Inside the MWCN 2025 Utah Deal Flow Report: A Recap with Kady Reese, Matt Bartholomew, and Kevin Jessop

When Kevin Jessop helped put together the very first Deal Flow Report in 1996, it was a pamphlet of a couple dozen pages. It came from a table of about 12 people who would sit together, share what they’d heard through the grapevine, and start writing down company names. 

No internet to speak of. Just old-school investigative work, newspaper clippings, and phone calls to companies who rarely wanted to talk.

Thirty-one editions later, that pamphlet has become the most comprehensive publication for tracking equity-related financial transactions in the state of Utah. It now takes more than 80 volunteers to produce it.

This year, MountainWest Capital Network hosts Jason and Cheri sat down with three of the people closest to that process: Kady Reese, Matt Bartholomew, and Kevin Jessop, all of whom work with MWCN. Kevin currently serves as the MWCN chairman and is one of the report’s original architects. 

In their conversation, they unpack what the 2025 data actually shows, how the deal landscape has shifted, and why Utah’s ecosystem is something genuinely worth paying attention to.

 

From a Pamphlet to a Publication

Kevin likes to joke that calling the 1996 edition a “report” was generous. It wasn’t even a full eight-and-a-half by eleven sheet of paper. But what it lacked in polish, it made up for in purpose.

Back then, the process involved gathering anyone who’d been close to a business transaction, pooling what they knew, and then chasing down the details the old-fashioned way: scanning business journals, scouring SEC Edgar filings, and cold-calling companies to try and get their information.

“Most of the time they didn’t want to give you that information,” Kevin said. “But if you gave them any incorrect information, they wanted to correct it.”

That instinct — to be as accurate as possible, even when it takes more work — hasn’t changed. What has changed is everything else. 

Today, the committee tracks hundreds of transactions across private placements, M&A deals, and public company issuances, relying on a combination of public databases, press releases, and direct outreach. 

The report has expanded to include a Capital Providers section, geographic breakdowns by zip code, and industry-by-industry analysis. And this year’s book is noticeably thicker than any previous edition.

 

The Truth Behind Classifying Deals

One of the more surprising takeaways from the conversation is just how difficult it has become to categorize a transaction. And sometimes that difficulty is intentional.

The report captures three main types of deals: 

  1. Private Placements: a Utah-headquartered company that issues equity representing less than a 50% stake
  2. M&A Transactions: the acquirer or the target is based in Utah, and more than 50% of the company changes hands
  3. Public Company Deals: tracking equity issuances from Utah-based public companies.

In theory, those brackets are straightforward. In practice, modern press releases have made them increasingly hard to fill. Companies are paying close attention to how they describe their transactions and how the deal was framed. The result is language that’s often deliberately vague.

“It’s no longer as simple as company A acquired company B,” Kady said. “Those days are kind of gone.”

A press release might describe a transaction as a “significant equity investment” without specifying how much they are actually talking about. A deal might involve a joint venture structure where multiple buyers come in together and each ends up at 50%. Asset purchases can look like M&A or not, depending on the details. 

The committee spends considerable hours working through these distinctions to make sure they are as accurate as possible. And if the information isn’t in the public record, it usually isn’t coming from the company either.

Despite that scrutiny, the 2025 report captured deal volume that matched the record highs of 2021, which was widely considered the peak of an inflated market driven by historically low interest rates. The fact that the committee reached a similar count under more rigorous standards is something worth recognizing.

 

What 2025 Actually Showed

Tech and software have historically led Utah’s investment activity, and 2025 was no different in that regard. But the picture is more nuanced than a simple headline would suggest.

The 2021 and 2022 boom was characterized by massive deal volumes in software and SaaS, fueled by low interest rates and abundant capital. What followed was a period of higher rates, more risk aversion, and a market where buyers and sellers couldn’t agree on valuations. 

Early-stage activity slowed significantly. The gap between what founders thought their companies were worth and what buyers were willing to pay widened considerably. Similar to what happened in the housing market.

By 2025, that gap had started to close. What emerged wasn’t a return to the froth of 2021, but something more disciplined. 

The market became oriented on quality over quantity, with capital concentrating on later-stage deals from companies that had clear paths to scale. Filevine’s approximately $400 million private placement was one of the standout transactions. 

At the same time, the definition of what counts as a “deal” has diversified considerably. SaaS remains dominant in deal count, but AI-native applications, deep tech, energy, defense, FinTech, and legal tech are all claiming larger shares. 

And there’s a legitimate categorization challenge: companies that would have been described simply as service businesses five years ago are now described as tech-enabled, which complicates clean sector analysis.

 

The Rise of Blue Collar Private Equity

Perhaps the most underreported trend in the 2025 data is the shift toward what Kady called “sustainable blue-collar companies.”

