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“40 Ways to Improve your SBIR Proposal!”

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You want to change the world.
We want to help you change the world.

Hello, I’m Nicole from the VentureWrench team!  If you’ve made it this far, I know a couple of things about you.  You are a technologist who is talented, experienced and you have a vision to change the world in some way.  You know that deep technology, the kind that changes the world, doesn’t just happen on a few weekends with a few dollars or even a few hundred thousand dollars.  And you know that to make the kind of investment that the technology needs, you need funding.  Probably pretty serious funding.  I know that because I’ve been there, more than once.

If you’ve been around the block like I have, you also know that investors aren’t funding deep technology like they used to.  Venture Capitalists used to fund technologists and then help build a team around serious innovations that changed the world and the technology landscape.  But that’s not the case very often anymore.

Increasingly VC’s fund the slick talker, the hand waver, the person who says “it will be worth billions”, even though it doesn’t do anything to help anyone.

At the same time, high-end angel investors might be interested in your vision, but unless they are already experts in your specific field, they will quickly they decide they don’t know if you can “really” make it work, and of course decide not to invest until you have “proven you can do it!”.

But the world has big problems that need to be solved, and you’ve got a vision, you want to make a change in the world, and you still need funding, what should you do?  As fellow entrepreneurs and technologists who also want to make a difference and to help other entrepreneurs, we, the team at VentureWrench, can relate. We found success, and funding, with the SBIR program, and we want to help you get to success with SBIR too!

Now that you’ve got the list of 40 mistakes to avoid, I hope you are serious about SBIR success!  I imagine that you are you interested in your share of nearly $4 Billion (2021 SBIR Road Tour) in early stage, non-dilutive SBIR funding for America’s small technology businesses?  But, do you have what it takes to write a winning SBIR or STTR funding proposal?

The truth is the SBIR/STTR program is a federal program, and it comes with rules and norms and expectations, and none of that is written down for you.  And behind the scenes are a lot of people who are reviewing your proposal, who have their own perspective, and when you write your proposal, you’ve got to understand their mindset in order to create a proposal they are willing to fund!

Here’s the bottom line – a 6-12 month, Phase I award, can be worth up to $256,000 in funds for your deep technology development!  And, a 12-24 months Phase II award – $1million or more!  All of it equity free – which means you own your company and it owns its technology.

As an experienced reviewer and the recipient of multiple SBIR Phase I and Phase II awards, I’ve created a online course just for you – “Develop a Winning SBIR Strategy: Insights from an Experienced Reviewer” to help you learn to succeed with SBIR and STTR.

BUT, its not easy to win a Phase I award, unless you know what happens behind the scenes!  My goal is to share with you that insider info that helps you create a compelling, and ultimately winning, proposal.  The cost is less than $1000, that is 1/256 or .39% of the top Phase I award. And obviously a tiny fraction of the more than one and a quarter million of a combined Phase I and Phase II award.

Writing a Phase I award is supposed to take 40-200 hours (according to the federal government), but that “40 hours” is simply impossible, and 200 hours is more likely a starting point rather than a high water mark.  And those 200 hours are low cost hours, those are 200 hours for you and most talented, and expensive, members of your team. How many of those hours at even $100 / hour gets to the $1000 cost of my latest course – yep, that’s right, only 10 hours.  And if you DON’T get an award after investing those 200 hours, well, you have wasted a lot of time and money.

The system-wide average “win” rate for the SBIR/STTR programs is 10-15%.  That number has held steady over time and over programs.  The goal of my course is to help you increase those odds dramatically and set yourself apart from the crowd of proposals!

One Program Director put it this way – the NSF Phase I award rate is about 10%, but if you are 1) clear about the Innovation and 2) clear about the market, you are ahead of about 60% of the proposals!

My company has received over $1.2 million in SBIR funding, and I’ve helped other entrepreneurs write award winning proposals worth millions more.

More Importantly, I’ve also reviewed dozens of Phase I and Phase II proposals.  That’s right, I’ve sat in many review panels, helping to decide which teams get those coveted awards.

Develop a Winning SBIR Strategy | Video Only (1)

$1299.00 Special Pandemic Pricing Offer! $999.00

(Payments and hosting by Thinkific, a trusted leader in video training)

Improve Your SBIR Proposal Workbook CoverI know you want to change the world, and the SBIR program is a great source of funding to help you make that change!

This online course "Develop a Winning SBIR Strategy: Insights from an Experienced Reviewer" to help you learn to succeed with the federal SBIR and STTR funding programs to fund your innovative technology company.

In this updated course we've included a lot of value added content including an all new workbook and worksheets, accounting help sheets and video (to help you figure out your Phase I and Phase II accounting!) and sample documents to help you prepare your proposal. We've included tutorials from each of the major SBIR and STTR agencies to help you develop a successful strategy. You won't find anything else like this. This course can help you improve your SBIR proposal and improve the odds of success! See a detailed list of features and then sign up for either our video-only course or our course plus 1 on 1 coaching with me!

