Intelligence for the federal market
Written for the founder doing quiet research at eleven at night, by the people who do this work every day. No gated downloads, no lead magnets. If it is useful, it is on this page.
Fiscal Year End: What Actually Happens to Federal Money on September 30
Expiring money, fallout funding, and the difference between being ready for the surge and hearing about it in October.
Everything we have published
Business development and capture first, because that is where federal outcomes are decided. Proposals matter, and they are the last part of the job, not the whole of it.
Fiscal Year End: What Actually Happens to Federal Money on September 30
Expiring money, fallout funding, and the difference between being ready for the surge and hearing about it in October.
What AI Cannot Do in Federal Capture
A language model can draft a competent SBIR narrative in an afternoon. It cannot tell you whether the office has money, whether the requirement is already shaped, or whether you should bid at all.
The 2026 SBIR Reauthorization: What Changed, and What to Do About It
Six months of lapse, then a five-year authorization with a new Strategic Breakthrough Phase II, real foreign-investment screening, and the first federal answer to the SBIR mill problem.
Capture Management: The Work That Happens Before the Solicitation
Two companies with the same technology get different answers, and the reason is almost always something that happened months before either of them started writing.
Who Actually Says Yes: A Map of the Federal Decision Chain
Program manager, requirements owner, resource sponsor, contracting officer, TPOC. What each one controls, what none of them can do for you, and the order to meet them in.
What Government Business Development Actually Is, and What It Is Not
It is not outreach to a .mil address, and it is not proposal writing with a longer runway. Here is the job, described by someone who used to be on the receiving end of it.
The SBIR/STTR Proposal Checklist (2026 Edition)
A working checklist covering technical narrative, commercialization plan, budget justification, and submission mechanics, organized the way evaluators actually read.
The Federal Go-to-Market Playbook
A practical framework for mapping your technology to federal priorities: the three lanes, the four readiness pillars, and the 90-day plan.
Understanding the DoW Budget Cycle for Industry
How the defense budget process works: PPBE, colors of money, and how companies can time engagement for maximum impact.
5 Questions Every Federal BD Leader Should Ask Before Q3
Q4 rewards positioning, not scrambling. Five mid-year questions that put a federal BD team in front of the September obligation surge.
Why Most Companies Lose on Price, and How to Stop
Price is rarely the real reason companies lose federal bids. What actually drives evaluator decisions, from someone who sat on that side.
How to Build a Federal Pipeline That Actually Converts
Most companies chase opportunities reactively. How leading firms build predictable federal pipelines, and why demand signals beat solicitation alerts.
The 4-Step Pitch: Turning a Discovery Call Into a Real Opportunity
Most discovery calls with military customers die in a commercial pitch. A four-step method that turns a first meeting into a real opportunity.
The Real Cost of a Weak Proposal Process
Beyond the obvious win-rate impact, poor proposal operations quietly drain resources. An insider's view of what evaluators actually see.
Moving from Phase II to Phase III: What Most Companies Miss
Winning Phase II is hard. Transitioning to Phase III is where most companies stall. Three things that actually move the needle.
Fluent in Federal, made literal
Thirty terms a founder meets in the first six months, each with a plain definition and the part that usually goes unsaid: why it matters to your deal. If a firm cannot explain these to you without a brochure, they are learning on your budget.
- SBIR Small Business Innovation Research
- A federal program that funds research and development at small businesses in phases, without taking equity.The most common on-ramp to federal money for a technology company, and the one most often mistaken for a customer.
- STTR Small Business Technology Transfer
- The sibling program to SBIR, requiring formal collaboration with a research institution.If you already work with a university lab, STTR topics may fit you better than SBIR ones.
- Phase I SBIR / STTR Phase I
- A short, small award to establish technical merit and feasibility.It buys you a look, not a business. Treat it as the start of a relationship with the sponsoring office.
- Phase II SBIR / STTR Phase II
- The larger development award that follows a successful Phase I, typically running about two years.This is where a company either builds a transition path or starts drifting toward the valley of death.
- Phase III SBIR / STTR Phase III
- Work that derives from a prior SBIR or STTR award, funded by any source other than SBIR money.It carries sole-source authority and no dollar ceiling. It is the single most valuable instrument a small company can earn, and the least used.
- TACFI Tactical Funding Increase
- An AFWERX and SpaceWERX instrument that extends an existing Phase II with additional funding.Usually needs matching money and a program office that wants the outcome. Both take months to arrange.
