset do we need to make this leap?

This week, we published a full Investor Psychology Deep Dive that unpacks the research—why frequent traders underperform, why losses hurt twice as much as gains, and why even disciplined savers trail the very funds they hold.

Read the full report here to see how your wiring is shaping your wealth, for better or worse. Every year you wait to align it, you’re compounding in the wrong direction.

CASE STUDY

Investor Profile: The Hybrid Archetype

How One Investor Balances Downside Discipline with Opportunistic Bets

Konstantinos, pictured here in 2015, founded several startups including Board Studios and Wealth Diagnostic (Image Credit: WeWork)

Konstantinos Papakonstantinou has worn nearly every hat in finance. Investment banker, private equity investor, hedge fund manager, entrepreneur. But today, his personal investing philosophy is surprisingly simple: invest in companies where he’d also be a customer.

“When I do my own startups, it always starts with, ‘what problem do I have, and how do I solve it?’ So whenever I see a company I want to use, I ask: can I also invest?”

That lens led him to back 150 Media, a content distribution company. In an AI-driven world awash with cheap content, Konstantinos believed distribution was the scarce asset. He didn’t just invest, he became one of their largest customers, effectively de-risking his own bet.

From Pain to Pragmatism

Konstantinos learned downside protection the hard way. An early retail venture collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis, leaving him with nothing to show.

“Every investor hears Buffett’s advice about protecting the downside, but you don’t really internalize it until you lose money.”

That scar shifted his focus: How much can I lose? What happens if this fails? Is there a tax or structural offset? Today, those are the first questions he asks before wiring capital.

Opportunism on the Edges

Still, Konstantinos hasn’t abandoned his streak for the unconventional. From a local salad-and-donut concept to a Bitcoin mining venture, he stays open to deals that “look bad on paper.”

“If smart money is doing it, and it looks bad, that combination is very powerful. Some of my best deals have started that way.”

His recent investment in our oil well rollup, BuildEnergy I, plays perfectly into this type of approach. The fund’s contrarian thesis paired with downside protection combines huge potential with the benefit of buying existing cash flow. To outsiders, these investments may look scattered. But for Konstantinos it’s a natural expression of the hybrid style: part pragmatist, part opportunistic. He protects the downside like his days as a banker, but leans into the unusual bets like an entrepreneur. 

Lessons for New Investors

For those starting out in private markets, Konstantinos offers simple, practical advice:

  • Start small: Don’t put everything into your first deal.

  • Diversify widely: Treat early investments as tuition.

  • Play long-term: Every deal teaches you something. Once you learn, then you can double down.

He Put His Style to the Test

Konstantinos recently took our Investor Archetype Quiz, and his results came back exactly as you’d expect: a hybrid of the Strategic Builder and the Opportunistic Investor. It’s the perfect reflection of his balance between downside discipline and unconventional bets.

You’ll have a chance to discover your own archetype in the next section.

THE PLAYBOOK

Take The Quiz: Discover Your Investor Archetype

Institutions have clarity when they allocate capital. They know their profile, their wiring, and their long-term objectives, and they align their portfolios accordingly.

But most accredited investors never stop to ask the same question. You wouldn’t buy a business without knowing how it makes money. So why invest without knowing how you do?

That’s the point of this week’s quiz. Knowing your archetype helps you see why you make the money decisions you do:

  • Avoid the mismatch: stop trying to jam yourself into strategies that don’t fit your wiring

  • Play to your edge: double down on moves that align with how you think and operate

  • Anticipate evolution: see how your approach might shift as your time, net worth, or goals change

There are five Investor Archetypes. Some thrive on swings, others on stability, others on control or asymmetric upside. Each one aligns with a different private market path.

Because once you know your archetype, you can build a portfolio that compounds on your terms, without inheriting someone else’s playbook.

WEALTH STACK REBELLION 

Clarity Beats Conformity

“The man who begins to speculate in stocks with the intention of making money is already halfway to bankruptcy.” -J.P. Morgan

The wealth game we were handed is outdated. Own some stocks, ride the market, hope for the best — that’s the script. Playing that game, can leave you dangerously overexposed to one giant, correlated asset class that could drop huge percentages overnight. That wasn't a strategy. It was conformity dressed up as discipline.

Institutions rewrote the script decades ago. They built clarity about who they are, then stacked into private credit, PE, and real assets to match. That’s why their portfolios compound while most individuals are still reacting.

Konstantinos’s story proves it. His results in our Investor Archetype Quiz came back exactly as his portfolio reflects: a hybrid of Strategic Builder + Opportunistic Investor. He compounds steadily while staying open to unconventional bets. He isn’t following Wall Street’s defaults, he’s instead playing his own game.

Here’s the rebellion: understand your wiring, then align your wealth stack around it. Trade liquidity for control when it gives you edge. Use alternatives intentionally. Not as noise, but as your engine of freedom.

Institutions aren’t smarter than you. They just stopped pretending the public markets were enough. Now it’s your turn.

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