Latest / MountainWest Capital Network: Welcome to the Winners' Circle / The 2025 Utah Deal Flow Report | A Look at Utah’s Business Economy with MWCN

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The 2025 Utah Deal Flow Report | A Look at Utah’s Business Economy with MWCN · MountainWest Capital Network: Welcome to the Winners' Circle

0:02
Speaker 1: You know, if you look at private venture capital activity
0:05
Speaker 1: nationally is high, especially concentrated around a lot of AI
0:09
Speaker 1: mega deals all characterize them as creating records for Q
0:13
Speaker 1: one twenty twenty six nationally.
0:15
Speaker 2: We've also seen in the recent years a shift of
0:18
Speaker 2: some of that dominance of the majority of the deals
0:21
Speaker 2: being tech and software focused to blue collar consumer service
0:26
Speaker 2: companies as well.
0:28
Speaker 3: And we would talk about the deals that we had
0:30
Speaker 3: heard of and we just start writing down names and things.
0:38
Speaker 4: You're listening to the Mountain West Capital Network podcast your
0:42
Speaker 4: Gateway to the Winner Circle. I'm Sherry, the executive director
0:45
Speaker 4: of Mountain West Capital Networks.
0:46
Speaker 5: And I'm Jason, president of the Mountain West Capital Network
0:49
Speaker 5: and managing director at Protivity. Every episode, we sit down
0:53
Speaker 5: with Utah's most visionary business leaders to uncover the ideas, risks,
0:57
Speaker 5: and wins behind the state's fastest growing companies.
1:01
Speaker 4: Mount West Capital Network is best known for the Utah
1:03
Speaker 4: one hundred, our flagship event that recognizes the state's fastest
1:07
Speaker 4: growing businesses. But behind every number is a story, and
1:11
Speaker 4: this is what this podcast is all about.
1:14
Speaker 5: You're not just tuning in to hear what's happened, You're
1:16
Speaker 5: stepping inside the Winner Circle to understand how it happened.
1:21
Speaker 4: This episode is a little different. Today we are pleased
1:25
Speaker 4: to be joined by three members of the Mountain West
1:27
Speaker 4: Capital Network community. We have Katie Reese, Matt Bartholomew, and
1:32
Speaker 4: Kevin jessup here with us today to discuss the twenty
1:35
Speaker 4: twenty five deal Flow Report.
1:38
Speaker 5: Katie is one of the Mountain West Capital Network Executive
1:40
Speaker 5: Committee members who brings extensive experience and complex business transactions
1:45
Speaker 5: spanning private and public companies, strategic mergers, and joint ventures.
1:50
Speaker 5: She regularly represents private equity funds in their portfolio companies
1:54
Speaker 5: in such transactions through her role as an m and
1:57
Speaker 5: a partner at Kirkland and Ellis LP. Matt is also
2:01
Speaker 5: a member of the Executive Committee and principal in the
2:04
Speaker 5: Deal Services Group at Clifton Larsen Allen LLP, where he
2:08
Speaker 5: provides financial due diligence services to private equity firms and
2:12
Speaker 5: privately held businesses. He specializes on both buyside and sell
2:17
Speaker 5: site transactions as well as carve outs. He specializes in
2:21
Speaker 5: identifying key financial and accounting matters that ultimately translate into
2:26
Speaker 5: value and net proceeds. And Kevin serves also as the
2:31
Speaker 5: Mountwest Capital Network chairman, former president, and brings over twenty
2:35
Speaker 5: years of experience in sales and marketing for large public companies.
2:39
Speaker 5: He currently leads marketing and business development for IMA Financial Group.
2:44
Speaker 4: Together, we'll discuss the twenty twenty five Deal Flow Report,
2:48
Speaker 4: Utah's only comprehensive publication tracking equity related financial transactions statewide.
2:55
Speaker 4: This marks the thirty first edition and for the fifty
2:59
Speaker 4: year in a row, also includes a section called Capital
3:02
Speaker 4: Providers in Utah.
3:04
Speaker 5: Katie, Matt, and Kevin, Welcome to the Winner Circle.
3:07
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, appreciate it.
3:09
Speaker 4: We are excited to have you all here today. Kevin,
3:14
Speaker 4: I'm going to turn this to you. We call Kevin
3:17
Speaker 4: the grandfather of the Deal Flow Report, and that's because
3:20
Speaker 4: he goes way way back and has the pamphlets to
3:24
Speaker 4: prove it. Can you describe what the twenty twenty five
3:28
Speaker 4: Deal Flow Report is and why it's relevant.
3:32
Speaker 3: So the twenty twenty five Deal Flow Report, it captures
3:35
Speaker 3: all of the deal related transactions in the state of Utah.
3:40
Speaker 3: An equity transaction is any financial deal that involves ownership
3:44
Speaker 3: in a company, buying shares, selling shares, shares, exchanging hands.
3:49
Speaker 3: You know, for like a merging acquisition. At a practical level,
3:54
Speaker 3: you know, it's issuing stock, sometimes it's selling a secondary offering,
3:59
Speaker 3: different things like that. The twenty twenty five book is
4:03
Speaker 3: a collection of all of the data that describes all
4:08
Speaker 3: of those different transactions.
4:10
Speaker 4: I was looking at my advanced copy of this book
4:14
Speaker 4: and I noticed I started counting. Actually, there's over eighty
4:17
Speaker 4: people involved in putting this book together. Eighty people in
4:22
Speaker 4: this committee. And this is probably it's one of my
4:24
Speaker 4: favorite committees ever because we get such a diverse group
4:27
Speaker 4: of amazing people that work together to bring this report
4:32
Speaker 4: and have it able to present during the year. The
4:36
Speaker 4: deal Flow Report, as you mentioned, tracks equity related transactions. Kevin,
4:42
Speaker 4: I'm going to stay on you because I want to
4:44
Speaker 4: hear a little bit about the history of it, because
4:47
Speaker 4: I just called you the grandfather of deal Flow. But
4:50
Speaker 4: now that we have a committee that's eighty large or more,
4:54
Speaker 4: how did it begin and what are you thinking about
4:57
Speaker 4: it today?
4:58
Speaker 3: Okay, So interestingly enough, I will actually part of I
5:02
Speaker 3: was not an official trustee with Malois Capitol Network then,
5:07
Speaker 3: but I was part of the team that put together
5:10
Speaker 3: this little pamphlet in nineteen ninety six, right it's a
5:13
Speaker 3: deal flow report. And when I say report, that was
5:16
Speaker 3: kind of a generous word. I was, you know, a
5:18
Speaker 3: pamphlet of oh, a couple dozen pages. It was combound,
5:23
Speaker 3: just not even a full eight and a half by
5:25
Speaker 3: eleven sheet, and it listed all the transactions and the
5:29
Speaker 3: amounts that we knew. And you know, back then these
5:32
Speaker 3: this was like pre internet, not pre Internet days, but
5:36
Speaker 3: not everybody, not all of the information was on the internet.
