I separated from active duty after we ran the first STRATFI program. We hadn’t yet built the robust process that the AFVentures office has refined today. With that, I can’t say for certain why each decision was made.
I can say for certain that one thing has not changed: The primary metric by which the SBIR/STTR program is assessed is transition. Everything that has come and gone in the program templates and requirements over the last few years has been focused on enhancing a company’s likelihood of long term success.
The Golden Ticket to success in the TACFI/STRATFI program is a strong narrative for transition. That means more than simply mission impact, though that does play a role. The most important element is making it clear that all of your critical stakeholders are involved. This article contains 4 key pieces to a strong proposal package.
All relevant stakeholders are aligned and involved.
There are ideal paths to success for different products or services to be provided. There may be more than one for you depending on your offering, but ideally you have identified your user, buyer, funder, and requirer in your submission package. Ideally, they have all played a role in your Customer Memorandum. Most ideally, your “customer” is your buyer, and your “end user” is your user. You should have identified funding organizations, requirements owners, technical leads from appropriate development teams, and any additional beneficiaries as additional stakeholders. The more of these you have included, the better story you're selling.
Identify long term funding.
There needs to be a clear source of long term funding. Often I see packages that discuss how the product will be contracted. That’s great to include, but not truly a chief concern. If someone wants your product badly enough, finding or creating a contract vehicle is not the challenge. Ensuring funds are allocated to whatever it is you’re selling is critical. The more concrete the funding is, the better, and communicating that in your Customer Memorandum, which is signed off by your government stakeholders, is a must.
A clear, quantifiable impact.
Mission impact IS important, and it does play into the transition narrative, though I would argue, it’s not as powerful in your application as having the right people involved. The bigger the impact of your offering, the more likely it is that a decision to fund your product will hold at the end of your period of performance. The Air Force LOVES numbers. The Department of Defense as a whole loves to point to strategic publications. Tell the story of why your product matters and cite strategic guidance or tie it to published strategic priorities. If possible, quantify the impact.
A transition plan that makes sense.
Whether you have the ideal stakeholders and funding identified, or if you’ve got a few gaps, the transition plan is where you tie it all together and sell the narrative to the best of your ability. Make sure your transition plan ties your stakeholders together in a way that is plausible and results in the government buying and fielding your solution. At a minimum you should be able to communicate who you will develop with to TRL 6, who will integrate it or buy it, and how it will be deployed. If it’s relevant, including contracting information can be useful - this is usually the case if you’re leveraging existing tools like GSA Schedule. I would also recommend including some of the lifecycle details to make it very clear that you know what it takes to transition a product. These may include training, test, certification, integration, maintenance, or logistics elements depending on your offering.
Are you looking for more tips on how to pull together a winning TACFI/STRATFI submission? Please join the Auxo team for a free webinar on 17 April 2024! Registration information to follow!
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