Private equity’s appetite has expanded well beyond software. Insurance companies, dental service organizations, food service companies, and more are all showing up in the report in ways they haven’t before. Kevin offered a characteristically grounded example: a porta-potty rollup backed by a local family office.

It’s not a fringe trend. Private equity firms based here in Utah are now actively focused on sectors that would have seemed like niche plays a decade ago. And Utah’s geography and cost structure are making the state increasingly attractive for infrastructure investment. Data centers, solar installations, and server facilities are coming to Utah because there’s space, and because it’s becoming a great place to do business.

 

Utah vs. the Broader Economy

So, is Utah’s deal momentum unique, or is it just tracking the national market?

The honest answer is both. Utah broadly mirrors national trends, just like everywhere else. But Utah has a few distinct advantages that make its ecosystem more durable than most.

Matt described it as “capital flow sustainability”, a combination of a lower cost base relative to coastal markets, with a genuinely collaborative culture among entrepreneurs and investors. And the pipeline of young talent coming out of Utah’s universities continues to fuel growth. 

Where Silicon Valley often operates as the originator of a wave, Utah tends to catch that wave and build on it in ways that are more efficient, more livable, and arguably more sustainable.

Kady added that the M&A market in particular has been showing signs of real ignition at the end of 2025, and that momentum has carried directly into 2026. Dry powder has been sitting on the sidelines for years. LPs have been patient, but patience has limits. The inventory of quality companies is better now than it was a year ago, and buyers are ready.

“Once it picked up, it is just off to the races,” she said. “And it has not slowed down.”

 

Why the Report Matters

The Deal Flow Report is more than a historical record. It’s a working tool used by private equity firms, by the governor’s office, by capital providers, and by entrepreneurs who want to understand where they fit in the broader landscape. It offers value across the entire business ecosystem.

Kevin put it simply: equity transactions are signals. They tell you what a company is worth, what insiders are thinking, and whether things are trending up or down. The report aggregates all of those signals into one place, making it easy to navigate.

And for the first time, deal volume in Utah County was roughly comparable to Salt Lake County. That’s a significant shift from a report that used to be almost entirely Salt Lake-centric. It reflects where companies are choosing to locate and where people want to live and work.

The Capital Providers section, added five years ago, captures another important piece of the picture. It shows the investors and family offices based in Utah who are actively deploying capital, even when the companies happen to be headquartered elsewhere. 

Those deals wouldn’t otherwise show up in the report, but they’re part of what makes Utah’s investment community as active and engaged as it is.

 

Lessons for Entrepreneurs

The MWCN Deal Flow Report is a great resource for entrepreneurs who are looking to better understand the market and refine their strategy. Here are a few takeaways from this year’s report that can give you some guidance as you move forward in your business:

  • Press releases are being read more carefully than you think: If you’re involved in a transaction, the language you use to describe it matters.
  • Alignment still beats price: The most successful deals in Utah’s ecosystem aren’t being won by the highest bidder. They’re being built on shared goals between founders and capital partners.
  • Sector diversification is real: Tech will remain the dominant story, but blue-collar, infrastructure, healthcare, and manufacturing are all active and growing categories.
  • The gap between buyers and sellers is closing: If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to explore a transaction, the data suggests the market is more favorable now than it has been in the past.
  • The best deals take time: The firms that are doing well in this environment spent years building relationships before putting a deal together. That patience is a feature, not a bug.

 

Looking Ahead

The MWCN 2025 Deal Flow Report will be presented at the MWCN Deal Flow Event on May 21st, where attendees can pick up a physical copy of the book and access the Deal Flow Dashboard for an interactive look at the data. Past editions are also available for download on the MWCN website.

As for 2026, the early signs are encouraging. Private venture capital activity nationally is elevated, driven significantly by AI mega-deals that are setting records for Q1 2026. Public tech has taken some hits, but private market activity has stayed strong. 

And in Utah specifically, the combination of deal momentum, geographic expansion, and a maturing investor base suggests the state’s best years in the deal market may still be ahead.

Kevin, who has watched this ecosystem develop since before most of it existed, said it best: “I’d go so far as to say that it’s not merely a mirror of what happened in the past, but it’s a catalyst for future growth as well.”

Thirty-one editions in, that still feels true.

Want the full story behind the Utah Deal Flow Report?

Listen to the complete MountainWest Capital Network Podcast episode, where Kady, Matt, and Kevin share deeper insights into Utah’s business landscape and the 2025 report findings.

[Listen to the full Deal Flow Report episode here →]

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-2025-utah-deal-flow-report-a-look-at-utahs/id1818372923?i=1000768900466 


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3YPtPikGPf6NVgD0o8sezE?si=229MMAbRRJ-KwioRf5YSow 

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