5:40
Speaker 3: You know, this is the world Wide Web was new,
5:43
Speaker 3: and you know, it really involved a lot of old
5:47
Speaker 3: school gumshoe reporting, investigative type work. We would sit around
5:52
Speaker 3: a table, there were like twelve of us, sometimes you know,
5:56
Speaker 3: up to twenty, and we would talk about the deals
5:58
Speaker 3: that we had heard of and we'd just start writing
6:01
Speaker 3: down names and things. We'd get people like Brad Bertosh
6:05
Speaker 3: that was really keyed into the everything that was going
6:09
Speaker 3: on in angel investing and early you know, seeds, transactions,
6:14
Speaker 3: different things like that. We had securities attorneys around the table,
6:18
Speaker 3: We had accountants that had been involved in different deals,
6:22
Speaker 3: and we would just start writing down names and companies
6:25
Speaker 3: and then we would have to follow up with those
6:27
Speaker 3: companies and we would scan newspapers we would scan you know,
6:31
Speaker 3: business Utah business articles, different written printed sources of information.
6:39
Speaker 3: Before we would call these companies and say, hey, I've
6:43
Speaker 3: got information on this transaction and I'd like some more details.
6:47
Speaker 3: Most of the time they didn't want to give you
6:49
Speaker 3: that information, but if you gave them any incorrect information,
6:52
Speaker 3: they wanted.
6:53
Speaker 2: To correct it right still to this day.
6:56
Speaker 4: Yep.
6:58
Speaker 3: In those early days, you know Edgar filings have you know,
7:02
Speaker 3: we're starting back then, and we would use those for
7:05
Speaker 3: all public transactions, you know, ken Kay's scouring for you
7:10
Speaker 3: know Ak's different stuff like that. You know, it was
7:14
Speaker 3: it was much more difficult and an entirely different process.
7:19
Speaker 4: Did you ever envision it being what it is today?
7:22
Speaker 3: Not really, because I didn't. You know, who could have seen.
7:24
Speaker 3: I guess maybe people did. What the Internet has become
7:28
Speaker 3: and what kind of information is instantly available at your fingertips.
7:33
Speaker 3: I mean when Venture one came out with their report
7:36
Speaker 3: and the PwC money Tree, I mean I was a
7:41
Speaker 3: committee chair for the Peel Flow report back then, and
7:45
Speaker 3: that was just fantastic. I mean, like to have one
7:48
Speaker 3: place where you could look and see not all of
7:51
Speaker 3: the deals, but you know, a few dozen deals and
7:56
Speaker 3: companies that they were tracking and following. Venture one was
7:59
Speaker 3: awesome because they would follow up with companies that hadn't
8:02
Speaker 3: done a transaction but were interested in maybe doing a
8:05
Speaker 3: transaction and different things like that. And today we've just
8:09
Speaker 3: got so many more resources available, you know.
8:11
Speaker 2: We do, Katie.
8:13
Speaker 5: You know you've been super involved and you know, maybe
8:17
Speaker 5: you can highlight biggest changes as it relates to twenty
8:21
Speaker 5: twenty five with regards to mergers and acquisitions kind of
8:24
Speaker 5: what did you notice anything that you know you wanted
8:27
Speaker 5: to highlight for the listeners.
8:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, just in recent years, so compared to you
8:31
Speaker 2: know how Kevin, how they used to have to do
8:33
Speaker 2: it right. You probably had to get the printed at
8:35
Speaker 2: Core reports of the printed dead case and come through them.
8:39
Speaker 2: To your point, there's a lot more information out there
8:41
Speaker 2: these days. There's also a lot more ways to do deals.
8:45
Speaker 2: These days. They what counts as a deal or a transaction,
8:49
Speaker 2: including what's reportable in our report, has expanded so much,
8:54
Speaker 2: particularly in the last five years, I would say, and
8:58
Speaker 2: continuing to expand every year, including in twenty twenty five.
9:02
Speaker 2: So I think our parameters for the report used to
9:05
Speaker 2: be I would say, more straightforward than they are today
9:08
Speaker 2: where it was, you know, over fifty thousand dollars. Not
9:11
Speaker 2: real estate only, not debt only rights. Most often equity
9:16
Speaker 2: issuances still picks up asset sales, you know, because if
9:20
Speaker 2: you're selling the whole business, you might sell the assets
9:22
Speaker 2: or the equity that. We don't care about that, right,
9:24
Speaker 2: We're trying to get all of those kinds of transactions. However,
9:27
Speaker 2: the structure or form it was done in and so
9:30
Speaker 2: that was pretty straightforward, right like you were looking for
9:32
Speaker 2: those different things. The report was broken up into private placements,
9:37
Speaker 2: so equity issued by a company here headquartered in Utah,
9:43
Speaker 2: m and a transactions as you mentioned, Jason, where you
9:47
Speaker 2: either have an acquir or here in Utah or the
9:51
Speaker 2: target company the company acquired is here in Utah.
9:54
Speaker 3: And in the past you don't. I mean we were
9:58
Speaker 3: like the perfect target for outside of outside of Utah
10:02
Speaker 3: companies to acquire. I mean, we had a lot of
10:05
Speaker 3: a good entrepreneurial spirit and the company would start to
10:09
Speaker 3: grow and an outside firm would come in.
10:11
Speaker 2: And you scoop it up.
10:14
Speaker 4: Well.
10:14
Speaker 2: And that's a good point because I've expanded the report
10:16
Speaker 2: in the last five years to cover both sides of it.
10:19
Speaker 2: Because you have acquires here in Utah now where you
10:21
Speaker 2: didn't have them necessarily before.
10:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've got tons of acquisitions now, which is fantastic.
10:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we've had to revise how that M and
10:28
Speaker 2: A tab we call it a tab when we're putting
10:31
Speaker 2: all the information together in our excel, how that information
10:35
Speaker 2: initially comes in. And it's now expanded to be a
10:38
Speaker 2: lot more because you have acquier information and acquire information
10:42
Speaker 2: versus I think we used to just do it. It
10:43
Speaker 2: was really focused on the target acquiree information. And then
10:48
Speaker 2: you have your public company deals, which are issuances on
10:51
Speaker 2: the public market by a company headquarter to get in Utah.
10:54
Speaker 2: So private placements and public company deals are more straightforward, right.
10:58
Speaker 2: Issuance is of equity M and A you get into
11:02
Speaker 2: and this is really anything more than a majority in
11:07
Speaker 2: the company is purchased, so over fifty percent, which is
11:12
Speaker 2: very hard to tell. Sometimes these days people are they've
11:16
Speaker 2: gone there has been a pattern of going up and
11:19
Speaker 2: down or trending as to issuing press releases or not
11:23
Speaker 2: issuing press releases. There's been years where there it looks
11:27
Speaker 2: like there's less deals just because people aren't as interested
11:29
Speaker 2: in issuing press releases. I think that that trend has
11:32
Speaker 2: changed in the last particularly three years. People are much
11:35
Speaker 2: more interested in issuing a press release. However, they are
11:40
Speaker 2: not as detailed or as straightforward as they used to be,
11:43
Speaker 2: and so it's actually very tough for us on the
11:45
Speaker 2: committee sometimes to look at a press release report about
11:50
Speaker 2: a deal and figure out which bucket it falls into.
11:53
Speaker 2: Public companies somewhat is easy because you've got your ten k's,
11:57
Speaker 2: you've got your Edgar reports still that you can kind
12:00
Speaker 2: of track back to. There's just a lot more public
12:02
Speaker 2: information about the transactions. But the line between private placement,
12:08
Speaker 2: which is really anything under fifty percent and has to
12:12
Speaker 2: be equity issuance versus another type of transaction where somebody
12:17
Speaker 2: ends up owning more than fifty percent in a company
12:21
Speaker 2: is very When you're looking at at the press release,
12:25
Speaker 2: it's sometimes you do have to reach out to people
12:27
Speaker 2: to say, you said this was a significant equity investment.
