March Capital runs one of the most curated investor conferences in the country. Now in its 24th year, the Montgomery Summit brings 1,200 senior technology leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs to the Fairmont in Santa Monica every March. The conference is invite-only, requires VP-level seniority or above, and begins selecting companies for the stage from a pool of 700. In a recent episode of Marketing Ventures, we sat down with Melissa Montan, Vice President of Platform & Marketing at March Capital, to learn how the firm turns a two-day event into a year-round network that creates real value for its portfolio companies. Topics Discussed: How the Montgomery Summit started in 2004 and grew into a 1,200-person invite-only eventWhy March Capital books the next year's venue the day the current summit endsHow themes like AI and geopolitics force real-time programming decisions weeks before the conferenceWhy the 2026 summit brought in podcast hosts, Substack writers, and a meme lord alongside traditional pressHow March Capital curates 130 companies on stage from a starting pool of 700How the CrowdStrike relationship started at the 2005 summit and generated $5 billion in distributed LP valueHow the summit flywheel extends into McKinsey dinners, Milken panels, and AWS workshops throughout the yearWhat a team of 5 can do for 30 portfolio companies when relationships are the infrastructureWhy concentrated portfolios (12-15 investments per fund) allow March Capital to be the first call for founders GTM & Technology Adoption Lessons: Curation is the product, not the conference: March Capital starts with 700 companies and narrows to 130 on stage. Every attendee is hand-selected. The selection process - driven by a venture capital brainstorming committee and deep relationship networks - is what creates value for the people in the room. The flywheel does not stop when the summit ends: The relationships built at the summit become the McKinsey dinner guest list, the Milken speaker pipeline, and the AWS partnership workshop attendees. ROI compounds over long time horizons: The CrowdStrike story is the clearest example. George Kurtz first appeared at the summit in 2005 when he was still at McAfee. March Capital invested in the Series D and Series E. Real-time flexibility is a competitive advantage: When Claude launched right before the 2026 summit, it changed enterprise AI conversations. When the Iran war started a week before, the firm called General David Petraeus to join the geopolitics session and rejigged the schedule. Intimacy at scale requires intentional design: 1,200 people can feel like a large conference or a small community depending on who is in the room. New media is now a pillar, not an add-on: The 2026 summit brought in podcast hosts, Substack writers, and a meme lord alongside traditional press. One founder's live podcast recording happened on stage. Concentrated portfolios create real platform leverage: With only 30 active companies and a team of 5 dedicated to platform and marketing, March Capital can spend real time with each portfolio company. // Sponsors: Front Lines -- Silicon Valley's leading Podcast Production Studio. We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. Mention you are a listener and get a 10% discount. www.FrontLines.io/Podcast-as-a-Service
