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Proposals, Budgets, Customer Discovery—OH MY!

HI—it’s me again!  That’s right, your friendly SBIR Ready pusher.  Four crazy videos, and a few dozen blog posts on DoD funding, I have tried to explain why you should join us for the upcoming March 2021 SBIR Ready DoD program. Is it too much to put in the plug now to complete our NOW SHORTER letter of intent so we can help get started?

We have a webpage to exemplify the kinds of innovations that are fits for this funding?

What I don’t think we’ve shared is WHAT you will learn in SBIR Ready.  Well, let’s go through it.

Core Curriculum (four 1.5 hour sessions starting at noon).  Complete the courses and homework to earn $750.

  • March 17:  Your Value Proposition means you have to THINK like a DoD customer. We share the background on SBIR, the mechanics of the program, and how ALL OF THAT gets colored differently with Air Force open topics opportunities. The homework is to leverage this insight towards a new innovation capabilities statement.
  • March 24:  Lay the groundwork on how to apply by starting the registration process. Couple that with an approach to researching customer needs and opportunities now that you have hypothesized your new innovation capabilities.
  • March 31:  Distill your research into a fundable set of feasibility milestones and experiments that are achievable, critical and fundable within the budget allowed.
  • April 7: Turn all this knowledge into your new pitch deck template, which serves as your proposal submission. (Yep! If you are applying to the Air Force open topics option, submission is a slide deck NOT a 25-page paper)

Once you’ve decided you plan to submit for the June deadline, join us for the following Just-In-Time courses to earn another $750.

  • April 21: Understand value added partnership with this engaging (virtual) networking opportunity to learn from diverse sector collaborators on how to setup new partnerships for this proposal submission. Sounds easy—remember you budget restrictions?! 
  • May 5: Topics in pre-release means you can now speak with a technical point of contact] . Learn how to make this conversation meaningful by sketching out discovery questions and getting best tips to open up an email dialogue.
  • May 6: GET IT DONE. Map out a successful submission plan ahead of the ‘go dark’ period. Working with CTC and partners, get all the activities in place towards a successful June submission. AND YOU EARN $750 BY SUBMITTING!

In addition to all the above technical stuff, we hope to make it fun by bringing our own ‘special’ brand of quirky, straightforward training. Come for the learning, gain new contacts, earn money to understand how you compete for non-dilutive innovation funding.


SBIR Ready

SBIR Ready is focused on helping existing businesses ideate and develop a new funding pitch to the Department of Defense. This program will support companies towards submissions including contacting DoD topic managers and regular post-program one-on-one support until submissions.
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You can Win, We can Help!

Check out our Micro-grant Program that grants up to $9,000 to businesses pursuing SBIR/STTR funding.
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