12:32
Speaker 2: What are we talking about here?
12:34
Speaker 4: Right?
12:34
Speaker 2: That could mean twenty percent, that could mean seventy percent,
12:39
Speaker 2: that could mean they bought the whole company.
12:41
Speaker 3: And private companies don't always want to disclose who is
12:44
Speaker 3: in current ownership.
12:45
Speaker 2: It's intentional.
12:46
Speaker 3: These are, Oh absolutely.
12:47
Speaker 2: The optics and the wording in press releases has changed
12:51
Speaker 2: so much, and a lot of it is very intentional.
12:53
Speaker 2: The parties are really paying attention to how they describe
12:56
Speaker 2: the deal, what they want their customers, their employees, investor
13:01
Speaker 2: base to know about how they're portraying themselves out to
13:06
Speaker 2: the world these days. So it's no longer as simple
13:10
Speaker 2: as company A acquired company B. Those days are kind
13:14
Speaker 2: of gone, and that we are seeing just all over
13:17
Speaker 2: the place. And if you know what to look for,
13:20
Speaker 2: you know, takes us a lot of hours to do it,
13:22
Speaker 2: but you have to be continually to continuing to evolve
13:26
Speaker 2: in what you're looking for to determine if it's an
13:29
Speaker 2: Emina deal, because it could be as you said, there's
13:32
Speaker 2: it could be they acquired significantly, you know, all or
13:37
Speaker 2: substantially all of the assets of this company. They acquired
13:41
Speaker 2: the equity of it. But it could be significant. It
13:43
Speaker 2: could be all it's a joint venture where there's some
13:47
Speaker 2: multiple multiple buyers coming in together and they've now acquired
13:52
Speaker 2: fifty to fifty but the whole company. And so there's
13:55
Speaker 2: a lot of different options that you have to look for,
13:57
Speaker 2: and we're trying to report as many as possible, so
14:02
Speaker 2: hard sometimes to sift through all the data and figure
14:04
Speaker 2: out what fits in and what doesn't. But our goal
14:08
Speaker 2: is always to include more because we want to report
14:12
Speaker 2: the deals and the happenings in the state what's going on,
14:16
Speaker 2: versus trying to exclude things. The only time we really
14:19
Speaker 2: try to we really exclude things is when we just
14:21
Speaker 2: don't have enough information or we really can't tell what
14:25
Speaker 2: it is, you know, without somebody giving us more information, which,
14:29
Speaker 2: to Kevin's point, most of the time if it's not
14:31
Speaker 2: in the press release or publicly out there.
14:36
Speaker 4: I love this so much. Some of my favorite conversations
14:39
Speaker 4: this time of year when we're going through the book
14:42
Speaker 4: and some of the data and then you know, I
14:45
Speaker 4: have to call Katie or Matt and we have to
14:48
Speaker 4: talk about the deal, and like it kind of becomes
14:50
Speaker 4: this little drama thing behind the scenes, like how but
14:54
Speaker 4: how did it really go? Like let's really get to
14:56
Speaker 4: the bottom of it. And so the investigative as of
15:00
Speaker 4: it hasn't changed, and it shows the importance of having
15:03
Speaker 4: people that actually really really know a lot about the
15:06
Speaker 4: deal landscape to get into the weeds and really be
15:10
Speaker 4: able to understand the deal and be able to talk
15:13
Speaker 4: about the deal later because we do get questions.
15:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if I may share to your point, despite
15:19
Speaker 1: the level of scrutiny and the discerning lens that we
15:24
Speaker 1: put on all of this data, from a volume perspective,
15:27
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five was higher has ever been. I think
15:30
Speaker 1: from a quantity perspective, we matched twenty twenty one, which
15:34
Speaker 1: was twenty twenty one. Two twenty two was kind of
15:37
Speaker 1: an inflated markets you could, you could argue, so so
15:41
Speaker 1: very great, strong kind of I don't call it a
15:44
Speaker 1: year rebound, but it's but it's as much deal volume
15:49
Speaker 1: activity as we've seen in this state, with more discerning
15:54
Speaker 1: lenses and time that we spend in just ensuring that
15:58
Speaker 1: that that any deal that's included is correct.
16:01
Speaker 2: Yeah. Really takes people reading every line of the press
16:04
Speaker 2: release and understanding what that means and how to reflect
16:08
Speaker 2: it in the report these days, and so I don't
16:11
Speaker 2: know that I would say we're necessarily spending significantly a
16:16
Speaker 2: lot more time anywhere because of the process has changed,
16:19
Speaker 2: and it's more of us sitting in front of a computer,
16:22
Speaker 2: reviewing and reviewing and reviewing different pages and looking at
16:25
Speaker 2: different sources and determining whether it's reportable, whether it's not,
16:29
Speaker 2: whether it was a real transaction. Sometimes we get reports
16:32
Speaker 2: from the public data and you go look and you're like, Nope,
16:35
Speaker 2: that was in twenty twenty four, or Nope, this isn't real,
16:38
Speaker 2: you know, like this is week or it's just not
16:40
Speaker 2: a transaction we would normally pick up. And so the
16:44
Speaker 2: hours have in my opinion, significantly increased over the last
16:49
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, I don't know, ten years.
16:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely not perfect, but there's a lot of time
16:54
Speaker 1: apply to ensure that we're as accurate as possible within
16:59
Speaker 1: the lens and the qualifications, the criteria that exists that
17:04
Speaker 1: we've applied to the deals that need to be counted
17:07
Speaker 1: and included in the book.
17:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, So, Matt, moving on just a little bit. Tech
17:12
Speaker 4: and software have historically led the state's investment activity. What
17:17
Speaker 4: did this year's report reveal about whether that trend held
17:22
Speaker 4: or shifted and just kind of talk about what you
17:26
Speaker 4: saw once the report came together.
17:28
Speaker 1: No, absolutely, no, So, as I was touching on in
17:31
Speaker 1: terms of twenty one twenty two, that was certainly a
17:34
Speaker 1: high from a tech software perspective, and nationally you saw
17:38
Speaker 1: slow down in that industry in that vertical higher interest rates,
17:44
Speaker 1: more risk aversion, fewer overall tech software deals are just
17:47
Speaker 1: being done following twenty one twenty two, and where we're
17:51
Speaker 1: seeing now funding is really shifted from more of a
17:53
Speaker 1: volume to more quality selectivity, particularly larger later stage deals
18:01
Speaker 1: in the space bigger rounds, with an emphasis on companies attraction, revenue,
18:07
Speaker 1: clear passes scale. Early stage activity like I mentioned, was
18:12
Speaker 1: selective in twenty twenty five. Software SaaS continues to remain dominant,
18:17
Speaker 1: certainly on deal count where there's growth in AI native applications,
18:21
Speaker 1: deep tech related in energy, defense, materials, fintech, legal tech.
18:28
Speaker 1: I mean you do have a certain flare to discover.
