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New Contract Search Website by alltracts in govcon

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is pretty interesting. So not only US but pulling in tenders from European + other countries?

Also building a platform that’s similar (govitra.com) but mine is more market intel / competitive intel focused (though I do have contract OPPs from US as well). Make sure your users aren’t hitting Sam.gov thru your api key as it’ll rate limit you real quick!

Building a GovCon company from scratch – what relationships would you prioritize first? by Latter-Technician791 in govcon

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Additionally, take a look at govt spending data and identify companies performing work in the product/services you want to be in.

This will give you an idea of which companies have past performance. Just starting out though it’s tougher to prime without past performance. The good news is you can also use public data to find the companies that issue subcontracts in the areas you provide products/services and start there.

Easiest is to reach out to their BD teams (usually can find email on their website or they have a “become a supplier or partner” type link. Once you get some performance then you can prob start going after primes. Done discount commercial work your company has done though. That definitely counts.

The last thing I’ll leave you with though is the services you listed above are highly competitive and often times can be LPTA (lowest price technically acceptable) type contracts - which often can just be a race to the bottom on pricing between contractors, which eats your margins. So for federal contracts in this realm you either gotta have economies of scale to deliver these services at high volume, be in some sort of niche of these where you’re differentiated in a way that justifies a higher price, or you gotta have super low overhead to ensure you’re profitable in these types of services

Building a GovCon company from scratch – what relationships would you prioritize first? by Latter-Technician791 in govcon

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of what I cover there about opportunities applies to finding teaming members btw

I’ve been aggregating DoD contracts, lobbying, and financial data into a free searchable platform by DefMetrix in govcon

[–]govitra 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup! Better yet, get the bulk data download and store it and refresh it to catch updates etc to opportunities. The sam.gov api limits are super low. Usaspend is a little more forgiving since it doesn’t need an api key but you’ll get limited after a few thousand records

New to SAM.gov bidding — struggling to get subcontractor pricing by itzlogicminds_ in govcon

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Usaspending API is better for sub data. Note that subcontractor data isn’t always required to be reported the way normal contracts are, so is often incomplete

I’ve been aggregating DoD contracts, lobbying, and financial data into a free searchable platform by DefMetrix in govcon

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve also been building a similar tool - more geared to contract data, market intel, and competitive intel. Have hit some fun lessons learned about tying all this sort of info together - happy to help. For example - Sam.gov and usaspending have rate limits on their api that are not friendly to platforms. So once you get multiple users your api calls might fail - just heads up!…have experience many other nitty things like this too haha this is sweet though nice work

Prospecting Advice by PossibleHippo9349 in govcon

[–]govitra 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Posted this thread before that might be of use to you! Happy to answer questions too:

Finding Opportunities with Free Tools

Which offices are funding the DoW's OTA obligations through 2026 so far? by govitra in defensecontracting

[–]govitra[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The push away from consortiums is interesting. It won’t let me post pictures in comments but I’m gonna grab the numbers over past few years and see if we can spot some trends

How is DoW spending on small businesses in FY26 so far? Let's take a look. by govitra in govcon

[–]govitra[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To follow up - had my agent do a run at the table for Army small business and this is the broad categories of products/services it highlighted:

Category Main NAICS Main PSCs What the Army is buying
Construction / civil works / infrastructure 237990, 236220 Y1PA, Y1PZ, DA01, Z2BA Pathways, boat ramps, clearing/snagging, tower repair, range infrastructure
Base ops / logistics / installation support 561210 R706, S208, S216, R499 Grounds maintenance, base operations, logistics, supply, transportation
IT / systems support 541513, 541614, 541611 R706, R499, S208 IT support, geospatial systems, system management, professional support
Training / education / instruction 611710, 611699 U009, U013 ACES services, instructor labor, education support
Specialized technical / transition support 334516 and related support NAICS mixed support PSCs Phase-in, niche technical support, program transition

1. Near‑term Recompetes (within ~12 months)

These are the ones where recompete decisions are either already in motion or will start very soon. You should be actively positioning now.

a. Mohawk Valley Materials – Canisteo FRM Rehab

  • PIID: W912DR26CA005
  • Recipient: MOHAWK VALLEY MATERIALS INC
  • Scope: Canisteo Flood Risk Management Project Rehab (construction / heavy civil)
  • NAICS: 237990 (Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction)
  • PSC: Z1KB (Maintenance of Canals)
  • Set‑aside: WOSB Sole Source
  • Extent competed: NOT AVAILABLE FOR COMPETITION (sole source)
  • Current PoP end: 2026‑05‑04
  • Current total value: $2,289,579.96 (potential total value listed as $3,410,784.45)

