About us

With over 21,500 firms now SBIR funded—some 5600 currently active—this population of c.500,000 graduate-level engineers & scientists across every field of industrial/ technical endeavor is arguably largest single concentration of demonstrated technical talent.

SBIR is usefully understood as massively distributed R&D facility. For those in large(r) firms tasked with External Sourcing/ Open Innovation, the challenge—and opportunity—is systematic, sustainable mining of this resource to address corporate needs. Searching published abstracts, attending agency-initiated events showcasing funded projects or participation in networking efforts may be interesting but lack of specific focus make them rarely very useful.

It is less about SBIR awards as it is about what awardees can do: their skill-sets & capabilities

Our data shows 2400+ large firms with one/several SBIR connections and some one-third of awardees actively partnering. But these numbers belie the relative chaos & serendipity of the effort. Too much unrealized value; there had to be a better way!

Offered by Ann Eskesen - part of small group that created SBIR and longtime leading SBIR advocate - the needs-driven ASSETs (Access SBIR-STTR Scientific & Engineering Talent system) is grounded in tracking all aspects of technical/business condition of every awardee. Algorithm-driven Expertise Precision Sourcing (ExPreS) has already enabled $200M+ of transactions between interested Tech Seekers and the 'right' small firms.

Specialties:
Tech transfer: effective large-small firm partnering, Open Innovation, ExPreS: Expertise Precision Sourcing Not Crowdsourcing, Targeted, small in-depth by-invitation events, Proposal-intitiated partnering, Market-pull, Tech Seeker needs-drive introductions