18:32
Speaker 1: I mean I think everyone likes to be described. For
18:34
Speaker 1: many companies like to be described as tech, as more
18:37
Speaker 1: tech software or tech enabled. So there's a little bit
18:41
Speaker 1: of judgment caall even as we're looking at some of
18:43
Speaker 1: these companies in terms of labeling them as tech software
18:48
Speaker 1: because it's just not if you went five years ago,
18:50
Speaker 1: you probably describe the vast majority of that we're capturing
18:55
Speaker 1: as SaaS. You know, it's very direct, very discernible, Yes,
19:00
Speaker 1: tech software business. Now it's a little more with EI
19:03
Speaker 1: native and other means whereby these companies that are providing
19:07
Speaker 1: services or products are now turning more into more and
19:10
Speaker 1: more into technology software businesses. As mentioned, I mean, we
19:15
Speaker 1: really have a strong twenty twenty five with strong deal value.
19:20
Speaker 1: We saw a number of companies that ended up over
19:23
Speaker 1: one hundred million dollars in deal value with you know,
19:29
Speaker 1: if I may touch on just one like Filevine had
19:31
Speaker 1: a great transaction, I think about four hundred million dollars.
19:35
Speaker 1: Excellent company there, and there's just many that followed that
19:39
Speaker 1: size of deal value. On that private placement side of
19:41
Speaker 1: the house, you know, as Katie was touching on where
19:43
Speaker 1: we have m and a private placement, we look at
19:46
Speaker 1: publics and then it's this whole host of companies that
19:49
Speaker 1: raise between ten to one hundred million dollars. We saw
19:52
Speaker 1: transactions in that public space with patterns Ipo for example,
19:56
Speaker 1: you saw Angel Studios with a SPAC was acquired so
20:01
Speaker 1: very strongly year in tech software. So I'd say like
20:04
Speaker 1: if we look at the preponderance of the capital in
20:06
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, you really saw late stage venture growth
20:10
Speaker 1: taking the preponderance of that capital, with pre seed seed
20:14
Speaker 1: stage really dropping versus prior years and just a sharper
20:19
Speaker 1: recovering deal value quite frankly in the space, and I
20:23
Speaker 1: think there's just a lot of optimism. Obviously, you have
20:25
Speaker 1: a backdrop as we enter into twenty twenty six. There's
20:28
Speaker 1: momentum from twenty five to twenty six, especially here in
20:31
Speaker 1: Utah with as carried forward with the AI, but like
20:35
Speaker 1: public tech software companies have taken a beating in twenty
20:38
Speaker 1: twenty six. But that being said, i'd add that you know,
20:42
Speaker 1: if you look at private venture capital activity nationally is high,
20:46
Speaker 1: especially concentrated around a lot of AI megadeals. I'll characterize
20:51
Speaker 1: them as creating records for Q one twenty twenty six nationally.
20:55
Speaker 1: So here in Utah, I think we just see a
20:58
Speaker 1: stronger a strong trend from twenty five I've been in
21:00
Speaker 1: twenty six that's continued in the.
21:03
Speaker 2: Space, And not to jump in too much, but don't
21:06
Speaker 2: you think that we've also seen in the recent years
21:09
Speaker 2: a shift of some of that dominance of the majority
21:12
Speaker 2: of the deals being tech and software focused to blue
21:16
Speaker 2: collar consumer service companies as well. I think that there's
21:21
Speaker 2: more insurance company wealth management deals out there than there
21:25
Speaker 2: ever has been, and also things like utility services.
21:29
Speaker 3: Right Yeah, private equity roll ups are huge.
21:32
Speaker 2: Private equity roll ups, and it's the breadth of what
21:35
Speaker 2: private equity is looking at these days. I think has
21:38
Speaker 2: expanded significantly. For example, here in Utah, we have private
21:42
Speaker 2: equity companies and venture capital that sit here in the
21:46
Speaker 2: state that focus on the food service industry. That's new
21:51
Speaker 2: that is not something private equity typically focused on. More
21:54
Speaker 2: dental services, dental service companies, lab services. Healthcare has been
21:59
Speaker 2: really kind of making a comeback. I would say. It's
22:02
Speaker 2: tough in the public markets and it has been for
22:04
Speaker 2: a few years, but it's on the private equity side
22:07
Speaker 2: still going pretty strong. So yeah, while I agree with
22:10
Speaker 2: you that tech is very obviously the kind of the standout,
22:14
Speaker 2: I do think from the deal report I see as
22:18
Speaker 2: I reviewed through, there's a decent shift into those kind
22:22
Speaker 2: of sustainable blue collar companies I would say, you know,
22:26
Speaker 2: and manufacturing, even particularly here in Utah. And we're getting infrastructure.
22:31
Speaker 2: Yeah that's new.
22:33
Speaker 4: Right.
22:33
Speaker 2: We have Facebook as their server location that you know
22:36
Speaker 2: is either here or working on it, and we've got
22:39
Speaker 2: all sorts of other people coming in for solar and
22:42
Speaker 2: servers and infrastructure plants because we've got space and it's
22:48
Speaker 2: a good place to do deals.
22:50
Speaker 3: So, yeah, you don't get more blue collar, low tech
22:52
Speaker 3: than porta Potty roll Ups, which is a client of
22:57
Speaker 3: ours that we got from a local family office. I mean,
23:00
Speaker 3: it's crazy.
23:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, I love hearing the words momentum optimism, you know,
23:08
Speaker 5: And so I just wanted to, you know, kind of
23:10
Speaker 5: take a step back a little bit and just how
23:12
Speaker 5: does this align with Silicon Valley, How does it align
23:17
Speaker 5: with the you know, align with the broader economy. Give me,
23:21
Speaker 5: give us your thoughts on you know, is this unique
23:24
Speaker 5: to Utah? Just just given kind of what you've highlighted
23:29
Speaker 5: to date and your your involvement again is just incredible,
23:35
Speaker 5: and I really appreciate each of you and all the
23:38
Speaker 5: work that you do for this, and and it's a
23:40
Speaker 5: it's a huge I mean I've I've just observed it,
23:44
Speaker 5: and I'm not obviously as involved as you are, but
23:47
Speaker 5: I appreciate you know, your involvement and your dedication to
23:51
Speaker 5: bringing this to life, because I do think that there
23:53
Speaker 5: are some trends and some things that could give us
23:56
Speaker 5: a little bit more confidence in what we are seeing
23:59
Speaker 5: and what is happening in the economy overall. I mean,
24:03
Speaker 5: because it's really easy to look at the news and
24:08
Speaker 5: just to fill down on everything, right, But I loved
24:11
Speaker 5: what you just highlight and maybe just you know, help
24:14
Speaker 5: us understand does that align with the economy overall? Does
24:18
Speaker 5: it align or is it unique to Utah?
24:21
Speaker 1: Would I would say, I know, Katie and I have
24:24
Speaker 1: the privilege and as you're mentioning, I mean, I consider myself,
24:27
Speaker 1: even as a service provider, very much an observer of
24:31
Speaker 1: the fantastic work that the entrepreneur, the entrepreneurs combined with
24:36
Speaker 1: the capital providers, those investors, those that are looking to
24:40
Speaker 1: be come alongside entrepreneurs and help them look beyond and
24:46
Speaker 1: further invest in their teams and their services and products
24:50
Speaker 1: and the markets that they serve. Just as a as
24:54
Speaker 1: kind of an outside observer that's able to get close
24:57
Speaker 1: to it to some degree by virtue of what I do.