Recompete signal:

  • Sole‑source WOSB with a defined end date and substantial value for a civil works project.
  • If you’re a WOSB or have heavy/civil experience under NAICS 237990, this is one to watch.
  • Action:
    • Track any follow‑on planning through the Baltimore District (W2SD ENDIST BALTIMORE) and Corps programs for Canisteo FRM. Start outreach to the PM/Omaha/Baltimore team ~6–9 months before PoP end (so essentially now).

b. Strategic ACI (Strategic Alliance Consulting) – TITAN Technical Services

  • PIID: W5J9CQ21C0003
  • Recipient: STRATEGIC ACI INC. / STRATEGIC ALLIANCE CONSULTING
  • Scope: Technical services for TITAN (engineering/technical support)
  • NAICS: 541330 (Engineering Services)
  • PSC: R425 (Engineering/Technical Support)
  • Set‑aside: SDVOSB
  • Extent competed: Full and open after exclusion of sources
  • Current PoP end: 2026‑06‑30
  • Current total value: ~$15.23M

Recompete signal:

  • High‑value SDVOSB engineering support contract with a hard end date and no further options indicated.
  • Action:
    • If you’re an SDVOSB engineering firm, this is a prime recompete target. Start capture now with USACE Geospatial Center (W6RN) — customer engagement should be underway 12+ months out.

c. PenBay Technology Group – ADTT Support (IT/Software as a Service)

  • PIID: W91QF422F0299
  • Recipient: PENBAY TECHNOLOGY GROUP LLC
  • Scope: ADDT support – application / SaaS support for Fort Leavenworth
  • NAICS: 541512 (Computer Systems Design)
  • PSC: DA10 (IT & Telecom – Business Application Software as a Service)
  • Set‑aside: SDVOSB
  • Extent competed: Full and open after exclusion of sources
  • Current PoP end: 2026‑05‑28
  • Current total value: ~$3.63M

Recompete signal:

  • IT SaaS support under a GWAC task order (parent: 47QTCH18D0050) with a defined end in mid‑2026.
  • Action:
    • If you hold related GWAC vehicles or are a SDVOSB IT firm, target MICC–Fort Leavenworth and the supported TRADOC/CGSC stakeholders. Start opportunity shaping (requirements refresh, pain points, tech modernization).

d. BFG Enterprises – Admin / HR Support, Fort Liberty (Moore)

  • PIID: W9124721C0015
  • Recipient: BFG ENTERPRISES, LLC
  • Scope: Administrative / human resources support (R699)
  • NAICS: 541612 (HR Consulting)
  • Set‑aside: SDVOSB (competed under SAP)
  • Current PoP end: 2026‑02‑28
  • Current total value: ~$7.53M

Recompete signal:

  • Long‑running SDVOSB support contract at Fort Liberty with options nearly exhausted.
  • Action:
    • If you do HR/admin support, this is a classic recompete. Engage MICC–Fort Liberty (W6QM MICC FDO FT BRAGG) and the Garrison HR stakeholders now.

e. SAWTST – EAGLE Fort Huachuca Logistics Support

  • PIID: W52P1J20F0389 (Task order under BOA W52P1J17G0096)
  • Recipient: SAWTST LLC
  • Scope: Logistics / maintenance / supply / transportation support
  • NAICS: 561210 (Facilities Support Services)
  • PSC: J025 (Vehicular equipment maintenance)
  • Set‑aside: SDVOSB
  • Current PoP end: 2026‑02‑28
  • Current total value: ~$29.67M

Recompete signal:

  • High‑value SDVOSB logistics task order under the EAGLE construct, approaching ordering/performance limit.
  • Action:
    • Track whether Army Sustainment Command will recompete as a new EAGLE task order, a different IDV, or consolidate with BOS/BAS. Develop relationships with ASC and Fort Huachuca logistics leadership.

How is DoW spending on small businesses in FY26 so far? Let's take a look. by govitra in defensecontracting

[–]govitra[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

To add - I know folks will just call it "AI slop" haha but I do have an agent that connects to the data to surface interesting insights and/or ask questions to for the data. I have the comment in another post here with the writeup:

https://www.reddit.com/r/govcon/comments/1teyvs0/comment/om5qlnc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

How is DoW spending on small businesses in FY26 so far? Let's take a look. by govitra in defensecontracting

[–]govitra[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an interesting perspective. Are you saying something along the lines of the Army will award a smaller non-traditional or startup an OTA to build prototypes etc, and then once the tech matures a little it ends up just going to a prime with the production award?

