Founder's Story
This Business Model Turns Rentals Into 7-Figure Resorts | Ep. 223 with Jorge Martinez and Andre Vinay Co-Founders of Black Development Group
Wed, 21 May 2025
Jorge Martinez and Andre Vinay, co-founders of Black Development Group, join Founder’s Story to reveal how they’ve reimagined hospitality by turning apartments into branded hotel-style residences. With a growing partnership with Wyndham, they’re building global investment-friendly resorts in places like Tulum, Los Cabos, and Punta Cana—offering individuals a new way to own a piece of paradise. Key Discussion Points From Hot Dogs to Hotels: How Andre began as a teen entrepreneur The Condo-Hotel Model: Why selling individual units funds entire resort builds Strategic Partnerships: How Wyndham helped them go global Ownership, Not Headaches: Giving investors turnkey properties without the hassle Scaling Across Borders: Why Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic are next Lean Hotel Ops: How tech and outsourcing reduce overhead and boost profit Defining Success: Why they believe they're still just getting started Key Takeaways Partnership beats competition when scaling fast A profitable hotel doesn’t need a front desk—just a smart system You can own a slice of a global resort without building from scratch Innovation often lies in blending business models, not reinventing them Our Sponsors: * Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY * Check out Northwest Registered Agent and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: https://northwestregisteredagent.com * Check out Plus500: https://plus500.com * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com
Chapter 1: What business model are Jorge Martinez and Andre Vinay discussing?
Hey everyone, welcome back to Founders Story. Today we have Jorge Martinez and Andre Vinay, the co-founders of Black Development Group. And Black Development Group is launching strategic tourist investments all around the world. And you're doing a very, very interesting strategy around real estate. I was just talking to some friends about it.
So I wanted to make sure that we had some guests on that can really dive into this. And I love this model around apartments turned into Airbnb or short-term living, or it could be short-term vacation. And it's just a unique model. And people can have single owners. I love this whole model. And I want to dive in more. But first...
Chapter 2: How did Jorge Martinez become an entrepreneur?
Jorge, can you start with what is the spark that made you say, I want to be an entrepreneur?
Hello, Daniel. Well, I've always worked outside the corporate world. Since I was little, my dad was an entrepreneur himself. I always tried to follow his steps. And during my pathway, I stumped into Andres and we made a good partnership. And we started with a company that did marketing and business strategy for different companies. So that's our background.
And we always try to get into the real estate industry because we both have a background from our families in that industry. So we always had it in our DNA, I can say.
Before, Andre, before you answer the same question, what has been a key to continuing a positive partnership? And the reason I ask is we have guests on who've had amazing partnerships and guests on who've had the worst partnerships. So what has worked for the two of you? And I think you even have another partner.
Chapter 3: What makes a partnership successful in business?
Yes. Hi, Daniel. How are you doing? It's an honor to be here with you. Yeah, that's true. It's complicated in the end. Friendship comes first. And respect for each other. It's been 20 years since we started with other businesses. we decided to do this business eight years ago and start Black Development Group in order to get hotels.
We were always wanting to have buildings and hotels all over the world. So we decided to start this company by doing that.
When you thought to yourselves, okay, you had this other business before and now you're going to get into real estate, but it's not like selling homes, right? You're selling something much bigger. Resorts, apartment complexes, you know, This seems like a big task. How did you get into this?
Well, first, we wanted to sell real high-end apartments. And in the meantime, we looked that there was a growing demand on what really the investors needed. That was to take care of their apartments, because most of them don't know what it takes to take good care of your apartment, so everything works as it has to. So when we started on the meantime,
principal in Tulum and Los Cabos, we wanted to have a model where you can buy your own apartment or house. And we, as a model, can make sure that everything goes and works as it should be. And you don't have to take care of anything on your end. So that's mainly what we wanted to create.
I know a lot of people that tell me, I want to create a hotel or a resort, but they don't realize how much work and effort and energy goes into not just building that, but you're building a brand, you're taking care of customers. There's so many intricacies that are involved with this. So when...
When you look at where you're going as the first step, how do you choose the areas that you're going into?
Basically, what we did, we looked for places with a lot of tourism. Tulum was, a couple of years ago, starting to get a big boom. So we decided to start there. We looked for a piece of land. Basically, what we could afford. OK, we got a couple of friends and let's say let's go and buy the lab. We're going to do this.
