Govcon Giants

Winning government contracts as a small business comes down to bandwidth, and in this episode Eric Coffie breaks down why a virtual assistant is the single highest-leverage hire you can make to pursue more federal bids.

He explains how big companies run entire teams dedicated to finding contracts while solo contractors burn their own hours on trivial tasks, and shows exactly how to delegate partner-sourcing, statement of work pull-downs, and pipeline research so you can go after opportunities you'd otherwise miss.

If you've ever felt stuck because there aren't enough hours in the day, this one is built for you.

• Why valuing your time at a dollar amount and outsourcing everything below it means you already have the money for help, you're just paying with your hours instead
• How to use a virtual assistant to find teaming partners and pull statements of work from Mindy, then deliver you a report of ready partners for your pipeline
• The real-world CSO example: how Eric's team sourced a former DLA chief risk officer for a supply chain risk opportunity without him lifting a finger
• Why you should fire fast (even by day two) instead of giving underperformers endless chances, and how it took six years to learn that lesson
• Where to actually find great VAs: Upwork, LinkedIn across different countries, and referral chains that bring in whole networks of talent

EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Virtual assistants as the minimum every owner needs 1:00 - Valuing your time and outsourcing trivial tasks 1:40 - Using a VA to find teaming partners for bids 2:20 - Statement of work pull-downs from Mindy to partners 3:20 - The DLA chief risk officer meeting example 5:00 - Hiring slow and firing fast without guilt 7:00 - Finding assistants on Upwork and LinkedIn 8:00 - Why remote assistants are skilled professionals, not cheap labor 9:00 - Referral chains that build out your whole team

Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them.

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👉 Get your free Daily Alerts here 🔗 https://getmindy.ai Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding

Building past performance from scratch is the single biggest wall new government contractors hit, and this episode breaks down exactly how to climb it without a single federal award to your name.

Colin walks through the real paths to your first government contracting past performance: subcontracting under primes, teaming with similarly situated companies, and pulling private sector work from places most people never think to look.

If you have zero contracts, no experience, and no idea where to start, this is the roadmap, told through the story of the $300,000 invoice Eric found in a printer that pulled him into federal contracting by accident.

• Learn why subcontracting under a prime is the safest first move, so you can let them make the mistakes while you cut your teeth on a small award
• See how to use FPDS to find primes who recently won contracts and actually need your exact service, from medical courier work to IT and CMMC cybersecurity
• Discover how to turn private sector gigs from Indeed into legitimate past performance, including the exact search-and-profile method Eric used to land his first subcontract
• Understand why state and local contracts are the college football to federal's NFL, and how to use them to build a track record in the interim
• Get the targeting discipline that matters most: naming the agency, the contract award, and the dollar amount so your past performance actually closes deals

EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Past performance starts with the $300,000 printer invoice 1:00 - Subcontracting under primes to build your first track record 2:00 - Choosing a small prime contract you can deliver yourself 3:00 - Using FPDS to find primes who need your service 4:00 - Targeting a specific service so past performance closes deals 5:00 - State and local contracts as your training ground 6:00 - Medical courier past performance through LabCorp and private sector 7:00 - Reaching out to CMMC and ISO certified companies to subcontract 8:00 - Why delivery work stays steady and starting at $6,000 counts 9:00 - Using Indeed to find private sector gigs and build a profile 10:00 - How one HUD newsletter project became a three year contract 11:00 - Why past performance from any sector carries the same value

Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them.

Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts. 👉 Get your free Daily Alerts here 🔗 https://getmindy.ai

Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding

SAM.gov registration is the foundation of every federal contract, and the mistakes you make here quietly cost you opportunities before you ever submit a bid.

In this episode, Eric Coffie walks through the top 8 mistakes small businesses make when registering on SAM.gov, from virtual offices with no lease to the single profile fix that got contractors a phone call from a government agency within days.

If you have struggled to get your registration approved or wondered why the government never calls, this breaks down exactly what to correct.