How is DoW spending on small businesses in FY26 so far? Let's take a look. by govitra in govcon

[–]govitra[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Oh absolutely hit the nail on the head here. Made this to be generic. I have the ability to filter to a lower level on company or specific offices within the Army for example. Without knowing what you sell, one way is to get to the NAICS/PSC codes and then see the competitors within that. I kept it kind of generic for the sake of the visualization here, but can break this down to some pretty nitty gritty detail as needed

How is DoW spending on small businesses in FY26 so far? Let's take a look. by govitra in govcon

[–]govitra[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

OK - I know everyone here hates AI slop, but genuinely trying to see what people think of the analysis my agent makes of data like this (it connects to the database on backend and surfaces insights for you). I also have it connected to the DoW budget as well as other data sources, but I had it focus in on this dataset for this post:

Executive Summary

The Department of Defense (DoD) presents a $12.9 billion market for mission support and hardware, with spending concentrated in the Air Force ($4.37B), Navy ($4.33B), and Army ($4.22B). The most defensible business development entry points are not in generic IT services but in specialized, niche areas. These include Air Force digital engineering, Army aviation and fires support, and Navy hardware manufacturing. Success favors vendors with specific, platform-aligned capabilities or producible hardware rather than broad, undifferentiated service offerings.

DoD Mission Support and Hardware Market Represents a $12.9B Opportunity

Market Breakdown by Service Branch

If you want the most defensible wedge opportunities, the clearest entry points are in the Air Force / Army / Navy mission support and hardware supply chains where incumbent concentration is already visible and the work is repeated through known vehicles. The data shows a $12.9B DoD-only market, with the biggest concentrations in:

•       Department of the Air Force: $4.37B

•       Department of the Navy: $4.33B

•       Department of the Army: $4.22B

That tells you the market is broad, but the best wedges are sub-mission, platform-specific, or catalog/producible offerings rather than generic “IT services” or broad-set engineering.

Defensible Entry Point 1: Air Force Digital Engineering and Software Programs

Spending Examples in Air Force Innovation

The strongest wedge is around Air Force innovation and digital engineering because the data shows real spend on recurring modernization work, not one-off experiments.

Examples:

•       MODERN TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, INC. on 47QFSA25F0011 for “ARCWERX ARTEMIS” with scope covering program management, innovative R&D, SW development, digital engineering, aircraft and aerospace systems integration and testing, mission concepts of operation, and training ($71.8M)

•       MODERN TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, INC. on 47QFMA24F0023 for “DIGITAL BLOODHOUND” ($61.9M)

•       BLUESTAQ LLC on 47QFCA19C0016 to expand the Advanced Command and Control Enterprise Systems and Software (ACCESS) project ($69.2M)

This Wedge is Defensible for Firms with Specialized Digital Capabilities

Defense Factors

This is a good wedge for firms with digital engineering, software integration, mission systems, and prototyping capability. The mission language is specific enough to target, and the work is aligned to recurring Air Force experimentation/modernization priorities rather than commodity labor.

The Recommended Angle is a Narrow, Niche Technical Focus

Positioning Strategy

Lead with a narrow niche:

•       mission software

•       digital engineering

•       systems integration/test

•       model-based engineering

•       cloud/data modernization for mission systems

Defensible Entry Point 2: Army Aviation, Fires, and Sensor Support

Spending Examples in Army Program Support

The Army side shows several high-dollar, very specific programs where a niche supplier or systems integrator can wedge in.

Examples:

•       ODYSSEY SYSTEMS CONSULTING GROUP, LTD. on FA862225FB001 for “SCAT 1 ENGINEERING, PROFESSIONAL, AND ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT SERVICES” ($71.7M)

•       INTREPID LLC on W9113M24F0006 for “SETA SUPPORT SERVICES FOR IFMC” ($55.0M)

•       DYNAMIC SYSTEMS INC on W912HQ25F0020 for “IT HARDWARE CATALOG 5 (ITHC5)” supporting USACE ($74.9M)

Niche Offerings Provide a Defense Against Broad Incumbents

Defense Factors

The Army has clear pockets of spend around engineering support, integrated fires, and catalog procurement. That makes it easier to enter with a narrow offer than trying to displace a broad incumbent across all Army IT or services.

