A few weeks ago, the FDA gave a company called Life Biosciences the green light to start human clinical trials to reverse aging. Not slow it….reverse it. The company was founded by David Sinclair, who proved that cells can be reprogrammed to act younger. His team restored vision in blind mice by resetting the age of their eye cells, then they did it in monkeys. Now they're about to try it in humans and the results are expected by the end of this year.
Sinclair believes aging isn't an inevitable death sentence written into our DNA. He thinks it's more like software that gets corrupted over time, and that we can reboot it. AI is speeding up the process, and the pace of discovery has accelerated so fast that even Sinclair says he can't keep up. He also said that within 10 to 20 years, the way we think about healthcare could be outdated. We wouldn't just be treating diseases anymore, we'd be treating aging itself.
A few weeks ago I wrote about how the longevity boom is coming and most people's money isn't ready for it. People are already outliving their retirement savings, and that problem is about to get a lot worse as people start routinely living to 90, 95, 100 and beyond. If you're going to be alive and healthy for 30 or 40 years after you stop working, you need investments that will grow bigger over longer time spans, generate income, and give you access to growth that the public stock market can't deliver. That's the case for private markets in general, whether we're talking about private equity, venture capital, real estate, or what I wanna dig into today, which is private credit.
What Private Credit Is and Why You Should Care
Most people hear credit or debt and think about their own bills. But in the private markets, debt is one of the most powerful and misunderstood investment tools out there. Private credit is when investors lend money directly to companies, and in return they earn interest and often get additional upside like warrants or equity kickers. The private credit market now exceeds $30 trillion, and it's one of the fastest growing segments in all of investing.
If a company needs capital to grow but doesn't want to give away ownership by selling equity, they can borrow from private lenders. These ain't bank loans with long approval processes and rigid terms. Private credit deals are structured directly between the lender and the company, they can be customized, and they come with protections that make them less risky than equity investments while still offering strong returns.
If angel investing is like buying a piece of a company and hoping it grows, private credit is like being the bank for that company and collecting checks while it grows.
How Private Credit Shows Up in the Real World
In the longevity space, companies like Life Biosciences need huge amounts of capital to fund clinical trials and get therapies through the FDA approval process that takes years and costs hundreds of millions. They don't always want to raise that money by selling equity because it dilutes founders and early investors. So many use private credit. Firms like Hercules Capital and MidCap Financial specialize in lending to biotech and life sciences companies, providing debt and growth lending with strong returns because these companies pay premium interest rates to preserve their ownership.
But longevity is just one example. Private credit fuels everything from AI infrastructure to SaaS companies and consumer brands scaling their operations. The returns often are in the low to mid teens, with built-in protections equity investors don't get, like collateral, covenants, and priority in the capital stack meaning if something goes wrong, debt holders get paid before equity holders.
Why This Fits the Longer Life Equation
You can't just bet on home runs when you're building wealth over a potentially much longer life. You need different parts of your portfolio doing different jobs. Equity investments through angel investing and venture capital give you high growth potential. Private equity gives you the ability to own and improve existing businesses. But private credit gives you something those other pillars don't, which is ongoing income.
Unlike equity where you're waiting for a company to exit or go public, private credit generates cash flow from day one. That's a big deal when you're thinking about funding a life that might stretch four or five decades past your last work paycheck. It's the part of your portfolio that provides right now cash while your higher risk investments grow in value on paper over time. And when you combine that steady income with the growth potential from the other pillars, you start building something the traditional stock and bond portfolio won’t come close to touching performance wise.
The Part Nobody Talks About
Most financial advice is geared toward everyday investors and it ignores private credit. They'll tell you about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, maybe real estate. But private lending to high growth companies is a conversation that's been reserved and had in the circles of institutional investors, family offices, and the ultra wealthy for decades.
That’s changing though as platforms and funds claim to be opening up access to private credit for everyday investors, and recent policy changes have opened the door to alternative assets in retirement plans. But you know how I feel about investment platforms. They tend to sell the appearance of access while burying you in fees that eat into your returns and providing fake access to low quality poor performing deals. Remember that on all of those platforms, YOU are the product. The real move is finding the right relationships, communities, and investment vehicles where you're getting direct exposure to private credit deals with real return potential. The financial system has always had a VIP section, and private credit has been one of the best kept seats in the house.
Building the Full Picture
Private credit is just another layer within the private market stack. We've covered private equity, which is about buying and improving businesses. You already know about venture capital and angel investing, which is about getting in early on high potential startups; and now you know about private credit, which is about being the lender and earning income while companies grow.
The longevity revolution that Sinclair and others are driving is going to change how long we live, how long we stay healthy, and how much money we need to make all of that work. Private markets, across every pillar, are how you build wealth that can keep up with a longer life. Private credit just happens to be one of the quietest and most overlooked ways to do it.
Cheers,
~Abdul
About Our Chairman
Hey Hey… I’m Abdul I’m the chaiman of Ajo Angels and Shujaa Capital and I’m on a mission to introduce angel investing to 25,000 black folks over the next five years. I’m doing this with the goal of narrowing the racial wealth gap as well as trying to close the billion dollar funding gap for black founders.
This article reflects personal perspective and experience, not financial advice. Every career and investment path involves different risks and opportunities. Make decisions based on your own circumstances and goals.