What do you need?
Most people come to us when they need to turn their science and technology ideas into businesses.
Usually they seek support with
research & development funding,
business development, or
strategic marketing
We support
science and technology-based companies, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and university researchers
through government partnerships and funding, customer discovery, business development and marketing.
Here are the most common ways we help.
Research & Development Funding
Navigating the complex landscape of research and development grants.
Helping you turn your groundbreaking ideas into funded projects.
Sharing our deep expertise in SBIR-STTR and similar non-dilutive grants.
To help you grow
Nondilutive Funding Identification
Find the funding agencies that are interested in your idea. Build relationships with the people who will help you and make funding decisions. We support SBIR-STTR projects across all federal agencies, other similar state and federal funding grants, and commercially oriented academic grants such as NSF-PFI grants.
Proposal Development
Get help writing and rewriting to tell your most compelling story. We’ll identify your key story elements and craft a narrative to sell it. The whole thing, including the budget, the letters, and all those other documents. I know what excellence looks like, because I regularly review proposals for the NSF and the DOE.
Proposal Compliance
It’s a paper chase. I get it. Big organizations need detailed processes. Little organizations don’t have time to learn those processes. When the two meet, confusion runs rampant. Make sure you’ve got the right forms in the right places filled out right.
Bureaucratic Navigation
Who am I supposed to talk to? How come I can’t get them to answer me? Ease the journey through government red tape, making the grant application process seamless.
Post Mortem
Alas, they don’t all get funded. We learn and get better. Identify opportunities for improvement and try again.
Process Improvement
Are your frustrated with repeated disappointing results? Build a repeatable proposal capture and management process so you can keep winning.
A Reviewer’s Perspective
Dan regularly serves on SBIR-STTR proposal review panels for the NSF and DOE. He knows what happens in the room where it matters. Because he’s there. Often. He brings that perspective to you and your projects. That gives you a much better chance to win.
Business Development and Strategic Marketing
Running your business in the real world.
Transitioning from being an engineering startup to a profitable businesses.
Building on success through continuous improvement, training, and better processes.
To help you thrive
Customer Discovery
Help you interview establish technology-market fit through customer interviews. I am a trained NSF I-Corps Instructor and have helped dozens of companies build their businesses through similar processes.
Pitch preparation and practice
When it’s all on the line, you need to be ready. Let’s get your story straight ahead of time, and make sure we tell it well. Number one hint: Speak more slowly (I know, because I get excited and I struggle with this).
Creating Strategic Partnerships
We’ll help you identify and build collaborations with potential partners in big business, small business, universities, and government laboratories.
Lead Generation
Build a pipeline of B2B customers. Help you walk with them step by step along their own customer journeys.
Technical Sales Training
Learn to sell technical solutions to technical customers. Respectfully, confidently, and successfully. No sleaze. I have helped hundreds of engineers in Fortune 100 corporations and small startups learn to sell valued solutions.
Negotiation Support
Prepare for those complex conversations. Know what you want. Know what they need. Search for wins all around.
Business Coaching
Do you find it lonely at the top? Are you nervous that maybe you’re not doing this right? I am a trained, certified, and highly experienced small business coach. I don’t have all the answers, but I can help you find them.
Building Effective Operations
You need flexibility for rapid projects, and as you grow, you need more process for reliable operations. It’s a tricky balance. Dan brings decades of experience managing process inside very large corporations. He brings the best of that to smaller organizations.