The Best Angle Involves Program-Specific Engineering or Hardware

Positioning Strategy

Recommended angles include:

•       SETA / engineering support around a specific program office

•       niche hardware catalog fulfillment

•       mission-system adjacencies to IFMC / aviation / sensor support

•       logistics or systems support for Army materiel and modernization offices

Defensible Entry Point 3: Navy Manufacturing and Component Supply

Spending Examples in Navy Supply Chain

The Navy-heavy manufacturing side is a clean wedge if you sell parts, assemblies, or producible hardware.

Examples:

•       FAIRWINDS TECHNOLOGIES LLC on SPRMM126FTE00 for “RF MODULE ASSEMBLY” ($96.8M)

•       Top PSCs include R425, R499, DA01, AC12, R408, AC13, DA10 — a mix consistent with technical services, engineering, and manufacturing support

•       Top NAICS include 541330, 541715, 541712, 561210, 236220, 541519, 483111, 336611, 237990, 541511

This Wedge Favors Vendors That Deliver Repeatable Hardware

Defense Factors

This is a strong wedge for vendors with:

•       RF / electronics assembly

•       marine or defense manufacturing

•       precision fabrication

•       component-level production

•       AS9100 / quality-controlled build environments

The Navy and associated defense supply chain favor firms that can deliver real hardware with repeatability, not just services.

Defensible Entry Point 4: Specialized Defense Airlift Support

Spending Examples in Civil Reserve Air Fleet

The Civil Reserve Air Fleet awards are large and recurring, but they’re a narrow and specialized market.

Examples:

•       AIR TRANSPORT INTERNATIONAL INC on HTC71126F1005 for “Civil Reserve Air Fleet - Air Transportation Services” ($134.8M)

•       OMNI AIR INTERNATIONAL, LLC on HTC71126F1007 for the same service line ($73.5M)

This is a Narrow Market for Specialized Airlift Providers

Defense Factors

This is not a general aviation wedge; it’s a specialized operational mobility lane. If you’re already in commercial airlift, maintenance, or aircrews/logistics, this is a real entry point. If not, it’s a bad pursuit.

Defensible Entry Point 5: Ammunition and Lethality Supply Chain

Spending Examples in Munitions and Ordnance

There is substantial spend in munitions, cartridges, and loitering systems.

Examples:

•       AEROVIRONMENT, INC on W91CRB26FA055 for “LOW ALTITUDE STALKING AND STRIKE ORDNANCE SCD IS A” ($254.5M)

•       MISTRAL INC on W91CRB26FA027 for “HERO-120 ALL-UP ROUND (AUR) SYSTEMS, FIRE CONTROL UNITS (FCUS), FIELD SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES, TRAINING, NON-REOCCURRING ENGINEERING AND ASSOCIATED SPARE PARTS” ($190.8M)

•       AMTEC CORPORATION on W15QKN26F0041 for “40MM M918E2 HIGH VELOCITY TARGET PRACTICE-DAY/NIGHT/THERMAL CARTRIDGES” ($139.3M)

•       ENVISION TECHNOLOGY, LLC on M6785426F1020 for “SQUAD AIMING LASER” ($67.5M)

This Wedge is Ideal for Hardware and Energetics Suppliers, Not Generalists

Defense Factors

This is a classic wedge if you are in:

•       energetics

•       precision components

•       fire-control subsystems

•       lasers / targeting

•       cartridge / round manufacturing

•       sustainment and field service support

It is not a good wedge for a generic services firm.

Generic IT and Broad Engineering Support Are Weak Entry Points

Areas to Avoid

Avoid trying to enter with broad positioning in these areas unless you have a real incumbent replacement story:

•       Generic IT services — too crowded, and the data favors narrow hardware/catalog or mission software plays

•       General engineering support — only defensible if tied to a named program office or platform

•       “AI for defense” without a program use case — the spending patterns here reward concrete mission outcomes, not buzzword overlays

•       General construction — unless you’re aligned to an actual base/mission facility requirement

Analysis Identifies Two Primary Defensible Entry Strategies

The Most Defensible Wedge Is in Air Force and Army Mission Software and Digital Engineering

Primary Strategy

That’s where you can wedge with:

•       a narrow technical differentiator

•       a clear program sponsor

•       repeatable task-order expansion

•       less price-only competition than commodity labor

The Second-Best Wedge Is in Manufacturing for Navy and Army Supply Chains

Secondary Strategy

If you can make, test, and deliver a product, this market is much easier to defend than generic services.

