4 ms·

Are a few dozen SBIR mills sucking the air out of small business innovation?

• danbmil99 4y ago
  Over the years, I've applied for several SBIR's. The only one that came through was for a PI who had received grants from the same program manager previously. It really does feel like a rigged game.
• onphonenow 4y ago
  Many incentives in gov align with compliance and paperwork quality at staff levels vs innovation or performance so mills get good at those things. Every Biden executive order adds to this overhead. I once worked on funding with like 8 race / ethnicity/ national origin dimensions- none consistent but most with overlap- days of work and impact to all staff to code and untangle. By second time we had it down and the equal opportunity/ equity folks liked us
• JoeAltmaier 4y ago
  You can't get feedback or help unless you're one of their 'in crowd'. Tried and failed; known folks who've tried and failed. Any feedback they give is trivial and too late (after the grant has been given to a friendly). So yeah, seems rigged from top to bottom.
• davidnorthstar 4y ago
  Hi, I wrote this piece. There are some positive changes over the past couple of years, but structurally, it’s broken. The military men and women serving deserve better and taxpayers deserve to have their taxes put to use effectively.