By our Managing Member
When I walk into a new account, I don't start by chasing opportunities. I start by finding out what we can actually win. These are the first three things I do.
1. Take stock of what we can sell and where we can bid (weeks 1 to 2)
Before I look at a single forecast, I map what the company already has:
- Current contracts and the customers behind them.
- Past performance and CPARS ratings.
- The vehicles we hold or can reach through teammates.
- Our size status, facility clearance, and CMMC posture.
Then I pull our own contracts from FPDS and build a recompete calendar. There are two reasons for this. Our own recompetes are the most likely revenue in any pipeline, and losing one while we chase new work is the fastest way to shrink. And a pipeline full of work we can't legally or credibly bid is a wish list, not a pipeline.
2. Build the target list from data, and set the gates before anything goes in (weeks 2 to 6)
I pull spend by customer from FPDS and USAspending, forecasts from SAM.gov and GovWin, and contracts expiring 12 to 24 months out. The targets are where three things overlap:
- A customer who buys what we do.
- Past performance that proves we've done it.
- A vehicle that lets us bid.
At the same time, I write the bid/no-bid criteria and gate reviews, so every opportunity earns its place. Finding opportunities is never the problem. I run an automated SAM.gov pull that brought in more than 24,000 notices across 760 NAICS codes in a month. The problem is qualification. Most of what you look at shouldn't get a bid, and saying no early frees the team to win what's left.
3. Get on the vehicles and in front of the customer (weeks 4 to 12)
A pipeline without contract access is theory, so I work teaming alongside customer engagement. The fastest path to revenue is usually a subcontract position under a prime that already holds the vehicle, while we build toward prime positions of our own. That's how I negotiated positions on three DLA JETS 2.0 and two OASIS+ prime awardee teams. It's also how I led the capture that put a small business in a prime award position on the MDA SHIELD GWAC.
With the customer, I build call plans for the top targets and get in front of them well before the RFP. I use RFIs and Sources Sought responses to shape the requirement. And I bring price-to-win in at this stage, not at the end. I've seen technically stronger, fully compliant proposals lose on price, and that's an expensive lesson to learn twice.
What day 90 looks like
- A qualified pipeline with an owner, a next step, and a gate date on every pursuit.
- Our recompetes protected.
- Teaming agreements in place on the vehicles that matter.
- One or two near-term task orders moving, so the team sees early wins.
That's how I build federal pipeline from the ground up to multi-billion-dollar scale, and how I won contracts for a startup that had no capture function at all.