r/govcon

Formed an IT/AI services LLC in Illinois this spring after ~6 years building payments infrastructure on AWS at a large bank. Solo for now. SAM registration in, CAGE finalizing, SDB self-certified, AWS SAA certified. Niche is cloud-native development — serverless, containers, and LLM/AI pipeline integration — which seems to be in demand on IT modernization task orders.

Current plan, in order: APEX Accelerator counseling, state/county MBE certifications (Illinois), DSBS profile + prime supplier portals, small commercial contracts to build reference-able past performance, then pursue subcontract/teaming with primes on unclassified task orders. 8(a) is a 2028 target.

For those of you who actually made the jump from "registered and credentialed but no govt past performance" to a first subcontract:

1. What was the actual mechanism of your first win — SBLO outreach, industry day, a relationship from a prior job, SubNet, something else?
2. As a solo technical founder, did primes take you seriously for 1-2 person task order roles, or did you need a teammate/bench first?
3. Anything in my sequence above you'd reorder or drop as a waste of time?
4. What do new subs consistently get wrong in their first year that you'd warn me off of?

Happy to share back what works as I go.

I want to build a website that helps small and medium construction subcontractors find work.

Do you find it useful to be alerted about gov projects that just received permits ? Or do you already know about them before ?

For the last several months a third of the content on this sub is just people promoting ai wrappers that have no real value and basically just scrape SAM.gov. It is so obvious the people making these have zero knowledge of the industry.

This group has the potential to really help out people in or looking to get into this industry and these companies are actively hurting this by spreading their AI slop. Not only do these people know NOTHING about the industry, the worst part is they pretend to and mislead people trying to join. I think formal post rules should be added to this reddit community to prevent the onslaught of ai coded bloat from ruining this sub. I feel like I’m willingly subjecting myself to ai advertisement whenever I look here.

I built a tool that reads public works RFPs and flags the clauses that hurt you. Free analyses, no signup.

Email any public works RFP PDF to rfp@mail.bidterms.com and it will automatically send back a full analysis: deadlines, bonding and insurance requirements, retainage terms, liquidated damages, and any red flag clauses buried in the boilerplate. Usually takes about 10 minutes. You can also comment or DM and I'll run it for you.

I'm building this for estimators who bid public work, and right now I need to know if the output is actually useful to people who bid this stuff daily. So it's free, no signup, no pitch. If the analysis misses something or gets something wrong, tell me. That's the whole point.

Hey all, I’m still pretty new to actually submitting government bids, and I feel like I’m missing something that experienced contractors already have in place.

I understand the basics of government contracting (SAM, FAR, RFQs, RFPs, IFBs, SF-1449s, etc.), and I have no problem finding opportunities, calling subcontractors, getting pricing, or communicating with contracting officers.

Where I’m getting hung up is everything that happens l before I submit.

Right now I don’t really have any reusable templates. No polished capability statement, proposal template, cover letter, pricing template, scope of work template, company profile, organizational chart, past performance page, standard email templates, or anything like that. Every time I want to submit a bid, I feel like I’m creating documents from scratch, which makes the process take forever.

Then I see people saying they submitted 2 or 3 bids in one day, and I’m wondering…what am I missing?

So do most of you already have a complete “template library” with reusable documents? If so:

What templates do you have?

Which ones do you use on almost every proposal?

Did you build them yourself, buy them, or hire someone?

How long did it take before you had a good system in place?

If you’re willing to share, I’d love to see examples of how you organize your templates (obviously with any sensitive information removed).

I’m trying to build a repeatable system so I’m not reinventing the wheel every time a solicitation comes out. Any advice from people who’ve already gone through this would be greatly appreciated.

Hi.

So, I found a contract today, and I got a VERY good quote on the units. I need 50 grand. I obviously don't HAVE 50 grand, the proposal is due in plenty of time to find a financier.

Second problem is, I have no work history, and no credit. I'm 21. Everything else is above board, LLC, Certificate of Good standing, articles of organization, EIN, etc.

Anyone know where I could find a place crazy enough to throw me that if I get awarded? I don't want to get awarded this contract, and then get red X'd because I couldn't find a loan in time.

