Tech Investor Stays Linked To Pitch Event

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During last year’s Montgomery Technology Conference in Santa Monica, Jamie Montgomery was extra busy.

He wasn’t just doing the standard meet-and-greet associated with putting on the event. He was looking for someone who wanted to buy Montgomery & Co., a tech-focused investment bank he ran with his brother, Michael. The company had organized the annual get-together for 10 years.

Indeed, a few weeks later, the Montgomerys announced their investment banking business would go to Signal Hill, a firm in Baltimore.

“I was ready to do something different,” Jamie Montgomery said.

But he wasn’t ready to give up the conference, which he’s maintained under a new name. Now called Oasis: The Montgomery Summit, it will be at Santa Monica’s Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows this Wednesday and Thursday.

The event will still feature startups pitching to investors – Hollywood financial tech firm ZestFinance and Santa Monica online merchant Honest Co. will be there, along with more than 130 others – and networking. But some things will change.

For starters, the event used to be free but will now cost $1,295. Montgomery & Co. used to source deals from the conference, which justified the cost. Now, Jamie Montgomery said he wants Oasis to be a self-sustaining event that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation in Los Angeles.

And he’ll be a little more relaxed. He said he used to have hundreds of one-on-one meetings over the course of the two-day event.

“I’m not doing that this time around,” he said. “My goal is just to get the flywheel moving.”

– James Rufus Koren