Your Connection to Finding and Networking with Gophers

Gopher Finder Memberships are completely free for invited Gopher alumni, courtesy of Spire Credit Union. Spire Credit Union believes in the power of networking and community. Since 1934, Spire has proudly served the residents of Minnesota.

Gopher Finder was created by Sam Richter, CSP, CPAE, founder and CEO of SBR Worldwide, LLC. Considered one of the world's leading authorities on digital intelligence and information, Sam is a bestselling author and Hall of Fame speaker who delivers his top-rated keynote presentations and workshop sessions to audiences worldwide. Learn more about Sam at www.samrichter.com/bio As a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Sam understands and has greatly benefited from networking and building strong relationships with other Minnesota alumni. As a way to give back to the Minnesota community, he created Gopher Finder.

As much as you would like. There are no limitations.

No. Some people don't have an online presence. Others inadvertently, or on purpose, don't make their online information publicly available. However, to date there are approximately 4.5 million people who are searchable via Gopher Finder, so we're sure you'll find some great results.

Absolutely, we love to build custom search applications. Please contact us for an Intel Engine for your organization.

Of course. Yet there is no other engine that allows you to laser-target your search to find the exact results you care about. For example, if you wanted to find CEOs of manufacturing companies in Phoenix who are graduates of the University of Minnesota, and who were a Beta Theta Ti fraternity member while at the U, how would you conduct that search in other engines and how long would it take? It took three seconds in Gopher Finder (there is one).

No, Gopher Finder is NOT a database. It is, however, a HUGE time saver. Gopher Finder and our Intel Engines makes finding information that is already online much easier. You could use a search engine like Google combined with other Websites to find the information that Gopher Finder and other Intel Engines deliver. However, you would need to know how to craft complex mathematical Boolean equations and/or know the correct Websites to even visit. You could spend minutes - or more likely hours - trying to find information on your own, or, you could use the Gopher Finder and Intel Engines and find the right information in just seconds.

With any online search, there is no guarantee that the information is accurate or current. However, Gopher Finder has built-in-logic that runs in the background and it attempts to filter out results from non-reputable sources.

Gopher Finder uses complex Boolean algorithms that looks for combinations of words that lead the system to believe that a person is a University of Minnesota graduate. Sometimes those words do appear on a person's online profile, just not in the correct order. That is known as a false-positive. In addition, just like any online search, sometimes odd results appear for no apparent reason. Yet hopefully Gopher Finder does a good enough job that 75%+ of the results are truly individuals who fit your search criteria.

We originally removed results from, for example, University of Minnesota-Duluth graduates. Yet in doing so, it also removed results of people who attended both schools. So, we decided to include all campus graduates.

Gopher Finders looks for combinations of words on a person's online profile to determine if someone a University of Minnesota graduate. Please contact us and we are happy to share what words you might want to put on your profile, so you do appear. In addition, some people inadvertently, or on purpose, don't make their profiles publicly available. For those people, their names will not appear in results.

Some people inadvertently, or on purpose, don't make their profile publicly available to open-Web search engines. For those people, their names will not appear in any results.

YES... please do so! If you now someone who would like a membership, have them email sam@samrichter.com or call 612-655-3397.

Gopher Finder is an AI-based search platform that makes it easy to very quickly find University of Minnesota alumni, anywhere in the world. Searching more than 850 million people and 4.5 million Gophers, in seconds you can locate alumni by job title, location, industry, skills, shared experiences, and more. In addition, Gopher Finder features resources to help you find a job, to hire a Gopher alumnus, and even communicate with those who you want to reach out to in a relevant way.

Conduct searches in Gopher Finder that are difficult, if not impossible, in other search tools. For example, in Power Search, it would take you less than five seconds to find Gopher alumni who live in New York, are in the healthcare industry, and who are members of Rotary.

In Gopher Finder's people search sections, results appear in clickable tabs allowing you to instantly sort results.

Each result tab represents approximately 30 unique job title searches, or approximately 420 unique individual searches. What would take you more than two hours to do manually, you can do in less than five seconds in Gopher Finder.

There are dozens of different ways that people identify themselves as University of Minnesota graduates (e.g., U of MN, U of M Gophers, University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Carlson School, University of Minnesota Duluth etc.). To capture all alumni using other engines, you would need to know all of the different ways people identify as Gophers and you would have to run each search separately. In Gopher Finder, all searches run in the background simultaneously and automatically.

Gopher Finder features a powerful News Search engine that only searches articles, press releases, blog posts, and social media posts that feature something about the University of Minnesota and its graduates.

Install the Browser Plug-In and get 200 free email and phone contact credits each month! You can also use the system to determine a person's email address.

Using Gopher Finder's Follow Up GPT system, you can quickly stay in touch with your network in ways in which they care about. Find an article or report and Gopher Finder will craft a relevant email for you.