rainbows, unicorns & uncle sam: free $$$ for your startup

8/7/2019 Rainbows, Unicorns & Uncle Sam: Free $$$ for your startup

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Rainbows, Unicorns & Uncle Sam: Free Money for your Startup by Nicholas Napp is licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

SBIRIts Like The Easiest $$$ Eva!



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SBWhat?

SBIR = Small Business Innovation & Research

Federally mandated grant program All agencies with $100M or more must set aside

2.5% of their budget for SBIR programs $2+B in awards per year

For small, US based companies

DOD, HHS, NASA, DOE, NSF, DHS, USDA,

DOC, ED, EPA, DOTCompanion program for tech transfer

opportunities (STTR)


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Why Should You Care?

Phase 1 is typically $100k - $150k Odds of getting a Phase 1 are ~1:8

Phase 2 is $500k or more

Odds of getting a Phase 2 are 1:3Phase 3

Youre on your own

Its a grant!!! No equity participation

Relatively few strings attached


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My Assumptions

Too slow

Too stupid

Unlikely to be a fit for anything I wasinterested in working on

a.k.a. A Giant Waste of Time


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The Reality

Very Responsive

Program Manager very well informed

Some agencies have very broad mandatesPainful dotting of is and crossing of ts

But a very viable funding source


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No Two Agencies Are The Same

DoD & NIH have bigger budgets Phase 2 can be $1M or more

Nasa tends to be very specific

e.g. Glue for Space Shuttle tilesDifferent process, different procedures

Application process

Budgets Allowable costs

Overall goals


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Phase 1 / NSF Specific

Feasibility Study, not a full product

Research focused

High risk scientific research

Broad societal impact

Commercial potential

Six Month Project

$150k budget, with strings attached

~30 pages in standard proposal


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Timeline / NSF Specific

May 2009 Initial contact with Program Manager

Jun 9, 2009 Proposal due

Sept 24, 2009 Request for additional info & conferencecall

Oct 2, 2009 Conference call & decision to fund

Nov 17, 2009 Formal notification

Jan 1, 2010 Grant begins

Jan 4, 2010 Money in bank (approx 2/3 upfront)June 30, 2010 Grant ends


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Budget / NSF Specific

* Mandatory allocations with set %s & limits

*

*

*


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Metrics: Compare & Contrast

PREVIOUSSTARTUP

MOVEABLECODE

Time spent trying to raisemoney

18 months 1 month + waitingtime

VC Angel play (in principal) Yes YesWithin scope of NSF SBIR Yes Yes

# Business Plans / ExecSummaries / PPT Decks

10+ / 15+ / 30+ 0 / 1 / 2

Meetings: Bullshit vs Productive 30 : 1 0 : 1

% of Soul Sold or Destroyed 25% 0%

Actual Money Raised $20k $200k

Equity given up ~15% 0%


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Other Key Points

Takes a long time to write you cant do itin a week

Next NSF SBIR Deadline is June 10, 2011

Attend an SBIR overview class

Many agencies have matching fundsavailable

NSF has $550k for $1.1M in investment orcustomer revenue


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rainbows, unicorns & uncle sam: free $$$ for your startup

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