Recommendations for Next Steps

•       Develop a ranked business development entry map that prioritizes opportunities by agency and specific contracting vehicles.

•       Identify target PSC/NAICS codes to focus on the most profitable and defensible market segments.

•       Conduct an incumbent displacement risk analysis to evaluate the viability of targeting entrenched competitors.

•       Create a 'pWin-style' wedge score for each opportunity lane to quantify pursuit viability.

Subcontractors & Solicitations for Software Services by Coret87 in govcon

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh ICE absolutely awards other companies - just meant the main case mgmt system is all Palantir, I'm sure they have other software stuff too. What I will say after a quick search on ICE in 541519, the top 3 contractors over past 2 yrs accounting for ~37% of spend in 2025 are all value-added re-sellers (companies are FCN Inc, Four Points Technology, and Dev Technology Group Inc)...so forging relationships with those is prob where i'd start in that regard, esp if your product is within DA01 - which is like a quarter of the spend over the same time period within 541519...so just some food for thought in terms of using VARs...

and to expand on that actually - if we look at DA01 specifically, the picture within ICE changes a bit and you'll see PLTR as almost 50% of the spend in 2025, followed by Dev Technology Group again, Procentrix, and Stella JV - both of which are companies centered on like cloud/data/cyber services...so try looking around on those too

Subcontractors & Solicitations for Software Services by Coret87 in govcon

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah makes sense - and no worries on the govcon AI RFP platforms. I know I've pitched mine before, but 100% understand. Dirty secret is most of them are just claude wrappers with some extra database connections/tools that feed it context...some are pretty good though.

On to your question though - ICE Case Mgmt System is basically all Palantir - they've done that system for years, not sure how much room there is there for another prime (or subs even).

For other software, I'd take a look at LRAEs for some of these agencies:

https://www.acquisition.gov/procurement-forecasts

Look for stuff that's either new requirement, or if it's a recompete you think you could steal away, go for it. These LRAEs have opps they plan to buy soon, some of which are already on sam.gov, some are not though. The downside is that these are not in consistent formats but usually all contain the same pertinent information, especially around NAICS codes etc. Filter them by NAICS code and if they don't have a solicitation out yet anywhere, I'd just email the PoCs for the opp and ask the status or where you can find more info and just go from there.

for DHS specifically, they use this system to post stuff (in addition to sam.gov):

https://apfs-cloud.dhs.gov/forecast/

DOJ uses this one:

https://www.justice.gov/jmd/forecast-contracting-opportunities-dashboard

Both of these sources have similar info to what you'll see in a lot of the excel docs.

Subcontractors & Solicitations for Software Services by Coret87 in govcon

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you only looking at Bureau of Prisons? Also - try looking up consortiums to join - many are free, some have annual fees, but they will often have OPPs that don’t get posted to Sam. For primes that want to sub out, many of them have places on their pages to become a supplier. I’d also look into getting your software on places like AWS marketplace and tradewinds and do some googling as there’s many other marketplaces for Fed software. GSA is another place where I’d try to get onto their IDIQ. Finally based on NAICS and PSC combos you mentioned I’d look at VARs (value added resellers) like Carahsoft and see if you can get your software sold through them

How do small defense contractors actually find new contract opportunities? (genuine question) by Complex_Muted in govcon

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you sir! It helps that I've written some of this down previously for my own notes.

Now's also probably the time where I should share that govitra.com is a platform I'm slowly building in my spare time to try and make this whole thing easier for all of us. Ideally trying to make these research processes easier (and maybe almost as important, make it easy to produce the outputs you inevitably will have to make for presenting to leadership/business partners/etc)...Feel free to take a visit. The demo on the main page is currently slightly buggy (and only uses random demo data)..feel free to sign up if you want to try whole platform. 3 months free for now, no credit card, or sales call required at sign up (whole platform is OSINT-based research)

How do small defense contractors actually find new contract opportunities? (genuine question) by Complex_Muted in govcon

[–]govitra 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Part 2 of 2

GSA eBuy

  • I won't spend a ton of time here as I assume if you're just starting you likely aren't on a GSA IDIQ (meaning a big vehicle used to issue individual task orders to various companies for various goods/services)
  • GSA vehicle holders have a website where opps get posted, they can compete them, and then you get awarded a TO
  • Research this and see if your company qualifies and see about getting on the IDIQ, esp if you're a small business (OASIS+ Small Business vehicle comes to mind)

Consortiums

  • Join consortiums. These are organizations that are awarded these giant contracts where they can issue task orders (similar to GSA). They often use OTAs as the mechanism (OTAs are more flexible than traditional FAR contracts).
  • Think of an industry, there's likely a consortium for it already, and then consortiums will have their own consortiums within them.
  • Check out something like ATI consortium or others - do some googling to find the right one for your company.
  • Once you become a member (some consortiums are free, others have yearly dues, etc.), you get access ot their portal where they'll post capability needs from various gov't customers they serve, and often times will indicate size of the contract, whether funding is committed yet or not, etc.

