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.

Start the exit relationships in year one of the hold, not year five. Name the 20 or so strategic acquirers, sponsors and bankers most likely to buy or sell your company, touch each one two to four times a year with real news, and you go to market with buyers who already know your team and your track record.

This page is the hold period relationship building exit plan: who goes on the list, how often to touch them, and what to say when there is nothing to sell yet.

Here is the scene. Year two of the hold. Board meeting. Someone asks, “Who buys this in 2029?” You answer with a list of logos. Not one person at any of them knows your name.

That is the gap. The company is getting better every quarter. The exit relationships are not getting built at all.

How long is a hold period, and why does it matter for relationships?

A typical hold is about five years, which is long enough to build real trust with buyers and long enough to let it slide completely. In What Do Private Equity Firms Say They Do? by Paul Gompers, Steven Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov, holding periods are described as centered around five years, matching the typical projection length in the deal model.

Search funds run longer. The IESE and Stanford International Search Funds 2024 study describes a five to ten year period between acquisition and exit, and notes that equity appreciation in search fund companies is often reported to be greatest after years 3 or 4.

Then the sale itself takes time. In the IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse for Q2 2026, lower middle market deals took 11 to 12 months to close. If the first time a buyer hears your name is the teaser, you are starting a year long process cold.

Who are your likely exit buyers?

Your likely exit buyers are mostly strategics and other sponsors, plus the bankers who will run the process. The same Gompers, Kaplan and Mukharlyamov survey found PE investors expected about half of exits to go to strategic buyers, almost 30 percent to financial buyers, and fewer than 20 percent through an IPO. Smaller firms expected IPOs even less often.

So build the map in that mix. Here is the version I would put on one page.

Buyer type	Who to know by name	What they want to hear	Touch cadence
Strategic acquirers (5 to 10)	Head of corporate development, the business unit leader in your segment	Market insight, shared customers, your team’s quality	2 to 4 times a year
Financial sponsors (5 to 10)	A partner or principal who covers your sector, plus anyone with a platform you could be an add on to	Growth, margins, management depth, a clean story	2 to 3 times a year
Bankers and advisors (3 to 5)	The sector banker who would run your sale, your deal attorney, your accountant	Your milestones, so they can position you early	Quarterly
Your own investors and board	Every investor, not just the anchor investor	Who they know at the names above	Every board cycle

Twenty to thirty people. That is the whole exit list. Small enough to touch properly, and big enough to create competition when you go to market.

A hold period relationship building exit timeline, year by year

Use this timeline as a starting point and adjust it to your hold.

1. Year 1: build the list. Write the 20 to 30 names. For each, note who in your network already knows them. Ask your investors for two introductions each. No asks beyond coffee.
2. Year 2: get on their radar. Meet the top tier once in person, usually at an industry conference. Send one note per quarter when something real happens on your side.
3. Year 3: be useful. Introduce a customer, share a market observation, send a hire their way. You want them to think “that CEO helped me,” not “that CEO wants something.”
4. Year 4: share the story, not the numbers. Talk about where the business is going. Line up the banker who will run the process and introduce them to your top tier names informally.
5. Year 5: go to market warm. When the teaser goes out, the people reading it already know you, your team and how you report.

Exit timing in the Gompers, Kaplan and Mukharlyamov survey depended most on achieving the operational plan and on capital market conditions, each considered by more than 90 percent of PE investors. You cannot control the market. You can control whether the buyers already know you when the window opens.

What do you send an exit buyer when nothing is for sale?

Send news, not a pitch. A short note with a real reason, written like a text, 40 words or fewer.

To a head of corporate development:

Saw your team closed the Midwest deal. Congrats. We are seeing the same consolidation from the customer side. If useful I’m happy to compare notes next time you are in Denver.

To a sector partner at a sponsor:

We just promoted our operations manager to COO, two years ahead of plan. Thought of you since you asked about management depth when we met in Chicago. Hope Q4 is treating you well.

To the banker who will run your sale:

Quick milestone: we crossed 40 percent recurring revenue this quarter. No process anytime soon, just keeping you current so you know the story when the time comes.

Every note references something specific. None of them mention a sale. That is the discipline.

Why does exit relationship work fall apart?

It falls apart because operating the company eats every hour, and none of these 25 people ever create urgency. Nobody calls the CEO to complain that a corporate development head has not heard from them in 11 months. The silence is free until the year you sell.

It also falls apart because the reasons to reach out are scattered: a press release from the acquirer, a promotion on LinkedIn, a deal announcement in a trade newsletter. You see one, mean to send a note, and lose it under the next board deck.

The same thing happens on the buy side. If you are also running add ons during the hold, add on acquisitions come from people covers that list. If you are the founder rather than the sponsor, who to warm up before you go to market covers the advisor side.

Ten minutes a day during the hold

That is why I built FRONT OF MIND. It opens on your 10 minutes for today, and each person has one line saying why today: their company was in the news, they posted, a follow up is due, they are going cold. Posts only show up if they are confirmed to belong to that person.

Every draft is a text style message, 40 words max. Nothing sends without your tap, and it learns from your edits. Ask Liala out loud, “who do I know at a private equity firm in Chicago,” and get the right people with why. It runs in your phone’s browser and saves to your home screen. Your contacts are encrypted. No one on our team looks at them, and you can export or delete anytime.

For how sponsors think about sourcing on their side, see how private equity firms source deals. For the full buyer playbook, see deal flow for business buyers.

Start free with your first 25 contacts and see which exit buyer comes up first.

See how it works