Jamie Mendola

Jamie Mendola is a New York native who began his career on Wall Street in leverage finance at J.P. Morgan, then moved into private equity as an analyst at JLL Partners. He earned an undergraduate degree from Binghamton University and an MBA in management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2005 he joined Watershed Asset Management as a principal, where he developed a "special situations" style of investing, and in 2009 he was recruited to Scout Capital Management — a firm that at its peak managed more than $5–6.7 billion — where he covered retail and financials, built out distressed-debt and credit-default-swap efforts, and established and ran Scout's Palo Alto office.

After Scout wound down in 2014, Mendola launched Pacific Grove Capital in October 2014, a concentrated, San Francisco–based hedge fund investing in consumer, technology, payments, business services, and SPACs. The fund reportedly grew to roughly $300–350 million in assets. Pacific Grove was named the best new hedge fund by Hedge Funds Review in 2015, and Mendola was recognized that year as an Institutional Investor "Hedge Fund Rising Star" and as one of "Tomorrow's Titans" by The Hedge Fund Journal. The fund converted to a family office structure at the end of 2018.

Mendola then spent several years scaling cannabis businesses. He co-founded Mercer Park Brand Acquisition Corp., a roughly $402 million Canadian-listed cannabis SPAC, leading the diligence and transaction that culminated in the acquisition of Glass House Group; he joined the Glass House Brands board after the de-SPAC in June 2021. He subsequently served as Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Business Development Officer at AYR Wellness. He also sat on the board of Monaker Group, a travel-software company.

Today Mendola is Founder and CEO of Pacific Grove Advisors, where he advises founders, boards, family offices, and investment funds on growth strategy, capital deployment, and operational scaling, and he invests as an angel. On March 13, 2026, he was appointed to the board of directors of LEEF Brands Inc.

• Invests at the seed stage as an angel, alongside advisory work through Pacific Grove Advisors and his family office.
• Long track record centered on consumer, technology, payments, business services, and cannabis — the same sectors he backed as a public-markets portfolio manager.
• Practices concentrated, "special situations" investing: fewer, higher-conviction positions in small-to-midsize companies rather than broad diversification.
• Values the culture and quality of the businesses (and firms) he builds, not just financial returns — a philosophy he has emphasized publicly since founding Pacific Grove.
• Brings an operator's lens (CRO/CBDO and board experience) to founders, focusing on operational scaling and capital deployment, not just passive capital.