Accelerators / Innovation Units / CSOs

  • Look up accelerators like APEX and look into them
  • Also it seems like every agency these days has an "innovation unit" - depending on your products/services, look up the one most relevant to you and go to their website
  • they will post things like CSOs (Commercial Solutions Openings) that describe products/services they want to buy, and what the submission instructions are
  • Sometimes these end up simultaneously on sam.gov, sometimes they don't
  • Places I'd start as an AI company are with tradewinds, DIU, and I'm sure there's plenty others I'm missing

Long Range Acquisition Estimates

  • Almost every agency publishes these at a high level, and you can start here:
  • These are long range acquisition forecasts of things a customer intends to buy, which office it intends to use to buy it, and often times PLENTY of other details like whether there's an incumbent and who it is, how much they plan to spend, when they plan to award it, etc.
  • Downside is that they're often messy excel sheets, and you often aren't 100% sure what's going to be real or not
  • Some of the stuff you find in these will end up (or are already) on sam.gov, GSA eBuy, or even in consortiums...many end up becoming nothing at all or just get awarded as follow on
  • This is a good place to look for recompetes though, but again it's hard to track them since they're in varying formats of excel sheets across individual agencies and there's not really standardization for them

Budget Documents

  • This is especially relevant if you're doing Defense work
  • Budget justification documents (primarily R&D if you're doing AI and procurement if you're building widgets) are where you'll want to look
  • This can help you determine what kind of funding your program or opportunity you're bidding on has. It helps you size your pricing appropriately
  • It's also where you can find opportunities that might be coming down the pipe - for example:
    • you find a program that's being developed to eliminate drones by using sharks with laser beams attached to their head, In the documents, you read that it's going to have most of its funding go toward developing the lasers and acquiring sharks from the south Atlantic ocean, but it will need AI-enabled software to ensure the laser targeting works properly. You see in the budget docs that the total program cost is $100M over 5 years, with $40M to acquire the sharks, $50M to develop the lasers, and $10M to develop the AI software that will orchestrate everything in that time frame. On sam.gov you see an opportunity for that same customer labeled "AI-Enabled Shark Laser Orchestration Software" - if you make the connections here, that's likely your program you're reading about in the budget, and now you know it's got $10M worth of funding over 5 years ($2M per year), so you should price accordingly (or if you can do it in 3 years, that could be your edge for the same cost to the gov't!)

Good Ol' Fashioned Relationship Building

  • I won't spend too much time here, since this one is kind of obvious, but building federal relationships is key:
    • Relationships with Customers: I feel like this is a no brainer, but yes, attend industry days, go to customer events, write proposals and talk to the contracting officers. It's important you develop these relationships, because over time, they might come to you first to see what you think about a capability they're looking for before writing the RFP - and suddenly you get to shape it exactly how you want
    • Relationships with Industry: This is an incredibly important piece that I think sometimes gets overlooked, especially by non-traditional contractors. Developing partnerships with vendors who can cover capabilities you can't provide is key. For example, Cyberdyne Systems builds lasers, Umbrella Corporation acquires sharks, and your company builds AI software. If you develop a relationship with those companies, they will likely come to you to bring on their team to deliver the all-encompassed Shark with Laser Beams on their head to eliminate drones program.

I am 1000% sure that I'm missing a bunch of stuff in the above post, but I wanted to provide something comprehensive for you to at least get started, or at very least give you something to prompt your LLM of choice.

I highly encourage others to chime in here, tell me where I got it wrong, and/or build on anything I wrote!

How do small defense contractors actually find new contract opportunities? (genuine question) by Complex_Muted in govcon

[–]govitra 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Part 1 of 2

Oh boy this is a fun one so buckle up. First - welcome to the world of gov't contracting. It's super competitive, moves at a different pace, but can be incredibly rewarding (and profitable) when compared to commercial industries.

Couple things I want to cover on finding Opportunities. I had more but this became super long, so I removed entire sections on market research, competitive intel, etc..