• Why a virtual office without a lease agreement gets your SAM registration denied, and the easy fix that keeps you compliant
• How third party registration companies prey on new contractors, and why the real GSA help desk never cold-calls you
• The wrong primary NAICS code trap that can graduate you out of the 8(a) program at $16 million and cap your growth
• How the IRS TIN match validation fails over tiny address mismatches, and the two-minute fix most people miss
• Why your blank SBA profile is the reason the government can't find you, since this is where agencies do market research on small businesses

EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - SAM.gov profile change that triggered a government call 0:56 - Welcome and why SAM registration still matters 3:42 - Mistake one: virtual office with no lease agreement 6:14 - Mistake two: paying third party registration companies 9:54 - Mistake three: choosing the wrong primary NAICS code 13:36 - NAICS codes, 8(a) size standards, and graduation limits 19:05 - Keeping NAICS codes consistent across SAM and tax returns 22:11 - Mistake four: IRS TIN match validation address failures 24:00 - Mistake five: exposing your MPIN secret word publicly 30:06 - Mistake six: loading too many NAICS codes on your profile 30:48 - Mistake seven: leaving your SBA profile blank 35:22 - Mistake eight: filling out your profile incorrectly 36:16 - Live profile critique and writing a capabilities narrative 43:47 - Modeling competitor keywords the government searches for

Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them.

Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts. 👉 Get your free Daily Alerts here 🔗 https://getmindy.ai

Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding

Requirement shaping is the DOD contracting skill that decides who wins a government contract before the solicitation ever hits SAM.gov, and in this episode Ryan Atencio walks through exactly how it works.

He breaks down how a vendor can sit with a special operations customer, build an opportunity out of nothing, and hand that end user a ready to paste statement of work that quietly locks in their own past performance and qualifications.

If you have ever seen a solicitation so specific you wondered who could possibly bid it, this is the conversation that explains why.

In this episode you will learn:

• How to shape or ghost a requirement by drafting a statement of work for the government end user, with your company name nowhere on the document
• Why the customer, not the contracting officer, writes the PWS, SOW, and statement of objectives, and how to use that gap to your advantage
• How minimum past performance language, contract numbers, and clearance levels make you technically acceptable while cheaper competitors get scoped out
• Why raising the bar on the requirement is the only real control an end user has once it reaches the contracting office
• How a response time or on site clause can scope out national competitors on construction, IT, and access control work and let you add 30 percent margin

EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Requirement shaping and ghosting explained up front 0:24 - Federal Help Center podcast intro with Eric Coffie 0:40 - Developing an opportunity from nothing with the customer 1:12 - Why end users cannot write their own statements of work 2:22 - Sending a draft statement of work after the meeting 2:36 - Keeping your company name off the shaping document 4:00 - Building minimum past performance and clearance requirements 5:56 - Why asking for contract numbers and proof matters 7:04 - Raising the bar so you stay technically acceptable 8:01 - How 30 percent margin survives full and open competition 8:26 - Scoping competitors out with a one hour response clause 9:23 - Closing thoughts on shaping and ghosting requirements

Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them.

Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts. 👉 Get your free Daily Alerts here 🔗 https://getmindy.ai

Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding

OTA construction contracts are changing how small businesses win federal work, and most contractors have no idea it is happening.

In this episode, Eric Coffie breaks down a major shift already live today: the Army is now buying construction through Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs) instead of traditional FAR set-asides, which means the government can sole source a contract to any business of any size as long as you can show the qualifications.

If you work in government construction or chase federal contracts, this is the vehicle you need to start searching now.

• Why the Army Installation Command and ACC are moving construction buys to OTAs, and how this bypasses 8(a) and socioeconomic set-asides entirely
• How OTA solicitations hide on SAM.gov under consortiums like Trade Wins and T-REX, and why most contractors never find them
• The inside look at why contracting officers struggle to find small businesses using the same tools you do (SAM, DSBS, USASpending) plus a 16-page market research template
• Real examples already happening: border wall projects with bonding waived, and construction OTAs issued in Birmingham for Huntsville
• Why qualifications under a non-regulated vehicle can come through a teaming partner, opening the door for small businesses to compete on big jobs

EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - OTA construction contracts now live for Army buys 1:30 - Mindy version 1.0 release and keeping up with buying changes 2:40 - Searchable opportunities hiding under OTAs and consortiums 3:30 - Market research struggles government contracting officers actually face 5:00 - The 16-page market research template contracting specialists complete 6:30 - Veteran spouse set-asides and regional construction conference signals 8:00 - The contracting cone and where OTAs sit on the green side 9:00 - Sole source any size business through non-FAR vehicles 10:00 - Border wall bonding waivers and why speed drives everything

Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them.

Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts. 👉 Get your free Daily Alerts here 🔗 https://getmindy.ai

Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding

Winning government contracts starts long before the bid, and in this episode Zach Golden breaks down the exact sources sought strategy he used to sign and keep paying GovCon consulting clients.

