Lex Watterson

by Steve Gooch

“People who don’t understand networking complain that ‘it’s all about who you know.’ I say, ‘Meet someone new.’” Utah CEO readers, meet Lex Watterson.

As president of MountainWest Capital Network, Watterson’s task is getting Utah businesses together with capital holders to help strengthen the state’s business climate. It’s a job he’s well suited for, having spent years networking with businesspeople around the globe and teaching effectiveness seminars for Covey Leadership (now FranklinCovey).

“My job is to be everywhere and meet everybody, but in a strategic way,” Watterson says. And it’s clear that he knows many (if not most) of Utah’s business movers and shakers; during our interview, Watterson pitched several leaders for future Spotlights and features, networking Utah CEO with Utah CEOs. He jokes, “My wife says that 12 months from now, I’ll know everyone there is to know.”

It’s not hard to believe. As MWCN’s first full-time leader, Watterson’s duties involve traveling across the state to meet with CEOs and sources of capital (banks, venture capitalists, angel investors), while getting to know their businesses and needs along the way. He uses this knowledge to help connect businesses in need of funding with the investors in the best position to provide it. Clearly, MWCN and Watterson know something about networking: more than 90 percent of the business transactions listed in MWCN’s 2008 Deal Flow Report (which tracks the big-money deals made within the state) involved a member of MWCN.

The most important part of networking a business, according to Watterson, is to remember that business deals are made among people. Therefore, it’s essential to consider the other side’s needs. “The key to a really good network is to give before you get,” he says.

That sort of you-first mindset isn’t just what Watterson preaches, it’s what he practices. One of his favorite parts of the job, he says, is listening to the elevator pitch of every businessperson he meets. He then can use that information to help create a networking opportunity.

Though he plays a large part in a great many of the business deals completed between Utah companies and VC suppliers, Watterson takes a more pragmatic view of his role in those deals: “I am a facilitator,” he says. “I’m not the power broker, I’m the transmission line.”