- STRATFI Strategic Funding Increase
- The larger sibling of TACFI, structured around substantial government and private matching commitments.The application is the easy part. Assembling the match and the transition sponsor is the work.
- AFWERX Air Force innovation organization
- The Department of the Air Force organization that runs Open Topic SBIR solicitations and transition instruments.Its Open Topic model lets you propose against your own technology rather than a prescribed research problem.
- SpaceWERX Space Force innovation organization
- The Space Force counterpart to AFWERX, with its own topics and transition funding.If your technology touches on-orbit, ground segment, or space domain awareness, start here rather than with AFWERX.
- OTA Other Transaction Authority
- A contracting authority for prototype and follow-on production agreements that sits outside most of the Federal Acquisition Regulation.Faster and more flexible than a FAR contract, and a successful prototype OTA can convert to production without new competition.
- CSO Commercial Solutions Opening
- A competitive method for buying innovative commercial items against a broad problem statement rather than a detailed specification.Lets you propose your actual product instead of reverse-engineering a spec written around someone else.
- BAA Broad Agency Announcement
- An open announcement seeking research proposals across a stated area of interest, usually with rolling submission.Rolling white papers mean you can engage on your schedule rather than waiting for a solicitation window.
- PPBE Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution
- The multi-year process by which the Department decides what to fund.The money you want next year was largely decided two years ago. This is why timing beats persuasion.
- POM Program Objective Memorandum
- A service's proposed multi-year spending plan, submitted inside the PPBE process.If your capability is not in someone's POM input, there is no line of money coming for it.
- Colors of money Appropriation categories
- Different appropriations may only be used for specific purposes and expire on different schedules.Research money cannot buy production. A program office that likes you may still be legally unable to buy what you sell this year.
- O&M Operation and maintenance
- One-year appropriations covering operations, services, and sustainment.One-year money is why so much contracting activity lands in August and September.
- RDT&E Research, development, test and evaluation
- Two-year appropriations covering research and development work.Most SBIR and prototype work rides on this. Note the two-year clock; year two is a real deadline.
- UFR Unfunded requirement
- A validated need a service wanted funded and could not fund inside its budget request.Unfunded lists are published wish lists with names attached. They tell you what an office already decided it needs.
- IDIQ Indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity
- A vehicle under which the government may place orders over time up to a ceiling.Being on the vehicle is not the win. Being ordered from it is, and that takes separate business development.
- TPOC Technical point of contact
- The government technical lead for a topic or program, often the person who wrote the requirement.Usually the most informative person you can talk to, and they are allowed to talk to you before a solicitation.
- PEO Program Executive Officer
- The executive who oversees a portfolio of related acquisition programs.Reading a PEO's org chart before you walk in tells you who owns what, and saves you a wasted meeting.
- KO Contracting Officer
- The only official with authority to enter into, administer, or terminate a contract on behalf of the government.Nobody else can bind the government. Enthusiasm from anyone else is information, not a commitment.
- Program of record Funded, established program
- A capability with an approved requirement and a programmed funding line.This is what a prototype is trying to become. Without a destination program, an award is an experiment that ends.
- Sole source Non-competitive award
- An award made without full and open competition, under a specific legal authority such as Phase III.Legal, common, and heavily documented. Your job is to make the justification easy to write.
- Past performance Record of prior work
- The government's assessment of how well you performed on previous contracts.The most common reason a good technology loses. Subcontracting deliberately is one way to build it.
- CPARS Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System
- The system in which the government records formal performance ratings.Your ratings follow you into every future source selection. Delivery is business development.
- SAM.gov System for Award Management
- The federal registration system every contractor must maintain to be eligible for award.An expired registration disqualifies you silently. Check the renewal date before September, every year.
- OCI Organizational conflict of interest
- Rules that limit participation when a company's other work could bias, or appear to bias, a procurement.The reason there is a line between helping a program office understand what is possible and helping write the solicitation you intend to bid.
- LPTA Lowest price technically acceptable
- A source selection method that awards to the cheapest offer meeting the stated threshold.If your value is differentiation, an LPTA competition was never your competition. Decide that at bid or no-bid.
- Best value tradeoff Tradeoff source selection
- A method allowing the government to pay more for a proposal with greater non-price merit.Price becomes the deciding factor only when the non-price factors tie. Losing on price usually means you tied.
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