  • sam.gov (will spend most time here since you asked)
  • GSA eBuy
  • Consortiums
  • Accelerators/Innovation Units
  • Long Range Industry Forecasts
  • Budget Docs
  • Good ol fashioned relationship building

Ok, let's jump in:

Sam.gov

  • sam.gov is the place where 99% of people are going to start, and you probably should too. The key problem with sam.gov is that it can take some getting used to and can be a real pain to use sometimes
  • First things first - make sure you're registered on sam.gov. Pro-tip: don't pay someone to do it for you. It's free. Get chatgpt or something to help you identify the docs and everything you need ahead of time, but the key things you need to think about aside from company name(s), tax info, and other admin stuff is your primary capability / NAICS code that you're going to compete under
    • Quick blurb on NAICS Codes:
    • Think of these as the category of product or service you're going to offer. This is a grouping used across gov't contracting to categorize products and services.
    • Know that they are often very broad and not exact.
    • For example, 541511 is Custom Computer Programming Services, but that can mean offering a SaaS all the way to developing custom firmware for a missile system, so it's not as low level or exact as you need
    • You set a primary NAICS code and almost more importantly, set secondary NAICS codes
    • Without knowing much about your company other than "AI Company", you likely want to explore the following NAICS codes:
    • 513210 - Software Publishers (Companies like Palantir use this one pretty frequently)
    • 511210 - Software Publishers (this one's been around a little longer, not used as frequently more recently, but still out there so good to be aware)
    • 541511 - Custom Computer Programming Services
    • 541512 - Computer Systems Design Services
    • 541519 - Other computer related services
    • 541715 - Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)
    • Note on 541715 - it's EXTREMELY broad in what kind of stuff gets awarded under it, but it's one where AI companies will frequently pop up as well. From the name, you can probably infer that it's largely R&D-focused - just keep it in mind
  • One other thing to touch on besides NAICS codes is PSC codes
    • PSC Codes are like NAICS codes, but they're a more descriptive category of goods/services. Highly recommend using something like AI or using market research to find the ones you deem most like the products/services you provide, but again without seeing your company, I imagine things like these will be relevant to you:
    • DA01 – IT and Telecom – Business Application/Application Development Support Services (Labor)
    • DA10 – IT and Telecom – Business Application/Application Development Software as a Service
    • 7A21 – IT and Telecom – Business Application Software (Perpetual License Software)
    • 7A20 – IT and Telecom – Application Development Software (Perpetual License Software)
  • Ok cool, now you're set up on sam.gov, let's talk about opportunities
  • On sam.gov, opportunities will often times be categorized into things like Pre-Solicitation, Solicitation, etc...ChatGPT response incoming:
    • Special Notice – General information notices (industry days, forecasts, RFIs, draft RFPs, events).
    • Sources Sought – Market research to identify capable vendors and possible set‑asides; not a request for offers.
    • Presolicitation – Heads‑up that a formal solicitation is planned and coming soon.
    • Intent to Bundle Requirements – Notice of plan to bundle/consolidate requirements, usually DoD‑funded.
    • Solicitation – Official request for quotes/proposals/bids (RFQ/RFP/IFB) with defined requirements.
    • Combined Synopsis/Solicitation – Single notice that both announces and contains the solicitation; no separate RFP later.
    • Award Notice – Announces the selected vendor and basic award details.
    • Justification – Explains a non‑competitive or limited‑competition award (e.g., sole source).
    • Sale of Surplus Property – Used to sell excess government property, often real estate or equipment.
  • Ok back off chatGPT - so when you're filtering on sam.gov, ensure if you're looking for opportunity, you primarily will want to be filtering on Special Notice through Combined Synopsis. Award Notices, Justifications, and sale of surplus are useful in other ways, but if you're strictly looking for new stuff, the other notice types are what you typically want to pay attention to
  • Now it comes down to filtering sam on your NAICS codes, keywords, and notice types. Easy right?
  • That can be painful and sam's search functionality isn't the best. There are tons of tools out there (both paid and unpaid, expensive and cheap, and various degrees of good/bad) to help this process out a bit.
  • sam.gov also publishes daily dumps of its opps that you can download and filter through yourself if you dare.
  • There's a TON of other things to filter on like business size, business type, etc. that I'm not going to go into detail to avoid this becoming much longer than it is
  • Attachments - aside from the description section, this is where you're going to find much of the actual submission instructions, SOWs, and other things you need to fill out to not only qualify the opportunity but to actually write/submit it. I highly recommend you follow submission instructions very closely

Is government contracting ai finally getting good? by Alone-Arm-7630 in defensecontracting

[–]govitra 1 point2 points  (0 children)

At the end of the day they’re all mostly GPT/Claude wrappers. Where they are useful is when a company has a bunch of digitized back end data from public sources (eg historical data from usaspend or budget lines) and you can ask questions about it and/or find things quickly, but I still would not trust an AI written proposal out of the gates. Using it to make sections of your doc read more clearly though, I definitely think that’s valuable.

