HBS ETA Conference Follow Up: Who to Text and When
HBS ETA conference follow up for searchers, students and investors: who to text first, example messages, a decision table and a 30 day plan after the day.
By Brett Kaufman. 8 years using relationships to build sales pipelines, from political fundraising to a 7 figure business to running matchmaking for two communities. Over 1,000 introductions facilitated.
HBS ETA conference follow up comes down to timing and order: text the investors, CEOs and lenders tied to a live decision within 48 hours, close every intro you promised that week, then keep the rest warm until you raise or sign an LOI. One specific line per person beats a long thank you.
It is Saturday night in Boston. You spent the day at Harvard Business School between panels, a lunch line and a happy hour. You met an investor who backs first time searchers, a CEO three years into an acquired company, and a classmate searching in your industry. You have a stack of cards and a phone full of half sentences. By Monday, with classes or your day job back on, half of those names will blur.
I run matchmaking for two communities, so the days after a room empties are where I put my attention. I have not attended this conference. Here is how I would run the follow up.
What is the HBS ETA conference, and who is in the room?
It is a one day conference on entrepreneurship through acquisition, run by the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Club, a student club at Harvard Business School. The club’s stated goal: “Educate the HBS community about Entrepreneurship through Acquisition, and provide potential searchers with the network and resources needed to succeed.”
The club’s site described the tenth annual conference as Saturday, October 19, 2024, 9am to 5pm, with tickets on Eventbrite. The 2019 edition was held at Harvard Business School and shows the usual shape: a state of search talk, a keynote, investor and CEO panels, breakouts on sourcing, the transition period and searching abroad, skills workshops hosted by HBS professors, and a closing happy hour. The club now points to hbsetaconference.com, which had no date posted as of October 28, 2026. Check the official site for dates.
The room is a mix: MBA students thinking about search, active searchers, search fund investors, and CEOs who already bought. The club also runs an investor lookbook for people “interested in investing in HBS students.” That tells you why investors show up. They are meeting the next class early. Your follow up should make that easy for them.
Before the event: who to research, who to book
Most of the room is findable before you arrive. Spend 30 minutes on it.
- Investors on the agenda. Read what they have backed. Ask for 15 minutes on one question, not a pitch.
- CEOs two to four years past close. Pick two in your target size range. They know what you will face in year one.
- Panel moderators. On the 2019 agenda, moderators ran each breakout. They are often investors who chose the topic because they care about it.
- Lenders and deal attorneys. The 2019 agenda had a panel on building your deal team, plus a pre conference workshop on the private placement memorandum. If you are close to raising, these are people you will need by name.
For how this crowd fits the wider ETA calendar, see the best ETA conferences.
In the room: capture in 10 seconds
You will not take notes mid conversation with an investor. Capture right after, before the next one.
One sentence per person: name, role, the one thing they said, and what you owe them. “[Name], investor, backs solo searchers in services, wants my thesis one pager.” That sentence is the whole follow up later. Without it you write “great to meet you” to someone who gave you 20 real minutes.
What is the HBS ETA conference follow up order in the first 48 hours?
Sort by what is live, not by who was most impressive. The general rules are in who to follow up first after a conference. For this room:
- Investors tied to a decision. Anyone weighing your search or asking for materials.
- Intros you promised. Students talk. A promised intro that never happens gets noticed fast.
- CEOs who offered help. A deal review, a call about their first 100 days.
- Lenders and advisors you will need within a year.
- Classmates and fellow searchers. Inside the first week. They become your deal sharing circle.
Each message under 40 words, tied to the conversation:
“Great meeting you at the HBS ETA conference. Sending the one page thesis we discussed. Would value your read on the industry before I start raising in the spring.”
“[Name], thanks for the time after the CEO panel. Could I grab 20 minutes next week on how you handled the first 90 days with the seller?”
“Promised you an intro to [Name], who searched in home services. Sending it now, she is expecting you.”
“[Name], good comparing notes Saturday. Want to swap owner lists in industries we are not both chasing?”
Text or email depends on how they gave you their contact. More in follow up text after a conference.
Who gets what, and when?
| Who you met | First touch | Next real reason to touch |
|---|---|---|
| Investor backing first time searchers | Within 48 hours, thesis or one pager | When you launch your raise |
| CEO who offered help | Within 48 hours, specific ask | After the call, report what you did |
| Lender or deal attorney | Within one week | When you have a target under review |
| Classmate or fellow searcher | Within one week | Monthly deal swap |
| Panel moderator | Within one week, one line on their topic | When you hit the problem they covered |
The table is the part most people skip. A student event has a long tail. The investor you met in October may not write a check until you graduate. The next touch needs a real reason, and you need to know in advance what it is.
What should happen in the 30 days after?
The first week covers what is urgent. The month decides whether the day turns into a search.
- Close every loop. Every intro made, every document sent.
- Report back. If a CEO’s advice changed your thesis, tell them.
- Set the next reason. Raise launch, a first LOI, graduation, a new industry focus.
- Watch the “keep me posted” crowd. The investor who said it in October and has not heard from you by December is going cold, and you need them when you raise.
That last group is where the value leaks. “Keep me posted” has no deadline, so it never happens. More on the search side of these relationships in the relationship side of ETA.
The system that does this for you
I built FRONT OF MIND because I watched operators meet the right people, have real conversations, then disappear for months. It turns this into 10 minutes a morning. Say a name and a sentence out loud, snap a badge or card, or take a selfie together, and the person is filed under the conference. Each morning you get your 10 minutes for today, and every person has a one line reason why: you met at the HBS ETA conference 9 days ago and never followed up, a follow up is due, they posted. Every draft is a text of 40 words or less, nothing sends without your tap, and it learns from your edits.
Ask Liala “who do I know that is a search fund investor” and get the right people with why. It runs in your phone’s browser and saves to your home screen, no app store needed. Your contacts are encrypted. No one on our team looks at them, and you can export or delete anytime.
Start free with your first 25 contacts and see who from that day comes up first. More on the full method in the conference follow up system.