We're going to do an apartment complex and we're going to sell it like a like a hotel and operate it like a hotel. Everybody came up like, what? Yeah, basically it's an Airbnb reloaded. You get all these apartments, everybody's doing it by themselves. Instead of doing that, let's all do it with one person, one company, with one focus and one price, and we can get a better income out of it.
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Chapter 4: How do they select locations for their resorts?
We think that technology and in this artificial intelligence right now, it's going to revolutionize the industry for sure. Since you get to the complex, all your... day-to-day on the room, on the common areas. I mean, there is a lot still to be made. Already you can inclusive make check-in and check-out from your phone. And this is going to start going to faster as we as we move on.
But for sure, we have to be there because it's it's something that's happening already and it will it will accelerate over the next years.
In the operation, you get the room to operate the room from your phone, the TV. You get to ask the menu. You get everything in your phone nowadays. Technology is reducing the amount of people you need to do things. You can get the blinds to open, close, the air conditioner. In the end, it's getting all these rooms completely technolized.
I'm so excited for these automations because I feel like a lot of times, bottlenecks, sadly, sometimes are people problems. Because people could be happy one day, they could be sad one day, and it can impact customer service. But a lot of these automations can also speed things up.
While those people, I think, could be happier because maybe they don't have to deal with issues that might make them sad in their day-to-day work. When you think of success to the both of you, when you hear the word success or you think about what success looks like, Have you already reached a certain level of success and you're looking towards the next one?
Or are you like, I haven't even reached what I would even define as success yet. And what does that look like?
Well, that's a good question. I think that success comes through time. Depending on where you want to be and when you reach where you want to be. But the truth is that you're never going to be there. I mean, the true, I mean, we're just getting started, I believe. So if you can define success as you had a successful development or useful every unit you had or whatever,
Maybe we can say we were successful that way, but we still have a lot to do. I think we're aiming for bigger things right now. And for sure, we're short from success from where we stand right now.
So what is your next milestone that you hope to achieve or what are you working towards as the next successful milestone?
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Chapter 5: How do they ensure profitability in their hotel operations?
Yeah. I feel like Tulum. So I went to Costa Rica and then I went to Tulum. I almost felt like Tulum was like, it was like a Costa Rica meets like Bali. I was just blown away about how busy Tulum has gotten. They do a phenomenal job of marketing. It's amazing how these cities or counties or provinces do an incredible job at marketing and all of a sudden that one specific place just explodes.
It's shocking. Are you looking at certain areas in Dominican Republic now?
Basically, in that area. In Costa Rica, we don't know yet where we're going to do it. We have four different spots.
That's amazing. So when you're talking to owners or potential owners, do people normally go and visit? They want to feel the experience, see how it is? Or are people just so excited because it's a unique opportunity?
They do that. It's an investment. In the end, many of them don't even know that the buildings we're building. They just want to invest with us and they put their confidence with us. And basically what they're doing is that, looking for a profit. In the end, eventually they're going to go to the piece of hotel they own. But normally they don't even know the place.
Where is a place that you like to travel to in the world personally?
Personally, I like Mexico a lot. The different cities here in Mexico, I like them a lot. And I will say maybe Europe. For sure.
All right. Well, I can't wait till you expand out to Europe too. I have to come in. I want to come and visit. My wife and I visit a lot of hotels. We would rather not fly first class and stay at a nicer hotel. That's our thing. Our thing are hotels. We used to get a lot of points just to stay at hotels and such. Because I feel like that's almost the highlight.
If you don't have a good experience at where you're staying... I almost feel like your whole trip, it's very hard to recover that trip. It really is something that you remember. You could have the best experience seeing the best sites, but if your stay was not a good experience, I almost would not even go back to that city or town or country, it's very hard.
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Chapter 6: What role does technology play in the hospitality industry?
They're transporting all over the world. They used us as models for that. And, well, it's been interesting.
Wow. You're starting a whole new category. You know, you were there in the beginning and the first. Sounds like your partnership is going to flourish more. Yeah. Jorge and Andre, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all the insights and everything that you've been working on. And thank you for joining us on Founders Story.
Daniel, it's been an honor. Thanks. Thank you very much, Daniel. Thank you for your time.