About Us
We are a small team of real estate investors and operators currently acquiring and managing short term rental properties in the Lakes Region & southern White Mountains of New Hampshire. The four of us went to school together at Northeastern University majoring in business and going off to find success in a variety of career paths from entrepreneurship to real estate that has helped us establish a strong, cross-functional team. Seeing the success of our initial properties, we are expanding our services to help the operations of other short term rental properties in the region.
Meet the Team
MANAGING PARTNER, POTHOS STAYS
Allen Meringolo
In addition to Pothos endeavors, Allen works as a small business consultant and part-time with Pothos’ construction and maintenance partner, Tuck Home Services. He got his start in real estate as a 19 year old working as an agent in Boston, MA. After graduating from Northeastern University, he spent three years with Johnny and Ali at Eat Your Coffee, running the retail and foodservice sides of the business.
There are few things Allen loves more than chatting with municipal planning officials, reading books and articles about massive public works and development projects, and picking people’s brains on big picture real estate trends. He brought the team together, formulated the investment thesis the company is executing on, and co-led the acquisition process of Pothos portfolio with Jesse.
MANAGING PARTNER, FINANCE
Ali Kothari
Ali is an Head of Finance & Business Analytics at venture-backed startup, Sensory Cloud. Prior to that, he was the COO & Co-Founder of Eat Your Coffee. There, he was responsible for all the operations and finances of the company — including but not limited to creating and launching 10 SKUs, overseeing the production of 2.5M+ units of product, coordinating distribution to 1,500+ retail locations and 3,000+ offices, and managing $10M+ in transactions.
For Pothos, he is deep in Excel ensuring our forecasts are correct, remaining cash flow positive, and has built out the framework of responding to guest inquiries and ongoing communication.
MANAGING PARTNER, ACQUISITIONS
Jesse Prato
Jesse is a Certified General Real Estate Appraiser at HealthTrust, a company that specializes in healthcare real estate valuation. Prior to becoming the youngest Director at HealthTrust, Jesse grew up in a blue collar family spending most summers working at an Award Winning family-owned and operated 200+ site KOA Campground.
Jesse lives and breathes real estate with experience in leasing, valuation, and hospitality. With Allen, he co-led the acquisition and financing of Evergreen Estates and Hilltop Hideaway; he and Allen also purchased a condo in 2018 in Chelsea, MA that they currently lease. Jesse brings valuation expertise, with over $3B+ in valuations, and deep understanding of the inner workings of real estate deals.
FOUNDER & ADVISOR
Johnny Fayad
Johnny is the Head of Growth at venture-backed startup, Sensory Cloud. Prior to that, he was the CEO & Co-Founder of Eat Your Coffee. There, he managed all fundraising efforts raising $3M in capital, and developed their omnichannel sales and marketing strategy gaining placements in over 4,500 locations, over 100K customers, and sold 2.5M+ bars all-time before successfully selling the business in 2021. His real estate journey began as a rental agent in Boston at 19 before shifting gears to run Eat Your Coffee full-time.
For Pothos, Johnny manages all things relating to the look and feel of our properties – including, but not limited to our furnishings, renovations, and the guest experience.