A friend of mine made a service that does this. (Iirc it's called HNwatcher) I follow a small number of people with it and periodically get emails about their

A friend of mine made a service that does this. (Iirc it's called HNwatcher) I follow a small number of people with it and periodically get emails about their new posts. I think some companies use it to track mentions of their company or product as well. A follow feature would be nice but this is currently filling the gap for me.