The Fortress Capital Founder & CEO
My Journey: From Operating Rooms to Real Estate, Building Resilience and Financial Freedom
Mike McManus is an entrepreneur, semi-retired urologic surgeon, and advocate of investing to become work-optional.
In 2009, Mike began real estate investing with a house hack during medical school. He then invested in and managed single-family and small multifamily properties. He transitioned to commercial real estate (CRE) because of the scalability. He is currently a passive and active investor in syndications that own multifamily, retail, industrial, and land entitlement projects.
With over 25 years in real estate investing, he’s witnessed the housing bubble of the early 2000s, the multi-family syndication bubble of 2010-2022, retail real estate’s struggle and resurgence, the decline and revival of industrial CRE, and the fall of downtown office spaces with the rise of suburban offices. This experience has given him first-hand insight into multiple real estate asset classes going full cycle.
Mike has been a partner in three urology practices, and two surgeon-owned hospitals, and is involved in the development of medical facilities. Prior to medical school, Mike enjoyed a career in the ski industry as an instructor and certification trainer and ski at renowned resorts such as Aspen and Beaver Creek. He also served as ski school director at Eldora and DCL for the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA).
The Fortress Capital and the Surgeon Syndicate Podcast were founded in 2023 to provide physicians with better access to CRE investing education and high-quality CRE investments. Mike exited full-time medicine in 2023 and relocated to Salt Lake City. He still does some urology locum work but focuses on retail and industrial CRE investing while enjoying the Utah lifestyle.