25:00
Speaker 1: It's amazing to watch. It's really the opinions I look
25:02
Speaker 1: back to that period of twenty twenty twenty one while
25:05
Speaker 1: we're going through COVID, I really think it's entrepreneurs of
25:08
Speaker 1: the United States and here in Utah that really carried
25:10
Speaker 1: the day to help us navigate that because they're the
25:14
Speaker 1: ones that figured out how to deliver food. They're the
25:16
Speaker 1: ones that ensure that we have the services that we
25:19
Speaker 1: need in our homes ego down the list. So that
25:23
Speaker 1: being said, I know Katie and I have do both
25:26
Speaker 1: do deals that are in and outside of the state,
25:28
Speaker 1: and working on these transactions, you get some feel for
25:31
Speaker 1: kind of the ecosystem, both in the state and outside
25:34
Speaker 1: of it and observing the broader US deal ecosystem. So
25:38
Speaker 1: I'd say Utah's ecosystem broadly mirrors that of the kind
25:43
Speaker 1: of that of the US economy. I think as you
25:45
Speaker 1: see kind of deal activity nationally, it does track how
25:49
Speaker 1: we're doing it as an economy, and there is a
25:51
Speaker 1: backdrop of challenging news, so to speak. But I was
25:54
Speaker 1: still ventured to say to any listener that the entrepreneur
25:59
Speaker 1: and the capital that is out there and those that
26:02
Speaker 1: seek to employ capital in this way to walk alongside
26:04
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs fuels economy. There's a lot of creative destruction so
26:08
Speaker 1: to speak that's out there doing phenomenal things that will
26:11
Speaker 1: create further and further opportunity. I do think Utah has
26:15
Speaker 1: a distinct identity compared to other markets that reflects capital
26:21
Speaker 1: flow what I call capital flow sustainability and a lower
26:24
Speaker 1: cost relative to other markets for companies that have come
26:27
Speaker 1: and invested and continue to grow and expand here, and
26:30
Speaker 1: then also individuals that are very entrepreneurially focused, with an
26:34
Speaker 1: awesome pipeline of great talent and young workforces coming out
26:38
Speaker 1: of our colleges and universities that fuel these companies and opportunities.
26:42
Speaker 1: So I'd characterize Utah as something unique, a more sustainable,
26:46
Speaker 1: more efficient, and livable ecosystem that produces the great results
26:51
Speaker 1: that we are beneficiaries of, quite frankly, and so I
26:54
Speaker 1: call Utah, as you were touching on maybe Silicon Valley
26:57
Speaker 1: a little bit, how do we compare and contrast, Like
26:58
Speaker 1: I'd call Utah most next wave rather than kind of copycat,
27:03
Speaker 1: so to speak of, relative to whether it's Silicon value
27:07
Speaker 1: or other markets.
27:08
Speaker 2: Interesting. That's great, Katie, Well, and just to bring it
27:10
Speaker 2: back kind of to the way that M and A,
27:13
Speaker 2: particularly on deals kind of track is very similar to
27:17
Speaker 2: Hubby economy tracks. So they're very tied to what the
27:20
Speaker 2: debt markets are doing. They're tied to what the interest
27:22
Speaker 2: rates are. It makes capital more expensive for the capital
27:26
Speaker 2: providers to deploy when the interest rates are up and
27:29
Speaker 2: so people are in markets or when the economy overall
27:33
Speaker 2: is a little bit more on the downside, people have
27:36
Speaker 2: to be more creative in order to get their deals done.
27:38
Speaker 2: Sometimes the values drop, but it really becomes a bigger
27:42
Speaker 2: emphasis on the numbers that those companies are showing. So
27:46
Speaker 2: I like to analogize it to the housing market a
27:48
Speaker 2: little bit, which I think in Utah has actually been
27:51
Speaker 2: pretty tracking over the last few years. When the housing
27:55
Speaker 2: market is up and there's a lot of inventory and
27:58
Speaker 2: there's buyers that are you know, people are paying a
28:01
Speaker 2: lot more. That's similar in the M and A or
28:04
Speaker 2: the deal space. Right, people are paying extra multiples. The
28:07
Speaker 2: deals are up, there's more inventory, more buyers, just more happening.
28:11
Speaker 2: And then as the interest rates go up and inventory
28:17
Speaker 2: goes down, buyers and sellers get farther and farther apart
28:21
Speaker 2: as far as coming together on the deal terms. And
28:24
Speaker 2: so similar to the housing market, right, sellers still are
28:27
Speaker 2: thinking that their houses are worth more at this point,
28:30
Speaker 2: then buyers are willing to pay for them after, you know,
28:33
Speaker 2: kind of the twenty twenty one twenty twenty bubble where
28:36
Speaker 2: it was just the multiples were crazy. Deals are not
28:39
Speaker 2: different and the economy is kind of track in the
28:42
Speaker 2: deal space, both in Utah and outside of Utah on
28:45
Speaker 2: a similar pace right where you know, there was a
28:50
Speaker 2: big period between there between twenty twenty one and really
28:52
Speaker 2: until kind of the beginning of twenty twenty five middle
28:55
Speaker 2: where buyers and sellers were just still farther apart. There
28:59
Speaker 2: wasn't as much inventory, and so that assets that were
29:01
Speaker 2: good buys and the numbers worked were very competitive, very
29:07
Speaker 2: hot commodities. But you have you know, six seven, eight
29:10
Speaker 2: buyers trying to get one company. Only one gets them, right,
29:13
Speaker 2: that's still only one deal. Those other people that didn't
29:16
Speaker 2: get the deal have to go find something else to buy,
29:19
Speaker 2: and there just was a shortage of really great assets
29:22
Speaker 2: until that time. What I've seen already in twenty twenty
29:27
Speaker 2: six and at the end of twenty twenty five is
29:29
Speaker 2: that that is shifting to where more sellers, more private
29:34
Speaker 2: equity companies that have bought in and have assets that
29:37
Speaker 2: have been sitting and waiting for the right you know,
29:39
Speaker 2: valuation kind of like the time to sell your house.
29:42
Speaker 2: That's coming back around. People are getting ready, they've seen
29:45
Speaker 2: the shift in the market. The momentum is there. It's
29:48
Speaker 2: coming back up, and so it's I don't know if
29:51
Speaker 2: it's just that people are kind of tired of not
29:54
Speaker 2: having places to put their money. There's so much strip
29:56
Speaker 2: powder out there that frankly, LPs have not received their
30:00
Speaker 2: distributions back as they should have over the last few years,
30:04
Speaker 2: and people are starting to get tired of that. And
30:06
Speaker 2: so I think that accounts for a lot of just
30:08
Speaker 2: the momentum and the push where people are just you know,
30:11
Speaker 2: the inventory out there is better, the numbers are better,
30:15
Speaker 2: the companies are better, there's more of it, and so
30:17
Speaker 2: buyers are pouncing and buyers are they're ready, They're there,
30:21
Speaker 2: They've been waiting looking for these companies, and we've seen it.
30:25
Speaker 2: The end of twenty twenty five was really just like
30:28
Speaker 2: a ignite and everybody, wake up and let's go, which
30:31
Speaker 2: we've been hearing for a couple of years, is coming
30:33
Speaker 2: right every quarter every year, it was like it's coming here,
30:36
Speaker 2: and then it was like it finally happened, and here
30:38
Speaker 2: we are, and it has not slowed down. It has
30:41
Speaker 2: not stopped. For those of us in the industry, I think, Matt,
30:44
Speaker 2: you're the same as I am. But once it picked
30:47
Speaker 2: it picked up. It is just off to the races,
30:50
Speaker 2: and so I don't think our housing market is quite
30:53
Speaker 2: you know, not an expert there, but I don't think
30:55
Speaker 2: it's quite caught up to the way that the deals have.
