The strongest PE relationships are usually built before there is a deal to sell.
Private equity firms and investment bankers spend a lot of time around each other.
The valuable relationships, however, are not necessarily the ones generating the most emails or the most CIMs.
If I were looking at what makes an investment banker genuinely useful to a private equity firm, I would start with a different question:
Is this someone I want to hear from when they don't have a live deal?
That says much more about the relationship.
Know what the fund actually wants to buy
A PE firm's website can tell you that it invests in software, healthcare or business services.
That is only the beginning.
The bankers who become useful tend to understand the firm's current appetite: check size, platform versus add-on, control versus minority, founder-owned businesses, subsectors of particular interest and which portfolio companies are actively acquisitive.
That knowledge is particularly important in technology right now.
Globally, EY reported that the value of technology-focused PE transactions fell 50% year over year in the first half of 2026, while non-technology deals increased 9%. EY's interpretation was not that sponsors had stopped investing, but that they were applying a higher underwriting bar where AI disruption had made assumptions around growth, pricing power and defensibility harder to make.
Against that backdrop, sending every sponsor the same “good software company” is unlikely to create much value.
Knowing why this company fits this buyer now does.
Bring information when there is nothing to sell
Investment bankers see a side of the market that PE firms cannot reproduce internally.
They talk to founders, strategic buyers, lenders, other sponsors and executives contemplating transactions.
That creates useful information long before a formal sell-side process starts. Where are valuations actually clearing? Which buyers have become more active? What is getting through investment committees? What are buyers becoming nervous about? Where is financing available? Which sectors look attractive in a pitchbook but are proving difficult in diligence?
The banker who can have that conversation without immediately turning it into a sales process is more useful.
And in a more selective PE market, useful filtering matters. McKinsey's 2026 private-equity work describes an industry where deal sourcing, entry discipline, asset-level underwriting and operational value creation are increasingly important to returns.
PE firms do not need more undifferentiated deal flow. They need better signal.
Think about the exit long before the mandate
One of the most interesting opportunities for a banker may begin well before the portfolio company is formally for sale.
EY's 2026 exit-readiness study found that 86% of surveyed GPs believed preparation improved valuations, with the strongest outcomes associated with starting 12 to 24 months before a sale.
That creates a much more strategic banker conversation. What will the eventual buyer care about? Where is the equity story weak? Which metrics need to become more credible? Which strategic acquirers could matter in two years? Is management ready to tell the story? What would stop the company getting the valuation the sponsor expects?
Those questions can be useful even when there is no engagement letter on the table.
They also matter because corporate buyers remain central to PE exits. EY reported that trade sales accounted for 71% of global PE exit value during the first half of 2026.
A banker who understands the strategic-buyer universe can therefore be valuable long before anyone decides to run a process.
Sometimes the useful answer is “this isn't for you”
A banker who sends everything eventually trains people not to pay attention.
The opposite can be powerful.
That demonstrates knowledge of the buyer rather than enthusiasm for distributing a deal.
The same applies to market intelligence. A relationship becomes more credible when the banker is willing to say a company is unlikely to achieve the valuation its owners expect, a process is probably premature or a particular buyer is less serious than it appears.
Good relationships require some information that is useful even when it does not generate an immediate fee.
A well-run process is remembered
When there is finally a transaction, the basics become very visible. Is management prepared? Can the financials survive scrutiny? Are deadlines real? Does the banker understand which diligence issues matter? Is the process competitive without becoming chaotic? Can difficult conversations be handled without losing credibility with either side?
A sell-side banker represents the seller. PE buyers know that.
What they remember is whether the process itself was credible. A tough process can still build respect. A disorganized one can destroy it.
The relationship should exist between transactions
This is where private equity and investment banking become interesting from the perspective of what we are building at Open Future Forum.
The two groups clearly need each other.
That does not mean PE leaders want every private-equity gathering filled with bankers. And it does not mean senior investment bankers should only meet each other when somebody has a mandate to pitch.
They need their own rooms, with selective opportunities to cross between them.
As we develop the Open Future Forum private-equity community and explore a more focused peer group for senior investment bankers in Silicon Valley, that separation is important.
The goal is not another ballroom filled with people swapping business cards. It is to create enough trust that when a PE investor and an investment banker do meet, the conversation starts somewhere more useful than: “What deals do you have?”
For a banker, becoming the person a PE partner calls about a transaction is valuable. Becoming the person they call before there is a transaction is probably more valuable.
Last updated: August 23, 2026
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Open Future Forum's Private Equity Executive Forum convenes sponsors, operating partners and the advisers around them in small, invitation-only rooms — built for relationships that start before there is a deal. Global, founded in Silicon Valley.