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.

Following up after the Stanford Search Fund CEO Conference comes down to three groups: the investors and lenders tied to your next decision, the CEOs who already solved the problem you are working on, and anyone you promised an introduction to. Text them inside 48 hours with the one thing you discussed, then keep the rest warm for the months between conferences.

It is Thursday afternoon. You are at SFO with a pocket of cards, a phone full of half typed notes, and a board meeting Monday. You talked to a CEO who rolled out AI across a 40 person team, an investor who asked about your add on pipeline, and a former operator who might make a great independent director. By the time you land, two of those names are already blurry.

I run matchmaking for two communities, so the hours after a room empties are where I spend my attention. Here is how I would run this one.

What this conference is, and who is in the room

The Stanford Search Fund CEO Conference is run by Stanford Graduate School of Business on its campus. The most recent edition was held September 3 to 4, 2025. It was the fifth since the first one in 2017, and it drew nearly 500 attendees from around the world, most of them CEOs or their closest advisors and supporters. The chair, Peter Kelly, a Stanford GSB lecturer, put the goal plainly: “This conference is to help CEOs of search companies, along with their boards, build something great.”

Be clear on access. There is no public registration on Stanford’s site, and the 2025 event page is restricted. Treat it as an invitation room for CEOs, their boards and investors, not a ticket you can buy. If you are still searching and do not have an invitation, your path in runs through your investors or the Stanford GSB Search Fund Project. Stanford has not posted the next date. Check the official site for dates rather than planning around a guess.

That shapes everything about follow up. The format is panels plus a lot of hallway time, and Stanford’s own coverage says attendees compared it “to a family reunion.” In a room where everyone already half knows each other, the risk is not that you forget a stranger. It is that you assume a relationship is warm because you shook hands in September, then say nothing until the next one.

Before the event: who to research, who to book

What I tell people before any event: most of the room is reachable before you arrive. Use that.

• Your own investors and board. Book breakfast or a walk with each one who is attending. You see them on calls all year. You rarely get unhurried time.
• CEOs one stage ahead of you. Pick three who bought a company in your size range or industry two to five years before you. Read their company news. Ask for 20 minutes on one specific problem.
• Panelists. The 2025 agenda included a panel on AI inside three search companies and one on growing equity value over a long hold. If a panel matches your problem, send the speaker a note before, not a line in the crowd after.
• Possible independent directors. Will Thorndike told the 2025 room that “there is real potential in adding new blood from other backgrounds” on search fund boards. If you are adding a seat, this is a short list building room.

For the deal side of the same relationships, see deal sourcing for search funds.

In the room: capture in 10 seconds

You will not take notes during a hallway conversation with a CEO you admire. So capture after, fast, before the next one starts.

One sentence per person is enough: name, company, the one thing they said, and what you owe them. “Dana, services CEO, rolled out AI team by team, I owe her our board deck template.” That sentence is the whole follow up later. Without it, you are writing “great to meet you” to someone you actually talked to for 30 minutes.

The 48 hours after: who first, and what to send

I would sort by what is live, not by who was most impressive. The general order is in who to follow up first after a conference. For this room it looks like this:

1. Anyone tied to a live decision. An investor or lender on an add on, a board candidate, a CEO who offered to look at your numbers.
2. Intros you promised. In a community this small, a promised intro that never happens gets noticed. Intros are most of what I do, and I would put these near the top every time.
3. CEOs who solved your current problem. Pricing, a key hire, an AI rollout, a refinancing.
4. Investors you met for the first time. Your next raise or recap starts here.

Keep each message short and tied to the conversation. Examples, each under 40 words:

“Great walking with you Thursday. Sending the add on teaser we discussed tonight. Would love your read on the customer concentration before we go to LOI.”

“Dana, here is the board deck template I promised. Any chance I could ask you two questions on your AI rollout next week?”

“Promised you an intro to Sam, who refinanced his search company last year. Sending it now, he is expecting you.”

“Thanks for the time on independent directors. Would you be open to a 30 minute call in November about a seat on our board?”

Text or email depends on how you already talk to each person. More on that in follow up text after a conference.

The 30 days after

The first week takes care of what is urgent. The next month is where this conference pays off or fades.

• Close every loop you opened. Every intro made, every document sent.
• Report back. If a CEO’s advice changed a decision, tell them what happened. That one message does more than any thank you.
• Set a reason for the next touch. A board meeting outcome, an acquisition closing, a hire. Anything real.
• Watch the quiet ones. The investor who said “keep me posted” and has not heard from you by mid October is going cold, and the next conference may be a long way off.

That last one is where I see most of the value leak. There is no deadline on “keep me posted.” So it never happens.

The system that does this for you

I built FRONT OF MIND because I watched operators meet the right people, have real conversations, and then disappear for months. It turns this into 10 minutes a morning. Say a name and a sentence out loud, snap a badge, 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 on it has a one line reason why: you met at the conference 9 days ago and never followed up, an add on deal has been quiet for 7 days, their company was in the news. 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. 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 room comes up first.

See how it works