Why, How, What? - Laplace Real Estate Intelligence
01/02/2026 - Why, How, What?
At the beginning of this year, I started reading a book I gave myself last Christmas and that, unexpectedly, has made me stop and think.
“Start With Why”, by Simon Sinek.
The title is simple. The impact has been positive.
At the end of 2025 — a particularly intense year and, objectively, a positive one in terms of results — I found myself in a rather uncomfortable state of indecision. Questions started to surface uninvited:
How can we grow faster?
Should we hire more people or invest further in the current team?
What kind of people do we really need?
Should we reduce services and focus more on real estate investment?
Should we look for strategic or financial partners?
As expected, I couldn’t answer any of them. And it was precisely at that moment that the book began to make sense.
When I’m tired, I have an almost automatic tendency to overcomplicate things — to frame sophisticated, complex questions that ultimately add nothing but noise, uncertainty and anxiety. In this case, the book felt almost like an inner voice:
“André, don’t overthink it. Start by explaining the why.”
Why do you believe in a certain vision when so many tell you it makes no sense?
Why do you keep going when the risk seems greater than the return?
Why do you persist when things don’t go according to plan?
Why don’t you focus solely on the financial side of the business?
In my mind, there were two possible answers.
The first is simple: you’re being too stubborn and overly focused on the long term. Resilience helps in moments of fragility, but one day it may fail.
The second is harder to explain: you have a dream and a vision that force you into a journey of discovery through experience. You are willing to test, fail and adapt until you get it right.
I firmly believe that my “why” lies in the second. And in the conviction that it is possible to reach the goal, even when it seems impossible.
My dream in the real estate sector is to be a Real Estate Developer capable of conceiving and developing a neighbourhood — mixed-use, balanced and functional — able to generate not only financial value, but also urban, social and community value.
Deep down, I believe that anyone who aspires to be a true real estate developer recognises this goal. Not because of the size of the investment or potential profit, but because of the complexity, adversity, learning process and positive impact that projects of this nature can generate.
It is an ambitious and complex dream. Perhaps even utopian. So utopian that, at times, I hesitate to share it.
On the few occasions when I did, the feedback was clear:
“You’re crazy.”
“Forget that. What matters is billing. The rest is just talk.”
Maybe it doesn’t make sense.
Maybe it really is unattainable.
It doesn’t bother me. It keeps me focused on discovering the path. Every goal achieved unlocks the next one, and even when it is small compared to what I aspire to, it often feels like crossing another “Cape of Good Hope”.
That said, I am also pragmatic. Romantic visions don’t pay the bills. And to achieve ambitious long-term goals, one must first survive in the short term.
It was precisely this premise that forced me to think about the “rebirth of Laplace”.
The reflection was simple: you have an ambitious vision, resilience and execution capacity. What’s missing are people who want to do things differently and who, together, are willing to discover the “sea route to India”.
We all know that success in real estate development depends on accumulated practical knowledge, capital intensity and, above all, the right people and partners.
In 2024, when I finally decided to fully commit to the current business model — after postponing it for five years because I believed it would be impossible — the decision was clear: if I don’t have capital, nor the ability or willingness to rely on third-party capital to participate directly in development projects, then I must create a set of services that allow me to generate value for others, pay my bills and create the energy needed to continue the journey.
The target client was quickly defined: owners or representatives of real estate assets with clear potential for value creation, but without the know-how to realise it.
Many of these owners end up selling their assets due to lack of knowledge, the belief that they lack capital, or fear — often fuelled by stories of opacity in the real estate sector. In many cases, however, selling simply destroys value. If I could prove this thesis, the model would be viable.
The first challenge was significant: finding opportunities to put the idea into practice and, above all, earning people’s trust.
The best way to do that was to demonstrate, in practice, that the client’s interests come before any fee (simple maths helped a lot here).
The logic was straightforward: total transparency, refusing processes with no real value-creation potential, and always charging fees below the value effectively created for the client.
That’s how I began to unlock the path with a clear conviction: to assume the true role of a Real Estate Developer, I don’t need to own the asset. I only need the owner to trust me. From there on, everything comes down to work, commitment, consistency and results.
I started by developing asset analysis reports — strategic guides for asset value creation. A low commercial value product, but one with enormous capacity to generate options.
Those options opened the door to more complex processes, greater responsibility and, naturally, fees more aligned with the value created. Consulting is not a high-margin business, but it provides short-term cash-flow predictability, enables team building and generates future opportunities.
That’s how I began to build a team — organically, without recruitment campaigns, based on simple principles and a somewhat “risky” vision.
Is the model scalable? No. It is highly customised. Every case is different.
Is it profitable? It becomes profitable through the options it creates and through the accumulated value of client trust, which often behaves like compound interest.
If it is neither scalable nor immediately profitable, why continue to pursue it? Because I believe that serious service delivery is one of the greatest opportunities in the sector. And because consulting allows us to participate in multiple projects, assume different roles and accelerate learning.
Since January 2024, we have been gradually building a team and developing new services in response to client needs. It was in this context that, in 2025, we also began participating in real estate transactions — a more unpredictable, but also more profitable, line of business.
In 2026, we take the next step: investing and participating directly in real estate projects, with involvement in both capital and management. We are structuring the models and expect to present the first projects in the second half of the year.
Today, Laplace is organised around three simple pillars: consulting, transactions and investment.
We don’t have all the answers.
We don’t follow shortcuts.
But we know exactly why we do what we do.
And for now, that is enough.
Kind regards,
André Casaca
