In this 2021 SaaS District video, investment director Akeel Jabbar explains how he would allocate a $100,000 portfolio. He first warns against using the entire sum for high‑risk bets such as Bitcoin or angel investing unless the investor has a very large net‑worth. He then outlines two main pathways: a passive approach—leveraging the $100K as a 10% down‑payment to acquire roughly $1 million of multi‑unit or commercial real‑estate that can generate cash flow through rentals (short‑term or long‑term); and an active approach—using the $100K as equity to purchase an existing cash‑flow‑positive business (e.g., a local brick‑and‑mortar operation, e‑commerce store, or affiliate site) by financing the remaining $900K through bank debt. He stresses that any acquisition should be in an industry the investor understands, offering examples such as a personal trainer buying a supplement e‑commerce SaaS or an accountant buying an accounting firm. He compares the risk of starting a new venture with the lower risk of buying an established, cash‑generating company, noting that the latter avoids the high early‑stage failure rates. The video concludes with a call for comments, a teaser for a future $1 million investment video, and typical YouTube sign‑off.
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Hey guys, welcome back to another video and back to my channel at the SaaS District. So you might've seen my last video where I talked about where exactly would I spend $10,000 if I had to invest it somewhere and how to generate a high ROI. So I decided to make another video here today where I talk about what if I had $100,000, if I had $100,000, where would I personally invest it and how would I generate my own returns? So stay tuned and take notes on what I'm about to share with you guys. Hey guys, Akeel Jabbar here, Investment Director and General Partner at Horizon Capital, where we work with startups, entrepreneurs, especially in the SaaS industry, help them take their business to the next level of growth. So we work with a lot of founders. We help them make investment decisions, whether it's making acquisitions, buying companies, or selling their company. We're part of that overall ecosystem to help them take their business to the next level. So remember my last video, I talked about different ways of how you can deploy that $10,000. If you haven't checked that out, I recommend you guys check that out. And I'm also going to make a video. If you guys like this type of video, I'm going to make one. Where am I going to invest $1 million? If I had $1 million, where would I invest it? But today we'll talk about $100,000. Okay, so this is like a realistic amount that you might be able to save after working a couple of years, and you might say, okay, where should I invest this money to get the highest amount of return? And in my last video, I talked about active versus passive type of income, right? You understand the 2 different income streams, and you have to decide, okay, am I willing to put some time into this, or do I just want to put some money and put minimum amount of time because I want to continue working on a job or another project, and I don't want to give it too much time? So if it's just the capital that you're deploying, There's different ways you can do it. First thing that you don't want to do is I'll tell you where you don't want to invest, and that's don't invest in Bitcoin. Don't invest into angel investment. Those are high-risk investment vehicles that I wouldn't recommend you if that's all your savings, right? That's if, if you have, I would say at least $10 million and 1% of your net worth, you're willing to gamble and let it, you know, willing to lose that amount. Then that 1% of $100K, you can invest in those high-risk type of investments. So the first type of investment we'll look at is the passive type of investments, okay? So in the last one I talked about is, you know, investing in some kind of real estate, right? I would suggest the same thing here. I would actually look to leverage that $100K and actually get the most amount of value if I'm going to put that money to work. So what I would look at is how can I get at least $1 million worth of real estate, okay? So the $100K is going to become your 10% down payment, and the type of real estate I look at at this point would be some kind of complex unit. So this could be like a fourplex where you have 4 different units, or it can be a group of units together. I wouldn't invest it into one single unit. I would find something that has a couple of units, whether it's commercial real estate or that can be, like I said, a fourplex unit depending on where you live. So you find one and then now you have 4 different units that you can leverage, and now you get a lot more cash flow if you're renting them out, whether through short-term, you know, Airbnb or long-term renters who will pay that and generate that higher cash flow. So that's the first thing I would do if I was looking to invest $100K is find that kind of investment vehicle on the passive side. Now on the more active side, right, this is the point where you're looking, okay, I have $100K and actually want to put my time into this. I want to build something, actually want to grow. I wouldn't actually look to invest and start my own business. What I would do is look for an existing cash flow producing business and do the same thing, leverage that $100K, right? There's a lot of businesses out there you can use, you know, Talk to banks. A lot of banks, they love businesses that are already generating a lot of cash flow, that have been around for a while, have history, have track record, because it's a lot less risky for them. So let's say you find a business that's about $1 million, that's what the valuation is worth. If it's, let's say, a physical business you're buying in your local area, or an ecommerce store, or an affiliate site, for example, different kind of business models, maybe you're getting about $30,000 a month. In terms of net cash flow and profit. So that would be, you know, something you're paying around a 3x multiple of the annual cash flow. So that would be a really good deal, obviously. But, you know, if you put that $100,000 down and you're able to get the extra $900,000 in debt, you put it towards the million-dollar acquisition. Now you have a company that's paying, let's say, about $30,000 a month. You pay half of that towards your debt, and half of that is being paid back to you on your investment. Then you're able to get in there, you know, get your hands dirty, learn the business, learn to grow it, and actually get higher returns on your investment. Now I'll make a quick note here is that you're probably saying, well, Akeel, you're a SaaS investor, right? So why wouldn't you suggest SaaS? And I'll say you should invest in what you understand. Okay? You might want to check out my video on top startup, the top 7 startup principles that I talk about. One of the key principles that I share is that always invest in something that you actually understand. Okay? Maybe you don't know what SaaS is. You've never worked in SaaS. You've never been around SaaS, You never invested in SaaS, so don't go ahead and jump in SaaS if you don't know how it works. You have to understand what you're getting into. So I'll give you a quick example. Let's say, I don't know, you're a personal trainer at the gym. You've been in the industry of health, whether a manager, personal trainer, coach, whatever it is, and you understand the health industry. You've been there for years. You know the ins and outs, the type of people coming in, the market. You understand your local market. So maybe you go into buying an e-commerce SaaS business. Supplement business. Maybe it's a yoga dropshipping business. Maybe it's another gym. You know how the business operates, you go and buy a gym that's worth $1 million. Or let's say you're an accountant. You've been doing accounting, you've got your CPA, you've been working in the industry for the last 5 years, you've got all this money saved up. Maybe you go buy a firm that's already in place and they've got the books, they've got the recurring clients, they've got the team in place, they've got the systems in place, and you're going to be able to come in as the owner now. Leverage that cash and now own the entire asset. So those are just a couple of examples. You know, there's a couple of things, it's all personal to you, what you understand, what you're comfortable working on, and what's your expertise. And then take that cash and deploy into something that you can grow a lot more quickly. So there you have it, guys. You know, if you're thinking about starting a business, you know, $100K, it's very— it's a lot more riskier unless you know exactly what you're doing, you've operated before, you know, you've built before, but the risk is a lot higher. So the point here is if you're buying an existing company, You're overcoming that curve of, you know, the risk of failure in the first couple of years. You know, that 90% stat, 80% stat of companies failing. You've already passed that point and now you're coming in, you're buying an existing business with cash flow and everything in place. All right, so hope you guys enjoyed this video. That's where I suggest to invest $100K. If you guys have other suggestions, I'd love to hear from you. Comment below, like, and subscribe for the next video that I'm going to share on how to invest $1 million. All right, thanks guys. Bye.