He walks through how he built a target market list, ran outreach that actually got responses, and took one engineering client from relationship-only referrals to roughly seven million a year in 2024.

If you want a repeatable system for finding clients and opportunities without big teams or deep experience, this one is for you.

In this episode you will learn:

• How to turn a single sources sought notice into a signed consulting client, step by step from outreach to retainer
• Why a bloated target market list of almost 200 government offices is a beginner mistake, and how Zach now starts every client at 20 or fewer
• How LinkedIn and simply putting your work out there brought inbound government contracting opportunities with zero cold calls
• The retainer plus percentage pricing model Zach used, and how he decides between front-end retainer money and back-end contract fees
• Why the first three to four months with any new client are meeting-heavy, and how the work shifts to low-effort maintenance after that

EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Government contractor grows to seven million a year 0:30 - Procurement value offering over industry expertise 1:14 - Building a target market list of 200 offices 2:05 - Signing the first client through LinkedIn outreach 3:05 - Sources sought strategy that landed a lasting client 4:45 - Principal engineer with no time for new growth 5:16 - Repeating the system for a janitorial client 6:40 - First few months are meeting-heavy then maintenance 7:55 - Retainer plus percentage pricing model explained 8:42 - Moving a client to cruise control then scaling

Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them.

Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts. 👉 Get your free Daily Alerts here 🔗 https://getmindy.ai

Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding

Building past performance from scratch is the wall most new government contractors hit, and this episode breaks down exactly how to get around it.

Colin walks through the "similar in size and scope within the last three years" clause that lives in almost every RFP, why the government wants recent relevant work, and the moves that keep you in the game when your best project is five or six years old.

If you've ever found a perfect-fit opportunity but worried your past performance was too old or too thin, this is the playbook.

• Decode the exact RFP clause (FAR 12.206, recent and relevant, similar in size and scope) that governs whether your past performance even counts
• Learn why the three-year window is often negotiable and how to stretch it to five years when your work is strong enough
• Use the email-the-contracting-officer move to confirm whether older past performance is acceptable before you assume you're out
• Take on small private-sector and state gigs on purpose to keep your portfolio recent, relevant, and in the government's lane
• Mine FPDS, USASpending, SAM.gov, and agency forecasts to target recompetes a year early and build toward a winning bid

EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Past performance timeframe and stretching to five years 0:22 - Federal Help Center community intro and mission 0:46 - Taking private sector gigs to keep your portfolio current 1:31 - Dated past performance formats and why relevance matters 2:03 - Reading the recent and relevant clause in a solicitation 3:38 - Why the government wants work from the last three years 4:02 - When strong past performance overrides the three-year mark 5:40 - Keeping your portfolio in the government's lane 5:51 - Emailing the contracting officer to confirm acceptance 6:50 - FAR 12.206 and comparable recent applicable materials 7:18 - Targeting recompetes early using FPDS and USASpending 8:26 - Partnering and teaming to win experience you don't have

Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them.

Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts. 👉 Get your free Daily Alerts here 🔗 https://getmindy.ai

Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding

Finding teaming partners for a sources sought opportunity doesn't start on Google, it starts at a plumbing supply house. In this episode, Eric Coffie breaks down a repeatable strategy one contractor used twice to land small business set-aside opportunities by using national distribution supply stores to source trade partners who never show up in a search.

If you're an aspiring GovCon consultant with no past performance trying to break in, this is the exact play that put a VP of construction on a Teams call.

Here's what you'll pull from this one:

• How to call a supply house like Ferguson Enterprises and get referred to four vetted trade companies, including an owner's direct cell number
• Why 30-year trade businesses with 400 employees stay out of federal work because procurement is their gap, and how you fill it
• The sources sought partnering move that works when your chosen sub is too large to pursue the set-aside themselves
• Why supply-house referrals build real trust faster than any conference, business card, or cold outreach
• The volume mindset behind closing deals: looking at more opportunities, talking to more people, and doing more reps

EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Trade experts afraid of the federal paperwork 0:44 - Supply house strategy to find teaming partners 1:13 - Sources sought opportunity in Virginia and Ferguson Enterprises 1:41 - Small business set-aside and the too-large sub problem 2:37 - The first attempt in Georgia and the conflict of interest 3:37 - Visiting a facility three blocks long to build trust 4:34 - Consultant with no past performance finds the play 4:48 - Running the supply house exercise live on video 6:01 - Finding subs that never appear on Google 6:58 - Bypassing fakeness and earning authority fast 7:26 - How to learn contract execution the right way 8:26 - Doing more deals and the breakfast lunch dinner rule

Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them.

Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts. 👉 Get your free Daily Alerts here 🔗 https://getmindy.ai

Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding

Structuring a mentor-protégé joint venture agreement the right way is the difference between scaling your small business and ending up exactly where you started.

In this episode, Eric Coffie breaks down the roles, responsibilities, and bonding decisions that decide whether a government contracting joint venture actually grows you or just rents your certification.

Using a real story of three JVs and over $60 million in work delivered across the country, he shows how to read the rules, hedge your risk, and negotiate a teaming relationship that works in your favor.

In this episode you will learn:

• How to define roles and responsibilities in a joint venture agreement so marketing, estimating, project management, accounting, and SBA reporting are covered and compliant
• Why a surety's request to indemnify a bond on JV work can quietly put your small business at risk, and how to negotiate a capped dollar exposure instead of a percentage
• How Eric pushed the risk off over $60 million in work while protecting the bonding capacity his own market depended on
• What the federal joint venture time limits (the old three-contract rule versus today's two-year rule) mean for how many contracts you should chase per JV
• How service-disabled veteran-owned businesses and commercial healthcare contractors can bring real value to a teaming partner even when starting with little

EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Joint venture bonding risk on $60 million of work 0:45 - Roles and responsibilities every JV agreement must define 1:14 - What a mentor firm is actually supposed to do for you 1:43 - Surety asks the protégé to indemnify the bond 2:40 - Taking the indemnification question to your advisors 3:08 - Negotiating out of the bond to protect your bonding capacity 4:56 - How pushing the risk off $60 million worked 5:21 - Staying compliant while making the relationship work for you 6:17 - Why expectations and communication make or break partners 6:47 - Federal joint venture time limits and multiple JVs explained 8:12 - Benefits of joint venturing and hedging your risk 8:40 - What a small business brings to a teaming partner

Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them.

Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts. 👉 Get your free Daily Alerts here 🔗 https://getmindy.ai

Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding

Sources sought notices on SAM.gov are the single most overlooked opportunity in government contracting, and this episode shows you exactly how to find them, read them, and respond.

Host Eric Coffie walks live through SAM.gov, pulling real Department of Energy, Navajo IHS, and Department of Interior notices to prove that the line "this is not a solicitation" is a filter that scares off your competition, not you.

You will learn why talking to the government BEFORE the bid drops is not only allowed but encouraged under the FAR, and how that early exchange is how real contractors land sole source, micro-purchase, and negotiated deals.

• Learn why FAR 15.201 (exchanges with industry before receipt of proposals) is your legal green light to talk to contracting officers, shape requirements, and get in front of decision makers before an RFP ever hits the street
• See how roughly 60% of contracts go to one or no bidders, and how responding to sources sought and RFIs is the number one path to sole source, set-aside, and simplified acquisition awards
• Watch Eric decode confusing notices live, from DOE "power connectors" (actually recruitment and outreach, not hardware) to clinical subscriptions, fishing wire rope, and food packaging, using nothing but Google to find a supplier
• Understand why you do not need your own product or past government performance, just the ability to source what the government already told you it wants and deliver it
• Get the exact SAM.gov workflow: sign in, filter by notice type sources sought, set response dates, download to Google Sheets, and build your response around the numbered capability questions

EPISODE CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Buying from Home Depot and reselling to the government 0:49 - Sources sought and RFIs explained for beginners 2:01 - FAR 15.201 exchanges with industry before proposals 5:56 - SAM.gov workflow to filter and download sources sought 7:18 - Department of Energy power connectors notice decoded 14:50 - Sources sought versus RFI and shaping requirements early 20:40 - Paper products and food packaging capability response 25:06 - Disaster recovery services posted before the disaster hits 30:10 - Clinical Key subscriptions and sourcing with a Google search 36:20 - Why 60% of contracts go to one or no bidders 46:40 - Federal Help Center and building your contracting path

Mindy gives you the federal opportunities, agency signals, recompete intel, and pursuit briefs that tell you not just what contracts exist, but which ones to chase and how to win them.

Sign up for free Daily Alerts and get opportunities delivered to your inbox before the day starts. 👉 Get your free Daily Alerts here 🔗 https://getmindy.ai

Connect with Encore Funding: http://govcongiants.org/funding