Is Storage Harder Than Brain Surgery? Dr. Richard Dalyai Shares the Reality

I am incredibly excited to welcome a true pioneer to the show today: Dr. Richard Dalyai, a full-time practicing vascular neurosurgeon who is simultaneously building an impressive self-storage portfolio. It is an absolute first for the Stories Behind the Door podcast to feature a neurosurgeon, and his journey into commercial real estate is absolutely fascinating. In this episode, we dive into our shared roots at Tufts University, the grueling reality of his 7-year medical residency, working 100-hour weeks, and why he chose to pursue an MBA to escape corporate medical bureaucracies. Richard shares how he launched his company, Self Storage Brothers, with his wife and mother, and has since amassed 10 facilities across Eastern North Carolina. We also take a deep dive into how he uses advanced data infrastructure—including Google Cloud, BigQuery, and Claude AI—to analyze customer phone transcripts and run a highly efficient, localized operation. Timestamps: 02:05 – From Brain Surgery to Self-Storage: The Pivot 04:39 – Surviving a 7-Year Residency and Pursuing an MBA 06:38 – The Decision to Manage Internally over Third-Party Options 08:44 – Choosing Self-Storage: Pulling the Operational Levers 11:22 – Scaling to 10 Facilities in Eastern North Carolina 13:22 – Evolutionary Tech: Shifting to Google Cloud, BigQuery, and Claude AI 18:18 – Filtering the Noise: How to Evaluate Modern PropTech Vendors 20:24 – Self Storage Brothers: Training the Next Generation 25:47 – Operating Table Stresses vs. Real Estate Portfolio Decisions 28:39 – Shared Alma Mater: The Tufts University Connection Connect with Thaddeus Campbell (S3 Partners): Email: [email protected] LinkedIn:   / itsthadcampbell   This Episode was brought to you by: https://www.kiwisteel.com/