30:58
Speaker 2: But to some extent they're kind of ignoring the economy
31:02
Speaker 2: and or things that are up and down and just uncertainties.
31:05
Speaker 2: Now it's gone on for so long that they're just
31:08
Speaker 2: kind of starting to get comfortable ignoring things. And then
31:11
Speaker 2: also there's just factors that change over time, you know
31:14
Speaker 2: here and there that are just they're making it better
31:16
Speaker 2: for people to go and employ their capital. So I
31:20
Speaker 2: think what I'm hearing is that, you know, just from everybody,
31:22
Speaker 2: like it's time let's go.
31:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's amazing. Just again touching back on just
31:26
Speaker 1: from a deal volume perspective for the state, right, how
31:30
Speaker 1: very similar where we landed in terms of our analyses
31:35
Speaker 1: and the work that's been done that we landed around
31:37
Speaker 1: a similar deal volume to what we saw on twenty
31:39
Speaker 1: twenty one, which was fueled by this broader you know
31:44
Speaker 1: just I mean just dealing instrate inst rate is low
31:48
Speaker 1: and just a high I mean, like I would say,
31:51
Speaker 1: from April twenty twenty all the way through kind of
31:53
Speaker 1: call it Q one Q two of twenty twenty two,
31:56
Speaker 1: just very strong deal market and so now so seeing
32:00
Speaker 1: a similar volume and even being up in M and
32:03
Speaker 1: A in the public equity transactions that took place, just
32:07
Speaker 1: a fantastic result that carries forward, and like you were
32:11
Speaker 1: touched on, Jason, seeing the momentum as we go into
32:14
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, I mean'st the backdrop of some uncertainty.
32:18
Speaker 2: Quite frankly, and to be fair, I don't think we're
32:20
Speaker 2: quite back to twenty twenty one twenty twenty twenty twenty
32:23
Speaker 2: one levels. I think we've still got a little ways
32:25
Speaker 2: to go, but we're certainly much closer and headed in
32:29
Speaker 2: the right direction than at this time last year and
32:32
Speaker 2: the year before.
32:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, deal well, deal volume is certainly something comparable too,
32:38
Speaker 1: but yeah, deal value is certainly more more muted. I
32:42
Speaker 1: would say, you know, you don't, at least here in
32:44
Speaker 1: the city of Utah, you don't still see those mega
32:46
Speaker 1: deals as we sometimes saw twenty twenty two, twenty three anyway,
32:50
Speaker 1: But it's yeah, interesting trends overall that came out of
32:56
Speaker 1: twenty five.
32:57
Speaker 4: So in the middle of May this year, it's May
33:00
Speaker 4: twenty first, we have our deal Flow event and report presentation.
33:05
Speaker 4: One of the things I always like to say is,
33:08
Speaker 4: you know, there are people that cannot wait to get
33:10
Speaker 4: their hands on this report. If you come to the event,
33:14
Speaker 4: you get the physical copy this very large book that
33:17
Speaker 4: I'm holding in my hands right now. But it's also
33:20
Speaker 4: available online, and we've recently discovered that there are quite
33:24
Speaker 4: a few downloads of that, like in the thousands, which
33:26
Speaker 4: is crazy. I think.
33:28
Speaker 2: I love that.
33:29
Speaker 4: If you go onto our website, you can see the
33:31
Speaker 4: very bottom of the deal flow page, there's orange buttons
33:36
Speaker 4: that have the years and so you can download these
33:38
Speaker 4: books from years past.
33:40
Speaker 2: I mean I do it constantly still. Yeah, that's where
33:43
Speaker 2: I find it. Even though I have the books on making,
33:45
Speaker 2: I go to the website and I download it. Yeah,
33:47
Speaker 2: over and over and over again. So half of them
33:49
Speaker 2: are probably.
33:49
Speaker 4: Be Okay, well, Katie's been downloading the book.
33:53
Speaker 2: That's how much I use it.
33:54
Speaker 4: Now.
33:54
Speaker 2: I'm haking at it.
33:56
Speaker 4: So that is my question, like, what is the practical
34:01
Speaker 4: use of this book? Why does the Governor's office want
34:03
Speaker 4: this book so bad? Why do companies want to get
34:07
Speaker 4: their hands and providers and tell me if you can
34:11
Speaker 4: like what in your opinion, and maybe Katie will start
34:14
Speaker 4: with you, what's the value of this book?
34:17
Speaker 2: I mean, people are talking about the deals all the time,
34:21
Speaker 2: and then you've got this one stop location where all
34:25
Speaker 2: of them in a whole year happened. And so you
34:28
Speaker 2: can go and I like to pull the online version
34:30
Speaker 2: because I can search it, right, So if I'm looking
34:32
Speaker 2: for something specific, or somebody something piqued my memory, or
34:36
Speaker 2: somebody asked me a question about it, I can easily
34:39
Speaker 2: go and look and search that deal and I can
34:41
Speaker 2: get all the information that I need right there on
34:44
Speaker 2: my fingertips every year, all the time. And so that's
34:47
Speaker 2: what I use it for almost exclusively. And then also
34:51
Speaker 2: there's just sometimes you're just looking and you're like, who
34:54
Speaker 2: was it that did that deal again, because we're also
34:56
Speaker 2: kind of all trained to track like who the play are,
35:00
Speaker 2: who the people are that are paying attention to Utah,
35:02
Speaker 2: who's here in the state, who's out of the state,
35:05
Speaker 2: that's really involved in the state, right, and and so
35:08
Speaker 2: you're kind of I use it as that as my
35:10
Speaker 2: resource for that essentially.
35:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, equity transactions are signals. You know, they
35:16
Speaker 3: tell you what a company's worth or maybe what it's
35:19
Speaker 3: not worth. Some of the information also is it tells
35:22
Speaker 3: you what insiders and investors are thinking, you know, kind
35:26
Speaker 3: of like their inner thoughts to a degree. You know
35:29
Speaker 3: what what's happening, whether the company's growing quickly or whether
35:32
Speaker 3: it's a downround or you know, different stuff like that
35:35
Speaker 3: is kind of a consumer sentiment at an investor level
35:40
Speaker 3: to a degree.
35:41
Speaker 2: And I think people like the Governor's office use it
35:43
Speaker 2: for other information even as well, like best companies to
35:48
Speaker 2: work for, right, like strong companies that are doing well,
35:52
Speaker 2: you know that they can back or say, or like
35:54
Speaker 2: part of the growing economy in Utah, because I think
35:57
Speaker 2: the Governor's office there's reports that get put out every year,
36:01
Speaker 2: right and you is typically among the best places to live,
36:04
Speaker 2: among the best places to work, has some of the
36:07
Speaker 2: best companies you know, among national polls to work for
36:12
Speaker 2: as part of the workforce. And I think that's part
36:14
Speaker 2: of what the Governor's office and other folks are using
36:17
Speaker 2: it for as well. Is more that from an employee perspective,
36:22
Speaker 2: information and data gathering, you know, versus us on the
36:26
Speaker 2: other side, and capital providers I think are probably looking
36:29
Speaker 2: at it as like who to watch, Like to Kevin's point, right,
36:32
Speaker 2: who should we keep our eye on and what's happening.
