What a "capital stack" actually means here
A capital stack is just the mix of funding sources you draw on for a given purchase, ordered by cost and risk. For an FBA or wholesale inventory order, that typically looks like: retained earnings first (free, but limited), then Net-30 vendor terms (cheap, but capped by your open trade lines), then 0% intro-APR credit cards (fast access to real capital, but a hard deadline before interest applies), then a business line of credit or term loan (unlimited by trade-line count, but it carries ongoing interest from day one). The guides below are organized by budget size ($1K, $5K, $10K, $25K+) because the right mix of those four layers changes as the order gets bigger — a $1,000 launch can run almost entirely on owner cash and vendor terms, while a $25,000 order usually needs at least one revolving or external layer.
The risk with any capital stack is sequencing the expensive layers before the cheap ones are maxed out, or carrying 0% APR balances past the promo window. The individual budget guides below walk through realistic numbers for each stage; the Capital Stack Planner tool applies the same logic to your specific funding target.