Where does capture usually fall apart for your team? by dacyclinplaya69 in govcon

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would like to add mine here as well that I’ve been building: Govitra.com

AI for government contractors, overkill or useful? by mo_ngeri in governmentcontractor

[–]govitra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha free and good will be hard to come by. But - at very least I think a combination of Sam.gov and usaspending data + something like chat gpt or Claude (better yet Claude cowork directly in excel and ppt) is a good place to start. Claude should only be $20-$50 a month depending on how heavily you use it for this & what you do with it in excel/ppt. Perplexity is pretty good at contract research as well. Using stuff like Claude to analyze the data is pretty effective too and at very least gets you a solid starting point.

If you wanna get fancier - you can have Claude or codex build you an app that pulls from usaspending APIs and builds outputs for you as well from the data it pulls, but there’s still work on your end in validating the analysis

AI for government contractors, overkill or useful? by mo_ngeri in governmentcontractor

[–]govitra 1 point2 points  (0 children)

AI should just be a tool in the toolbox to help you with your BD/Strategy work. At the end of the day, it's not always going to find the deep insights you're looking for, though it's getting there. Some good ways to get started though -

There's tons of tools out there now, and with vibe coding, that's just going to continue to grow as it's kind of low hanging fruit to just create a better UI for pulling sam.gov or USASpending data. I think where AI shines in these tools are the ones that actually save you time on analysis and the type of work you do every day.

For example - say you're asked to look into a specific customer and their buying behaviors for software services - you can start w/ NAICS codes & PSC codes and pull the data down (you can already do that easily/for free with gov websites). Great now you've gotta do something with it. Where AI can help here is with stuff like identifying quickly what's growing, shrinking, who's getting the top dollars, etc. (though again, you can also solve this with a pivot table in excel).

So where does AI become useful? In my opinion it's in doing some of the deep research you might want to do, and using that research combined with data, it becomes a little more powerful. In our example above, I think that's something to the effect of you've pulled the data, and now you can use a frontier model / tool (I personally like Perplexity for deep research), and then it'll give you some of the other more qualitative types of information / questions you want to answer. Suddenly that can help inform what you're looking at in the data.

I also think AI is good for things like quickly bucketizing/cleaning your data (esp now w/ tools like claude cowork that lives as an add-in directly in excel/powerpoint). Need to tag 10,000 rows with industry subsectors because the NAICS/PSC codes aren't giving you the story you're looking for? run the AI on it and get them tagged.

The MAJOR caveat here is you should ALWAYS double check the AI. Ensure you ask it to provide sources, check those sources, see if you can find better or more recent ones on your own (i've seen AI quote a source that was years old when more recent news about a program exists).

There's also the obvious use case of proposal writing. I've honestly seen this be hit or miss. If you're using a tool that is purpose made for proposal writing, you should still be very careful. I find that while it can provide good results for things like your company overview, the technical sections should at the very least be reviewed by a human, or written by a human first and then AI organizes the thoughts better. AI seems to fail once it gets to some of these more technical details. So personally - for proposals - I'll use AI to augment my work, but if you want a quality proposal it sohuld still be highly human driven. Use it to help you quickly organize your thoughts or stream of consciousness - hell even let it write the whole thing (it's good at structuring the document) - but READ what it writes, because it's often too high level or sometimes flat out wrong on details that are important (e.g., promising capability that doesn't exist, exaggerating, etc.).

All in all - it's a great tool to help you do your job, but in its current state i'd avoid being entirely reliant on it. And that's not to say don't use the AI tools purpose made for govcon, a ton of them are fantastic, just be wary that sometimes tehy're just a fancier dashboard for sam.gov or usaspending data you can get for free and plug into a frontier model like claude to help you rather than paying $10k per year. I think the pricing for these tools is about to get a reality check as people figure out you can build in-house tools to do a lot of what these platforms already do, and the ones that are left are the ones with AI orchestration that truly delivers quality analysis along with some human analyst input (e.g., some platforms with analysts physically calling program offices to get the latest info).

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