My grandfather was a general contractor. My uncle is a contractor. My father is a real estate investor. I grew up understanding that building things — and building them right — isn't just a profession. It's a way of seeing the world. After university and a short corporate career, I knew I belonged on jobsites, not in conference rooms. So I went to work with my family, building and operating a winery in Uruguay, then renovating properties across Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and California before landing in Miami during one of the greatest real estate booms in U.S. history.
In Miami, I helped grow a small side business into a thriving construction firm — 40 employees, tens of millions in residential projects, and a pipeline running 30 jobs at a time. I was the one who built that. But the bigger it got, the clearer the tradeoff became. Every project only got inches of me. I was spread across so many jobs that none of them got what they actually needed — genuine ownership from someone who could integrate every component, hold every trade accountable, and care about every detail the way the client does.
The result was predictable: bloated budgets, missed details, and outcomes that didn't reflect what I'm capable of delivering. You don't get incredible outcomes without incredible people genuinely involved. Not managing from a desk. Not checking in once a week. Present. Hands-on. Making decisions that matter.