Many "business" credit cards are actually secured personally. If the business fails to pay the debt, it falls back to the person issued the card. I know folks w

Many "business" credit cards are actually secured personally. If the business fails to pay the debt, it falls back to the person issued the card. I know folks who found this out and had to pay off their business debts with their own funds. Credit cards companies aren't dumb. Mortgages are secured by the property itself. Lenders use property valuations to determine the fair value of a property. If you take out 500K mortgage with 15K down, and fail to pay after a few years, odds are the bank can recoup most of the cost (barring a massive event like the 2008 financial crisis.) The risk is well understood. If you invest in an early-stage, private company, it is secured by essentially nothing, except hopes and dreams. Often early business forecasts are so out of whack, they may as well be fictional. Private investments are completely non-liquid. There is generally no market.