Federal Funding as a non-popular source of Funding for Startup Studios

Unlike the unpopular opinion usually, unpopular addresses are the ones nobody is interested in. Well, we have a discovery to make - there is an unpopular source of funding that every startup founder may dream to access. Keep reading and you will find out what is it and why is that so.

Most of the new businesses including startup studios and startups associated and independent from them are having hard times convincing the potential investor at the very beginning of their fundraising journeys. As simple as it sounds, it is not easy to gain trust upfront. Even if the investor may trust in you as a founder, it’s hard to convince them to invest in your idea, and even harder to invest in your Studio.

But there is a place where they will invest in you at your riskiest stage saving you from the so-called “Valley of Death”. This place is the U.S. Government with its Federal Funds.

In 2019 there were about 4 billion that went to startup funding which is roughly half the total of seed funding and angel investors’ money accounted for the same year (about 9 billion/year).

And here comes the best part of this “magic” source, it’s non-dilutive money, so basically the U.S. Government has no interest in taking shares and equity in your company. Moreover, they don’t want to put a loan on your company account, since you are in a risky zone, so wouldn’t qualify for one either.

The U.S. government has over $700 Billion in non-dilutive funding available for distribution, including grant and contract opportunities specifically intended for Small Business Innovation Research.

How and who can apply to the Federal Funding

Here are the areas of science and technology across which Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and contracts have been awarded:

Defense, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services (NIH), NASA, Science, Education, Energy, Transportation, Agriculture, Environment, Commerce: Oceanic and Atmospheric, Standards & Tech.

So you as a founder are offered to access basically Free money at the most risky stage of your companies. One thing shall be clear here, is that Federal Funding is available only to companies that are based in the U.S. or they also have operations within the U.S.

In our recent session by Rupak Doshi we have discussed much more useful information about the “magic” source, like who is eligible for the program, learnt about free search engines, were introduced to the basic phases of the process and how to prepare a good proposal. And finally, we were suggested to get help with accessing the Federal Funding program by talking to Caroline from Omnysync.

Make sure to watch the recording of the webinar to get answers to all your questions. The recordings of previous sessions are available within StudioHub premium membership packages.

About the Speaker

Rupak Doshi is the Founder and CEO of OmniSync, the creator company of TurboSBIR – which functions like “TurboTax” for government grants and contracts.

Rupak has a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, academic experience at The Scripps Research Institute and UC San Diego, industry experience at InhibRx (IPO 2020), and prior startup experience (3rd-time founder with prior exit and sales to Levi’s Stadium, military, etc.). His current company, OmniSync is backed by multiple accelerators, VCs, and the US Air Force, and has an exclusive endorsement from the Governor of California for their SBIR support work.  Rupak is passionate about empowering innovation.