About Us
Jason C. Smith - President and Managing Partner
Mr. Smith, alongside his partner Marcellino Manilla, founded the General Partner, M.M. Smith & Partners, LLC in 2020.
From 2016 to 2019, Jason worked as an equity analyst at a Private Hedge Fund. He was the #4 ranked equity analyst in the United States on Sumzero in Nov-18 and Feb-19. At the hedge fund, Mr. Smith was instrumental in facilitating activist campaigns against corporate boards. Jason used bottoms-up fundamental analysis to target undervalued companies. He focused on strong balance sheets, FCF generation, and near-term catalysts. He was also responsible for managing junior analysts and served as lead analyst covering mostly tech and retail. The team conducted fundamental research, interviewed management, built financial models to produce company valuations, and published research reports giving investment recommendations.
Prior to joining the hedge fund, Mr. Smith worked in asset management for Edward Jones and AIG from 2012-2016. At AIG, he received a Top Advisor Award and was consistently ranked among the top 10% of advisors in the country.
From 2007-2019, Jason worked for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as a primary patent examiner, specializing in the railway/transportation sector. Mr. Smith passed the Patent Bar exam in 2011, and in 2017, Jason received the Bronze Medal award from the Department of Commerce, the highest honor given at the USPTO. He also received a Length of Service Award in 2017.
Mr. Smith was also a financial committee manager for PGCC's homeowner's association. Jason has a secret security clearance and holds his Series 66 license.
Mr. Smith completed the Financial Analyst Program at Florida Atlantic University. Jason graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business with a concentration in finance.
Mr. Smith is married with two children.
Mr. Manilla has 15 years of professional experience. He began his career in financial services under a holding owned by TransAmerica. From there, he transitioned to prospecting small businesses via an outside sales position. Then, he went on to further his career by starting his own international wholesale business that he had to develop the entire sales and marketing teams. After selling his interest in that company, he took an executive sales leadership position within a market leading medical device company.
His passion from real estate started as a young child when skyscraper buildings fascinated him. However, his real passion started during/after the 2008 crash. He bought his first home when he was 23 years old in Las Vegas, NV. The market was at a historic high, then the bottom fell out. Although this unfortunate series of events led to Marcellino short selling his house (Chapter 7), he saw this as an opportunity. There was a surplus of inventory that was extremely undervalued because of foreclosures and bank ownership. This was his first experience with capital raising. He began to raise money from family and friends to buy extremely low, then to quickly sell or rent at a fair reasonable price. Eventually, Marcellino matriculated back to Pittsburgh PA for family reasons, where he continued to utilize his extensive experience with single-family renovation and continued to optimize returns for himself and outside investors. In fact, he has a legendary flip where he 10x’d the value of a single-family home within 5 years. Since then, he (along with outside investors) have shifted their focus to multi-family residential in the booming Pittsburgh market.
Marcellino lives in the greater Pittsburgh area, in the suburb of Wexford, and is married with 2 children.
Marcellino Manilla – Partner & Director of Relationships