#21 | Troy Eckard: Lost 85% of Net Worth in Six Months

In 2008 Troy Eckard lost 85 percent of his net worth in six months. Three of his five banks went insolvent and called his loans.More on Troy Eckard and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/troy-eckardEleven years later he had eight employees in one room, and COVID opened the window he had been waiting 40 years for. Starting in 2019 with 120 private partners, Eckard Enterprises acquired $1.1 billion in assets over five and a half years and now holds interests in roughly 8,500 wells and 90,000 net mineral acres, with its own exploration company drilling.He is blunt about an industry he calls the worst marketer on the planet, and about the food chain that paid everyone before the investor ever saw a return. He explains why drill baby drill does not move a single rig when the economics do not work, why the country can have 500 years of oil and still leave it underground, and what he saw in 2015, when more billion-dollar companies went broke in twelve months than in any industry he knows.The operating lessons are the quiet part: rebuilding discipline after 50, running a few hundred million dollars on spreadsheets until someone asked what happens if he gets hit by a bus, spending the marketing budget on rooms instead of ads, and building a 10-year plan in a business where everyone else builds a 12-month one.Troy Eckard is the chairman of Eckard Enterprises, a family-owned energy company he has run through every major oil and gas cycle since the mid-1980s. The firm holds interests in roughly 8,500 wells and 90,000 net mineral acres and operates its own exploration arm.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Why "drill baby drill" is not working03:54 Surviving multiple industry crashes06:40 The COVID window: 8 people to $1.1B11:22 "Money is easy. Good deals are not."33:56 500 years of oil: price against scarcity42:28 2008: 85% gone, three banks insolvent54:04 "Too much success scares bankers"56:34 "What if I got run over by a bus?"58:27 40 years of waiting for this window01:08:09 Marketing budget on rooms, not adsNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Vela Wood.