What we learn reading federal solicitations all day: the eligibility rules that disqualify you before review, how deadlines actually work, and what separates a funded application from a good one. Written for founders, not for search engines.
Most rejected SBIR applications are not rejected on the science. They are screened out on eligibility, ownership, or a registration that expired — usually weeks before a reviewer opens the file.
Read →They look like the same programme with one letter different. The distinction is about where your scientist works, and choosing wrong is a rejection rather than a lower score.
Read →The summary tells you what the programme wants. The part that decides whether you are eligible, and how you will be scored, is buried thirty pages in and written to be skimmed past.
Read →Federal award records are public. Reading them tells you what a realistic ask looks like, which institute writes the cheques in your area, and which programme officer signed off.
Read →Congress directs money to specific diseases through the Department of Defense. It is a different portal, different vocabulary, and the same companies are eligible — most just never look.
Read →Non-dilutive does not mean free. The real price is time, scope commitment, and reporting — and it is still almost always cheaper than the equity alternative.
Read →Disease foundations run venture-philanthropy arms, states pay you on top of a federal award, and none of it is indexed in one place. This is the money with the least competition.
Read →Work backwards from the close date and the real start is four to six weeks earlier than most founders assume. Here is the work-back plan that survives contact with reality.
Read →They are named in the announcement on purpose, the conversation is expected, and it is the cheapest way to find out your project is a poor fit for that programme.
Read →A chat session can summarise a solicitation beautifully. What it cannot do is watch, remember, or check — and those are the three things that decide whether you miss money.
Read →We read every federal solicitation so you don't have to, then tell you which ones you can actually win.
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