Hey everyone, sorry in advanced as i’m a 22 year old with little knowledge on this subject. I trying to help my father HVAC business and he had someone contact him for no bid government contracts. He seems interested as work is very slow and he asked for my opinion. I really don’t know much about these things except it’s always risky and questionable if they’re legit. They’re asking for 6.5 up front but he was able to convince them to split it up to 3 payments. The place is government marketplace LLC in delaware. Anyone know of this place or has worked with them, or is there any advice about these types of businesses. Thank you in advance!

Ugh. Hate these when my client is an incumbent and wants to protect their work and the acceptability bar is low.

Especially when, in order to win, you'll likely have to cut staff and salaries to retain your work, and that still may not be enough when you know how other low cost govcon shops operate - let's just say you wouldn't want to work for any of them as an FTE.

Also, it was an especially nice touch for the government to issue an amendment AFTER the proposal were submitted days earlier... such a waste of time and effort and to what end...

So, hello protests and likely a bridge contract!

Govcon is certainly in interesting times - and it's getting more painfully obvious that most folks don't have a clue about winning AND executing work PROFITABLY.

You need to focus on both to make it in this industry. Trust me when I say that some wins today (or this year) will be major losses when it's all said and done.

Try winning a $250M FFP without doing your due diligence on compliant costs - maybe they'll make another GovCon movie about those shenanigans - as it seems that most don't pay attention to the relevant history in their quest to WIN work in this space and STAY in business for YEARS.

For 7 years, our small IT government contracting company has worked hard to build trust in the federal marketplace. We have been operating under a GSA MAS contract for almost 3 years, serving government customers and trying to follow the rules the right way.

We are not a large corporation with a full legal department, compliance department, and supply-chain research team. We are a small American business trying to participate in federal contracting with honesty, effort, and good faith.

We believed the GSA Multiple Award Schedule program was designed to help businesses like ours sell commercial products and services to the government. Programs like this are supposed to create opportunity for small businesses, minority-owned businesses, woman-owned businesses, and other qualified companies trying to compete in the federal marketplace.

But our experience shows a painful reality: when a small reseller depends on OEM and distributor data for TAA and country-of-origin information, even a good-faith mistake can put the entire business at risk.

Our GSA MAS contract is now facing cancellation under GSAR 552.238-79. The issue involved TAA/COO catalog concerns. We understand that MAS products and services are subject to TAA requirements, and we understand that contractors are responsible for keeping their catalogs compliant.

But this was not intentional wrongdoing. We did not knowingly list non-compliant products to mislead the government. To our knowledge, we never knowingly sold or delivered a non-TAA product to a government customer.

We relied on OEM and distributor documentation, vendor portal data, emails, GSA/FAS tools, and available product information. When we identified any item that could create a TAA/COO concern, we removed it, escalated it to the vendor, and documented corrective actions.

After we received the cancellation notice, we responded immediately and asked the Contracting Officer for more details about the specific products in question. With only a 30-day deadline, we followed up multiple times. While waiting for a response, we did not sit back. We prepared and submitted a Corrective Action Plan explaining the steps we had already taken to mitigate the issue, including our internal review, vendor escalation, catalog cleanup, and request for reconsideration because we were actively working to resolve the concerns.

We also took the proactive step of removing products we had identified on our own so we would not delay the process or allow any questionable items to remain. After several follow-ups, the only update we received was that a formal response was being prepared. More than a week later, we received the final cancellation email. There was no meeting, no meaningful reconsideration discussion, and no request for additional documentation from us.

The problem is not that compliance is unimportant. Compliance is extremely important. The problem is that the current process can feel one-sided for small resellers.

Modifications to add or correct products can take months. Questions are not always answered quickly. Contracting Officers can change, and the new CO then has to understand months of history, pending modifications, prior emails, and corrective actions already taken. But when cancellation comes, it can move very fast.

That imbalance hurts small businesses.

Large companies can survive this kind of process because they have attorneys, compliance teams, procurement departments, and direct OEM influence. Small businesses often do not. When the government says it wants small business participation, the system must also give small businesses a practical way to correct good-faith issues before years of work are erased.

We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for a fair cure process.

