How Bankers and PE Firms Build Relationships That Move Deal Flow

Deal flow doesn't run through mass distribution lists — it runs through relationships. Yet the two sides of the M&A ecosystem rarely compare notes on how those relationships actually get built. This session unpacks the reciprocal dynamic between investment bankers and private equity: how bankers move from a name on a distribution list to a trusted advisor who earns both sell-side mandates for portfolio companies and buy-side assignments, and how PE firms move from the back of a 1,000-name blast list into the inner circle of a sector-focused banker's short list — ahead of the deal, not after the teaser goes out. 

Moderated by a PE professional and joined by both investment bankers and PE practitioners, the panel trades concrete tactics from each side of the table: what earns trust, what wastes it, and what a genuinely mutual relationship looks like versus a transactional one. Attendees leave with a practical playbook for improving the relationships that drive their deal flow — regardless of which side of the table they sit on.