Andre Penha, QuintoAndar: How to Build a $5B Real Estate Giant

Andre Penha is Co-Founder of QuintoAndar — a $5B+ Brazilian real estate platform that raised $750M from SoftBank, General Atlantic, Kaszek, and others — and CEO of IBBX, a wireless electricity startup aiming to eliminate cables and batteries.In this episode, Andre shares why product beats storytelling in fundraising and how investors went from doubting QuintoAndar to fighting to get in, how QuintoAndar cracked real estate’s biggest inefficiencies by making transparency, speed, and reliability non-negotiable at scale, why he enforced a “No Assholes Allowed” hiring rule and fired high performers who didn’t align, the Option A vs. Option B framework he uses to make high-stakes resource decisions, how to turn your board into a growth accelerator rather than a time drain, and why wireless power is the next major industry and how IBBX is betting on the future of energy.If you’re a founder, investor, or operator focused on how to build generational companies, this episode is packed with unfiltered insights.Subscribe to The J Curve newsletter for deeper insights and follow Olga on LinkedIn and Instagram.