A fair process could include:

1. A written cure period before cancellation when there is no evidence of intentional misconduct.
2. A temporary suspension of questionable items instead of cancelling the entire contract.
3. A small-business escalation path when compliance questions or modifications are delayed.
4. Recognition that resellers rely on OEM and distributor data, especially for TAA/COO.
5. A clear opportunity to submit records, vendor emails, corrective actions, and proof of good-faith compliance.
6. Better continuity when a Contracting Officer changes during an active issue.

This issue is bigger than one company. It affects every small reseller trying to compete in a system that depends on manufacturer and distributor data but places all the risk on the reseller.

If the government truly wants small businesses in federal procurement, then small businesses need more than access to a contract vehicle. They need fair communication, practical compliance support, and a meaningful opportunity to correct honest mistakes.

We are raising our voice because we believe small businesses deserve a fair process. We want to comply. We want to correct. We want to serve federal customers. But no small business should lose years of effort without a meaningful chance to show its records, explain its corrective actions, and prove its good-faith intent.

This is not about avoiding responsibility.
This is about protecting small businesses that are trying to do the right thing.

#GSAMAS #GovCon #GovernmentContracting #SmallBusiness #TAACompliance #FederalContracting #SBA #GSA #SmallBusinessAdvocacy

I am building a product for competitive procurement analysis including real time alerts, contract submission assistance and competitor analysis.

Features -

1. **Real time alerts** when a new relevant tender or contract is posted on contract finder or find a tender or other boards
2. **Analyse the poster and their historical tenders** over many previous years. Analyse their previous bid winners, their financials and other details.
3. **Create a dashboard** showing the details and insights on what type of offers are likely accepted by the poster based on previously accepted bids
4. **Assistance on submitting bids** based on above insights and calculating a score based on how likely the bid would be accepted.

Will this be of any value to companies or people providing products, goods or services to the public sector? My target audience are SMEs and sole traders in the UK.

Since the beginning of 2026 I’ve noticed an uptick on SDVOSB requirements over 8(a), WOSB, and Hubzone set asides. Is this shift a result of the recent SBA audit the reviews direct award contracts to 8(a)s and especially to Super 8(a)s, or the Trump Administration focus on veteran owned businesses?

This apparent shift and recent CMMC requirements seem to indicate SDVOSBs with the right contracts (i.e., OASIS+ and Polaris) and already having a Final CMMC L2 (C3PAO) are best positioned in 2026 and 2027 to receive a favorable amount of new contract awards.

What are adjustments your companies are considering to align with the apparent shift?

I look forward to hearing from this group.

Hi everyone,

I’m the founder of Reglint LLC, a Virginia-based startup building runtime AI governance and compliance controls for AI agents, copilots, and LLM workflows.

Reglint helps regulated teams block, redact, escalate, and audit risky AI outputs before they become emails, records, decisions, approvals, or downstream system actions.

We’re preparing for GovCon and partner-led opportunities:

• Virginia LLC
• AWS Marketplace seller setup mostly complete
• AWS Partner Central profile published
• MVP ready for pilot discussions
• focused on AI governance, compliance, cloud security, and regulated AI workflows

I’m trying to understand the most realistic path to a first GovCon-related customer or partner.

For people with GovCon experience, would you recommend starting with:

• prime contractors as a subcontractor
• AWS public sector/cloud partners
• APEX Accelerator introductions
• state/local opportunities
• SBIR/STTR
• direct agency outreach
• small paid pilot through AWS Marketplace/private offer

I’m not trying to pitch blindly. I’m looking for practical advice on how a new vendor actually breaks into this market.

If anyone works with primes, AWS public sector partners, AI governance, responsible AI, or compliance opportunities, feel free to PM me or reach out through the contact page on reglint.ai.

I led a team comprising of a software small business and a university partner for pitching to an IARPA project. The RFP had a very clear 12 month expected timeline with explicit milestones and deliverables.

We put together a really strong Phase I - White Paper submission and waited for a response. We got rejected from submitting a full proposal. This is the feedback we got:

"The white paper shows a highly innovative approach to {redacted}. However, after extensive review, we have concerns regarding the high-risk schedule for accomplishing the claims in a 12-month program. The scalability of the proposed design presents significant challenges that we are not willing to take on at this time. For this reason, we are not requesting a proposal from this team"

It was their timeline! Their expectation! And if I pitched less than that, I would be non-compliant! we have extensive past federal experience and showcased that front and center of our submission.

