Quick answers
Who is Jon Mendes?
One of PartnerStack's four co-founders, with Bryn Jones, Luke Swanek and Neil Chudleigh. PartnerStack's own ten-year anniversary post (May 2025) and BetaKit (April 2026) both name him as a founder. Y Combinator's PartnerStack page, checked in September 2026, lists him as Jonathan Mendes with the title Founder/Designer.
How did the PartnerStack founders meet?
Bryn Jones wrote on PartnerStack's blog in November 2018 that he and Luke Swanek met Neil Chudleigh and Jon Mendes in grad school at Western, where all four were in a business accelerator program. Their first company there was called Pod; the four came together in 2014.
What happened to PartnerStack?
It was founded in 2015 as GrowSumo and later renamed PartnerStack. BetaKit reported on April 14, 2026 that AppDirect acquired it, for just over $150 million USD mostly in AppDirect stock according to one source, and was keeping the company's leadership team. The report does not say what role Mendes holds today.