Description:
In this episode of The Builders Podcast, Matt sits down with Dan Daly to unpack how a $600M automotive growth playbook became the foundation for an international real estate fund built around Portugal’s Golden Visa program.
Dan shares how scaling an automotive startup from a single dealership to nearly $600M in annual revenue wasn’t about chasing more leads. It was about obsessing over customer experience. By personally calling customers and fixing small operational breakdowns, he unlocked profit without increasing marketing spend. That same principle now drives his hospitality and tourism real estate investments across Portugal.
The conversation moves beyond real estate into first principles: optimize before you expand, focus on who you already serve, and build systems that increase margin without increasing chaos. Dan also walks through the mechanics of the Portugal Golden Visa, why Porto became his strategic focus, and how he built a $25M fund from a simple journal note that read, “Be the bank.”
At its core, this episode is about leveraging experience across industries, trusting instinct, and learning how to do things you’ve never done before.
Key Takeaways:
- Revenue growth often starts with improving experience, not increasing leads.
- The same asset can become dramatically more profitable with better process.
- Real estate, especially hospitality, is fundamentally a customer experience business.
- Portugal offers structural advantages: supply constraints, strong tourism growth, and favorable financing.
- The Golden Visa creates long-term lifestyle optionality, not just financial return.
- Big ideas often begin as unclear journal entries — execution makes them real.
Dan Daly knows what it takes to build — and rebuild — a business. He spent 20 years in automotive retail, scaling a startup dealership group to $600M in annual revenue. Then, “late to the game,” he pivoted into investing and in less than five years built a global portfolio across real estate, crypto, and lifestyle ventures through his firm, Global Investment Partnership.
Dan also founded Aim High, where he helps entrepreneurs sharpen customer experience and unlock hidden profit centers. His story proves that entrepreneurial success isn’t about when you start, but how you adapt, execute, and lead.
THE MEAT OF IT!
1. From $600M Automotive Growth to International Real Estate
- Scaling an automotive startup to $600M in five years
- What rapid growth actually teaches you
- Why Dan pivoted into European real estate
2. The Core Lever: Customer Experience Over More Leads
- Why chasing leads is often the wrong move
- Personally calling customers to find blind spots
- Fixing follow-up to unlock hidden revenue
- The same building, same people, higher profit
3. Applying the Playbook to Hospitality & Tourism
- Why real estate is really a service business
- Raising satisfaction scores from 4.5 to 4.9
- How better experience increases bookings and rates
- Turning operational discipline into margin
4. Why Portugal?
- Price per square foot and interest rate advantages
- Supply constraints in historic city centers
- Post-COVID tourism surge
- Safety, accessibility, and English-speaking ease
5. The Golden Visa Strategy
- How the Portugal Golden Visa works
- Building a $25M hospitality & tourism fund
- Investing 60% in Portugal, 40% globally
- Creating optionality, not just returns
6. “Be the Bank” – From Journal Entry to Fund
- Writing ideas before they’re fully formed
- Learning private equity from scratch
- Doing something you’ve never done before
- Why 99% thinking limits 1% outcomes
7. Building a Repeatable Exit Strategy
- Boutique hospitality portfolio model
- Why major brands can’t easily replicate it
- Positioning for acquisition by larger players
Check out these related Episodes:
- Episode 254: Dan Daly – How He Used Brand, Vision, and Commitment to Build & Create Rapid Business Growth
- Episode 264: Lee Rossey – Building Proving Grounds for AI Security: Trust, Testing, and Reality
- Episode 263: Tyler Dane – The Long Arc of Building: Focus, Feedback, and Finishing What Matters
