Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Cutina Group was founded in 2021. Prior to founding the Cutina Group, its principals were actively involved in four properties: the Town Place Suites by Marriott, Natomas (Sacramento) CA, the Hampton Inn and Suites, Larkspur CA, the Hilton Garden Inn, Fontana, CA, and the Town Place Suites in Redding, CA.
In 2021 the Cutina Group acquired property in Morgan Hill, CA, and a second location in Northern California, for the purpose of building two new hotels.
The Cutina Group is focused on the development of high-quality select-service hotels across the United States.
Morgan Hill, California
California #6
Michelle Della Penna – Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Michelle is the driving force behind the Cutina Group. In addition to being the CEO of Cutina, Michelle is the Managing Partner of A3 Hospitality Natomas, owners of the Town Place Suites by Marriott, Natomas (Sacramento), CA. Michelle’s hotel investment portfolio also includes partnership interests in the Hampton Inn and Suites, Larkspur CA, the Hilton Garden Inn, Fontana, CA, and the Town Place Suites in Redding, CA.
Under Michelle’s leadership, the Cutina Group has acquired two new hotel sites in 2021, allowing for new construction in Morgan Hill, CA, and Northern California.
Michelle is a seasoned entrepreneur in the hospitality industry. Her experience spans across several sectors including hotel management, consumer packaged goods, and culinary science. Notably, Michelle and her companies spent years consulting with the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease, named the “#1 best diet for heart disease” by U.S. News & World Report for seven consecutive years.
Michelle’s understanding and compassion for consumers is the foundation for the Cutina Group’s impeccable standards. Michelle’s view of success for both company and customer is the lens through which Cutina manages all aspects of hotel development: market analysis, site selection, brand selection, construction, and management.
Michelle resides in Los Angeles, California. In addition to her business ventures, Michelle founded and operates the Della Penna Motorsports Next Generation Foundation, a nonprofit in honor of her father that creates opportunities for girls to get involved with motorsports.
Michelle graduated from the University of San Francisco with a degree in Psychology and Spanish.
Cosme Fagundo – Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Cosme is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, angel investor, and restaurateur.
Cosme’s family of companies directly employs thousands of people over a wide range of real estate investments and more than two dozen restaurants.
Cosme brings the Cutina Group years of managerial and investment experience. Having overseen multiple construction projects in his career, Cosme is well versed in the business of finding, funding, building, and managing investment-grade properties. In addition to his personal knowledge, Cosme has built a vast network of relationships that serve as a steady stream of proprietary investment opportunities. Cosme’s effort on behalf of the Cutina Group contributed to the acquisition of two new hotel sites slated for development in Morgan Hill, CA, and Northern California in 2021.
A native of Silicon Valley, Cosme has been a successful angel investor for over a decade. Applying the same formula he credits for his commercial success, Cosme brought his blend of a hands-on management style coupled with a deep understanding of management structure, or more simply, working with great people, to angel investing.
Cosme’s experience with angel investing illustrates his investment philosophy. After joining Sand Hill Angels, one of the nation’s largest angel investor groups, Cosme became Sand Hill’s President in an effort to both learn and lead. Investing in sound projects with great people resounded clearly to him and carries over in a direct line to his work with Cutina.
Cosme’s energetic curiosity, breadth and depth of knowledge, and fanatical attention to detail provide Cutina’s other partners both a sounding board and a workhorse.
Cosme resides in Silicon Valley where he is active in various philanthropic and community engagement activities, including past positions as a board member of both the Silicon Valley Organization and the Ronald McDonald Charities of the Bay Area.
Jeff Wasson – Partner
Joining Cutina Group has brought Jeff’s career full circle in the hospitality industry.
Jeff’s career started as a founder of TravelNow.com, and as CEO, Jeff led the company through start-up and expansion, taking the company public on the NASDAQ prior to selling the company to Hotels.com. TravelNow.com continues to operate as a part of Expedia.com
Jeff continued his entrepreneurial career by founding two additional travel-related start-up companies, EZTrip and then Gusto, which he ran as CEO until 2011.
After exiting the travel technology world and taking a two-and-a-half-year hiatus to travel the world with his wife and two daughters, he re-emerged in Silicon Valley ready to find the next big thing.
In 2013, Jeff moved to Palo Alto, California, and joined the Sand Hill Angels investment group, the nation’s most active angel investment group, where he served as Vice President.
In 2015, Jeff became an early investor and partner in the venture capital firm Boost VC, the world’s most active fund for bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and virtual and augmented reality related companies.
In 2017, Jeff moved back to Missouri and continues to invest in and operate a variety of companies.
With 25 years of operational experience from start-up to sale, Jeff has seen if not all of it, most of it, having raised millions in capital and having employed hundreds during his tenure. An overlapping 20+ years of personally investing in early-stage companies has given Jeff the start-up experience from another lens. Jeff has worked on every continent except Antarctica and brings to bear the global perspective needed in today’s world.