I'm truly on the verge of burn out at this point. Too many hours have been spent on proposals that were either pulled by the PO, or were awarded through shady background deals, or rejected for what seems to be the most fickle of reasons.

Does anyone have any insight or suggestions? Experiences similar?

I've been scrolling and searching this subreddit for a bit and haven't found any recent posts or info about local (county/city) bids, and am genuinely curious what the more experienced folks in here think about those types of bids.

1. Are they just not worth it if you are at a size where you can tackle federal contracts?
2. Are they generally accessible/feasible for your local trades shop that focuses on residential work? (e.g. HVAC company with 1 truck, two-person plumbing team, etc.)
3. If you are part of a company/organization that bids for federal and local, I'd love to understand the thinking/reasoning there.
4. Any other open thoughts around federal vs. local are welcome.

Full transparency: I am building something focused on the Local Bids side of things, which is why I'm so interested in learning more. But I'm not going to shamelessly self-promote. I've seen a number of the Federal-focused apps pop up in this subreddit already.

Thanks in advance!

The rule: if you're a company that does work for the Department of Defense and you handle sensitive (but unclassified) government info, starting November 10 you have to be certified under a cybersecurity standard called CMMC Level 2. An accredited outside auditor has to verify it. It used to be you could just check a box and promise you were secure. Now someone has to inspect you and sign off. No certificate, no contract.

About 80,000 companies fall under this. Almost none are certified yet.

Only an accredited firm (a "C3PAO") can run the audit and issue the certificate. There are fewer than 100 of them in the country. The wait for an audit is already 6 to 12 months and growing.

So 80,000 companies need a stamp from fewer than 100 firms, and they can't bid without it. That backlog is the opening.

Three ways in:

1. Get companies audit-ready. The auditors aren't allowed to also prep the companies they audit, so prep is a separate job. You help contractors fix their systems and paperwork before they get in line. Flat fee, done for them. Catch: it's real technical work (the standard has 110 specific controls), so you need to know it or partner with someone who does.

2. Sell the paperwork tool. The most common reason companies fail is messy documentation, not weak security. A tool that organizes the exact files an auditor asks for would sell. Catch: longer to build, slow buyers.

3. Be the matchmaker. Companies don't know which auditors have open slots. Connect them, take a fee. Catch: auditors are few and busy, so you win them over first.

The window is now. By 2028 more auditors exist and the easy margin is gone. The opening is the next year.

Anyone here in the DoD supply chain? How bad is the audit backlog actually getting?

Hey all,

I've got a platform in beta to make it easier to research, team, create proposals, work submissions together, automate incumbent + originator analysis - generally, just trying to make the RFP submission process less painful.

Have a few firms testing it right now, but would love to get more thoughts and feedback, ideally from smaller businesses that are actively bidding. If you can do a zoom to chat about your experience and tell me what sucks and what you'd like done to make it a better tool, that would be preferable.

Yes, it's free to use and research + draft as many proposals as you want. AI features require paid plans because they're not free to me.

Compiling local / state / federal RFPs and update them daily. I have 20k+ RFPs in the platform as of today.

Not sure what I want this platform to be, but being helpful is the only thing it must be. And yes, things will be broken and I hope you find them. I'll fix them same day.

Web is live and fully functional, iOS is in TestFlight if you want to test it there. Will probably launch Android if there's interest.

Feel free to DM if interested, or post below.

All the best

Trying Reddit because LinkedIn has turned into a paywall maze, and the good candidates are buried behind it.

I'm searching for an experienced Capture Manager with real Navy and DLA experience. Marine Corps exposure is a plus but not a requirement.

This is for a newly certified large business, so you'd be helping shape capture for an org that's stepping up into full-and-open and larger pursuits. Solid opportunity if you know how to run a pursuit end-to-end and have the agency relationships to back it up.

If this sounds like you or someone you'd vouch for, DM me and I'll share the specifics privately.