Plus all year, I attend agency and national SBIR conferences to get the latest insights, updates and breaking news from SBIR leadership and senior program directors to give you the latest edge.

Sarah Lukes Best SBIR course I've taken [Phase I and Phase II awarded after taking this course!]

I have participated in several SBIR enrichment activities through the state and university. Nicole provided more in depth information, as well as considered input and requests from attendees. A lot of the other courses out there are told in 3rd person where someone interviews SBIR award winners, but has not applied or reviewed many proposals themselves. I am grateful for the extra guidance and motivation and strongly recommend this course.

Develop a Winning SBIR Strategy | Video Only
      • Hosted by Nicole Toomey Davis, MBA and CEO.
      • Nicole has raised $1.2 million in SBIR funding
      • 4+ Hours of Video
      • *New* Tutorials and Summary Overview of all major SBIR and STTR Programs
      • *New* Video to help companies assess agencies based on fit with their strategic goals
      • 2 hours of video explaining the review process
      • Video review of ways to convert reviewers into fans and champions
      • *New* 105 page Workbook and Worksheets to emphasize key points
      • "New" Checklists and To Do lists to make sure teams don't miss a submission deadline
      • "New" Proposal section examples from WINNING proposals
      • In depth discussion of the the popular "40 Ways to Improve your SBIR proposal" Handout!
      • Videos can be viewed as many times as you want for 2 years

$1299.00 Special Pandemic Pricing Offer! $999.00

(Payments and hosting by Thinkific, a trusted leader in video training)

Develop a Winning SBIR Strategy | Plus 1-on-1 Coaching  (from Dave Smith)
 
    • 2 hours personal coaching from Nicole Toomey Davis (coaching normally $350/hour)
    • Discuss issues related to the success of your SBIR proposal
    • Phone or online video coaching, your choice
    • *New* Tutorials and Summary Overview of all major SBIR and STTR Programs - included
    • *New* Video to help companies assess agencies based on fit with their strategic goals - included
    • The Entire "Develop a Winning SBIR Strategy" multi-hour Video Course and "New" 105 page Workbook are included
    • "New" Checklists and To Do lists to make sure you don't miss a submission deadline - included
    • "New" Proposal section examples from WINNING proposals - included
    • Videos can be viewed as many times as you want for 2 years
    • In depth discussion of the "40 Ways to Improve your SBIR proposal" Handout!

$2099 Limited Time Pandemic Pricing! $1499

(Payments and hosting by Thinkific, a trusted leader in video training)

As an experienced startup coach and longtime, experienced peer reviewer of both SBIR Phase I and SBIR Phase II proposals, Nicole has received so many questions about proposals for the SBIR program that she has put together this all new course to help you develop a successful strategy to use SBIR/STTR funding to develop your innovations. A key element is showing you what actually happens behind the scenes during the Review Process of SBIR proposals. This course includes insight into all the major SBIR and STTR programs, including DoD SBIR and DoD STTR, including DARPA SBIR STTR, DOE SBIR and STTR, NSF SBIR and STTR, Navy SBIR, Army SBIR, Air Force SBIR (and STTR for all services), NIH SBIR/STTR, and NASA SBIR STTR as well as DoED and other smaller programs such as NIST SBIR and EPA SBIR.

Items covered include:

  • A strategic overview of the different agencies and their perspective
  • Worksheets and advice to help you lay out your potential proposals and the appropriate agencies.
  • The importance of the submitting a pre-proposal pitch or executive summary (more than 2 weeks in advance of submission deadlines) Your chance to make reviewers love what you do!
  • Overview of orientation that reviewers receive
  • Identifying the different types of reviewers on a panel and how this impacts the process
  • What reviewers are asked to do for each review (and how this impacts your proposal!)
  • Why an SBIR Program Director said on a road tour this summer that just a few things can raise your odds of being awarded funding from 15% to over 50%!
  • Why the Introduction can make or break your entire proposal
  • The order in which experienced reviewers read your proposal - and why it matters.
  • Differences and similarities between SBIR Phase I and Phase II reviews, and why your Phase I review is really the first part of your Phase II review
  • Do letters of support really matter - and how not to get them
  • What is really needed in the commercialization section of an SBIR Phase I (vs. Phase II)
  • Review of my list of 40 ways to improve your SBIR proposal (from mistakes I saw in actual proposals)
  • The difference between individual reviews and panel summary (and scores) and what that feedback means
  • How to track the progress of your proposal
  • Clues that you have been recommended for funding and what to expect from your Program Director or Technical Point of Contact (DoD)

Content includes 9 core content chapters, over 2 hours of content plus four bonus chapters to help you with your executive summary or proposal overview and another bonus chapter to help you with your SBIR accounting.

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40 Ways to Improve your SBIR Proposal!