36:35
Speaker 2: And you know, as if you're in private equity, I
36:39
Speaker 2: think a lot of what happens behind the scenes is
36:41
Speaker 2: that people are out there looking for companies, looking for
36:45
Speaker 2: the next investment. Right we all see the ones that
36:47
Speaker 2: are announced that have happened, but they're all constantly looking
36:50
Speaker 2: for the next thing, and they put a lot of
36:52
Speaker 2: time and research in. This is one place they can go.
36:55
Speaker 2: That's just a one stop shop. That's like, who should
36:57
Speaker 2: we keep our eye on. You know, we weren't in
37:00
Speaker 2: this deal, but here's an early seed stage company. They
37:03
Speaker 2: might be on our radar in the next few years,
37:05
Speaker 2: and they're keeping running lists of that. So we're kind
37:08
Speaker 2: of making it easy for them and handing them this.
37:11
Speaker 2: Here's a whole book that treasure trove of data exactly.
37:16
Speaker 2: And frankly, I'm looking at what you've got, sherry in
37:18
Speaker 2: front of you. I think that is thicker than any
37:22
Speaker 2: other year, Like, yeah, by a CML it is. It
37:26
Speaker 2: looks bigger, and I you know, have a lot of
37:28
Speaker 2: them on my desk as well, but that one looks heftier.
37:32
Speaker 1: I'd say, ultimately, I look at the book in the
37:35
Speaker 1: time I invest in it as a celebration of what's
37:38
Speaker 1: happened and what's happening because anyone that's inside and outside
37:44
Speaker 1: the state. So I've lived most of my life outside
37:47
Speaker 1: the state of Utah. I was a part of the
37:49
Speaker 1: d ecosystem outside the state of Utah for a good
37:51
Speaker 1: portion of time. There is nothing like this out there
37:55
Speaker 1: with any other state that I've seen. And ultimately, it
38:00
Speaker 1: allows any individual that wants to get familiar, whether that
38:04
Speaker 1: person lives here or not, what the awesome things that
38:07
Speaker 1: are happening here, both those that have transacted and continue
38:12
Speaker 1: to turn that capital into investments at a full range
38:17
Speaker 1: of size of businesses, or even those that participate our
38:21
Speaker 1: strategic sponsors that are within the book that are sharing
38:24
Speaker 1: and partying of their wisdom things that they've seen in
38:27
Speaker 1: the articles. You can pick up a hard copy at
38:30
Speaker 1: our event on May twenty first. I would encourage you
38:33
Speaker 1: to do so because it also acts as as a
38:36
Speaker 1: good weight in your hand that you can work out
38:38
Speaker 1: with as you walk with it. But I love the
38:43
Speaker 1: fact that what Katie said about looking thicker than ever before,
38:46
Speaker 1: and it's just a testament to everyone that's put in,
38:50
Speaker 1: everyone that's bought in on the great ecosystem that we
38:54
Speaker 1: have here that encourages capital flow, experimenting in business ventures,
39:02
Speaker 1: and working collaboratively. I say that's one other thing I'd
39:05
Speaker 1: say is unique here is just the amount of collaboration,
39:09
Speaker 1: the amount of sharing, knowledge sharing, the amount of mentoring
39:12
Speaker 1: that happens from those that have transacted. So it's just
39:17
Speaker 1: a testament to all those that have come before and
39:20
Speaker 1: all those that are putting a lot at risk right now.
39:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd go so far as to say that it's
39:25
Speaker 3: not merely a mirror of what happened in the past,
39:28
Speaker 3: but it's a catalyst for future growth as well.
39:31
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and we do include a data section in
39:34
Speaker 2: the front of the report right that it shows where
39:37
Speaker 2: in Utah deals are happening. So it used to be
39:39
Speaker 2: very Salt Lake centric. Saint George has become much more
39:43
Speaker 2: significant than it was in the past. Up north, I mean,
39:46
Speaker 2: the deals have spread out. People are no longer required
39:49
Speaker 2: to be in downtown to work in an office to
39:53
Speaker 2: do a deal, and many people have expanded their workspace.
39:56
Speaker 2: Many offices have expanded their footprint in order to be
40:00
Speaker 2: where people want to live. And our deal report kind
40:03
Speaker 2: of especially if you have multiple years in front of you.
40:06
Speaker 2: Reflects that trend, and it reflects where that movement is going,
40:10
Speaker 2: and to Kevin's point, shows what the future kind of
40:13
Speaker 2: is going to look like. But you can see industry
40:16
Speaker 2: by industry, not you're much closer this than me, but
40:19
Speaker 2: you can see deals by industry, by dollar value, by sector,
40:23
Speaker 2: by region, in the state, by type. I don't know,
40:26
Speaker 2: I'm probably mixing things, but I think for.
40:29
Speaker 1: The first year, we have a comparable level of deal
40:33
Speaker 1: cow deal volume in twenty five in Lehigh Provo as
40:37
Speaker 1: we have up in Salt Lake. So Sal's always been
40:39
Speaker 1: the dominant player in terms of those. So basically we
40:43
Speaker 1: take those deals that have happened and be able to
40:46
Speaker 1: look at the zip code that correlates to the so anyway, anyway,
40:54
Speaker 1: it was just an observe. I don't think I had
40:56
Speaker 1: ever seen, I mean, I'm not one hundred percent confirmed
40:59
Speaker 1: on that that the deal volume count in along this
41:03
Speaker 1: corridor in Utah County being pretty comparable to Salt Lake.
41:08
Speaker 2: And that's that's why it's called Silicon Slopes. Right, We're
41:11
Speaker 2: in it. This is it is down here in Utah
41:13
Speaker 2: County and downtown has all the service providers, but they're
41:17
Speaker 2: expanding down here. I mean, people are printing second offices
41:19
Speaker 2: in this piece because the companies are here, and because
41:23
Speaker 2: they want to be in Provo and they want to
41:25
Speaker 2: be in wele High. And then people are moving, you know,
41:29
Speaker 2: and living.
41:30
Speaker 4: There's a lot of reason close Utah is on the
41:32
Speaker 4: map and why Utah County is growing the way it
41:36
Speaker 4: is so.
41:38
Speaker 2: But our downtown is growing too, I mean, like people
41:41
Speaker 2: are continuing to come into the state. Young people are
41:43
Speaker 2: continuing to want to live downtown. The downtown scene and
41:48
Speaker 2: businesses that we have are continuing to grow. Our restaurant
41:51
Speaker 2: community is blowing up, which is fantastic to see. That
41:54
Speaker 2: is all just indicative of I mean, frankly, I wonder
41:59
Speaker 2: if we're going to get to a point in Utah
42:01
Speaker 2: where we just can't do the report anymore, like where
42:03
Speaker 2: we have too many deals. Right, We'll find a way
42:06
Speaker 2: around it, I'm sure, but you know what I mean,
42:09
Speaker 2: Like we are now such a substantial state that you know,
42:13
Speaker 2: as the time goes on and the amount of time
42:16
Speaker 2: and the amount of deals we have, it's a it's
42:18
Speaker 2: a possibility, right, Yeah.
42:20
Speaker 4: Well, and the report has grown and changed over the years.
42:23
Speaker 4: A couple of years ago, Matt, you added the you're
42:27
Speaker 4: the big push behind adding the capital provider section to
42:32
Speaker 4: the book. Do you want to talk about that at
42:33
Speaker 4: all and what that reflects.
42:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, as has been touched on to some degree in
42:38
Speaker 1: terms of the investors, ranging from individual angels all the
42:44
Speaker 1: way through to traditional larger private equity firms, family offices, ventury.
42:49
Speaker 1: You know, we have a whole host of investors here
42:52
Speaker 1: in the state, and so what that section is intended
42:55
Speaker 1: as many you know, there are years that pass by
42:57
Speaker 1: where a private equity firm, the office that's here, might
43:02
Speaker 1: have invested in a company that happens to be out
43:05
Speaker 1: of state. So that deal necessarily wouldn't be captured all
43:09
Speaker 1: the time, necessarily within our report. So but it's a
43:13
Speaker 1: way where we can celebrate those capital providers that want
43:16
Speaker 1: to participate and want to be able to say, hey,
43:18
Speaker 1: here's who we are, here's our investment thesis, here's what
43:21
Speaker 1: we've done over the past year. We do that for
43:23
Speaker 1: free within the book for any capital provider that wants
43:27
Speaker 1: to share that information with us, and it's highlighted a
43:30
Speaker 1: lot of great partners of the community that have invested
43:36
Speaker 1: both inside and outside of the state and so anyway,
43:38
Speaker 1: I just lost some continuity of celebration for who's here
43:44
Speaker 1: and what they're doing, even if something's not captured necessarily
43:48
Speaker 1: in one given year.
43:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're trying to cover all the ass ecosystem. The
43:54
Speaker 2: deal flow in Utah.
43:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, well that's kind of fun because we do the
43:59
Speaker 4: deal Flow Report, and in that deal flow report, we
44:03
Speaker 4: put a little icon next to the companies that we've
44:06
Speaker 4: celebrated and recognized as Utah one hundred companies. So it
44:09
Speaker 4: kind of shows the activity that's going on with those
44:12
Speaker 4: companies and continues to go on because we go years
44:15
Speaker 4: back and often when we do our Entrepreneur of the
44:20
Speaker 4: Year event, we can almost always go back to something
44:24
Speaker 4: that has been reported in that deal Flow report. We've
44:28
Speaker 4: more obviously we've recognized them on Utah one hundred on
44:32
Speaker 4: the stage that kind of thing. So it all just
44:34
Speaker 4: ties together so beautifully. You know, we're just so grateful
44:38
Speaker 4: to you all as a team and visionaries and behind
44:43
Speaker 4: the scenes. We call it a labor of love, I mean,
44:45
Speaker 4: and because there's no other way to describe it. There's
44:49
Speaker 4: so much work.
44:50
Speaker 3: That goes into hundreds and thousands of hours.
44:52
Speaker 1: Yes, and if I may, I just this year with
44:55
Speaker 1: Terry Terry Pratchett at p and C. Bracks and Savage
44:58
Speaker 1: at Tanner and all the subcommittee leads. It's just like
45:02
Speaker 1: you said, about eighty people are listed there in terms
45:05
Speaker 1: of those that have participated. But yeah, while we're certainly
45:09
Speaker 1: closely involved, it's led by that chair and vice chair
45:14
Speaker 1: every year and those subcommittee leads that really do a
45:17
Speaker 1: ton a great deal heavy lifting every year.
45:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, in addition to everything else they do in their day,
45:25
Speaker 4: they take the time and that just to me, I
45:28
Speaker 4: don't know, I just I get a little emotional about it,
45:30
Speaker 4: which is kind of funny, but I do because you know,
45:33
Speaker 4: to be able to bring that group of people together
45:38
Speaker 4: to invest in putting this and providing it.
45:42
Speaker 2: For the State of Utah is just the hundreds of
45:45
Speaker 2: thousands of hours that Kevin mentioned are volunteer.
45:47
Speaker 6: Volunteer, volunteer, yes, right, And so everybody else has jobs,
45:50
Speaker 6: everyone has all the time, you know, life and job
45:53
Speaker 6: going on, and the chairs and the committees and everyone
45:57
Speaker 6: involved puts a lot of time and effort voluntarily of
46:01
Speaker 6: their own time in because it's that important, it is
46:04
Speaker 6: that important to the State of Utah, to all of
46:07
Speaker 6: us to make sure.
46:08
Speaker 2: That it is correct, that it is as accurate as
46:11
Speaker 2: possible and includes as many deals as we possibly can,
46:15
Speaker 2: and that it is available for people to have and
46:18
Speaker 2: use and refer to, you know, the following year. Yeah.
46:21
Speaker 5: Well, it's a big tribute to your leadership. And again
46:24
Speaker 5: we thank you for your time. And then, as Matt
46:28
Speaker 5: you mentioned that those that shared and vice chaired and
46:31
Speaker 5: the committees and subcommittees, again, we thank you so much
46:35
Speaker 5: for all your incredible efforts. It's amazing.
46:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, So, Katie, Matt Kevin, thank you so much for
46:41
Speaker 4: walking us through the findings and for the work your
46:43
Speaker 4: teams have put into making this report possible year after year.
46:47
Speaker 4: It is a privilege to see the hard work that
46:49
Speaker 4: goes into recognizing Utah's businesses and their achievements over the
46:53
Speaker 4: last year. Thank you for joining us today on this episode.
46:58
Speaker 5: Listeners can visit the Mountain West Capital Network website to
47:01
Speaker 5: download their own copy of the twenty twenty five Deal
47:04
Speaker 5: Flow Report and to view the Deal Flow Dashboard, which
47:07
Speaker 5: provides further insights into the findings and trends of business
47:11
Speaker 5: deals in Utah as highlighted today. And for our listeners
47:15
Speaker 5: who want to learn more, where can they find and
47:17
Speaker 5: connect with you all.
47:18
Speaker 1: They can find me on I am with Cola Clff
47:23
Speaker 1: and Larsen Allen. They can find me on LinkedIn. Matt Bartholomew,
47:26
Speaker 1: principle at the Deal Service Team. Feel free to reach
47:31
Speaker 1: out through the organization mout West Capital Network because all
47:34
Speaker 1: of us are looking forward to the great event on
47:37
Speaker 1: May twenty first, so we'll be there as well.
47:39
Speaker 2: But yeah, Katie, you can find me on LinkedIn and
47:43
Speaker 2: also in the Kirkland and Ellis website. I'm here in
47:46
Speaker 2: the Salike office. I'm a partner in the M and
47:48
Speaker 2: A group and I am regularly at things like Dealflow
47:52
Speaker 2: and at the events around the city, so come up
47:56
Speaker 2: and chat. Most take time hours.
48:00
Speaker 3: I'm at IMA Financials Salt Lake City office downtown and
48:06
Speaker 3: you can also find me on LinkedIn.
48:07
Speaker 4: And to everyone listening, thank you for joining us. We
48:10
Speaker 4: want to recognize the launch Pot team, Johnny, Christine and
48:14
Speaker 4: Brandon for producing our show, Zachary Read for his vision
48:18
Speaker 4: and direction as producer, Katie Brown, Operations specialist for keeping
48:22
Speaker 4: us in line and on track, Garrett Lawson and Kevin
48:27
Speaker 4: Jessup for serving as our Mountain West Capital Network podcast chairs.
48:31
Speaker 5: Don't forget to leave us a five star review and
48:34
Speaker 5: subscribe to stay updated on Utah's fastest growing companies and
48:37
Speaker 5: leaders shaping our business future.
48:40
Speaker 2: Welcome to a Winner Circle.