The potential SBIR rewards far outweigh the challenges, and with determination, your startup could be the next success story. Photo via Getty Images

Grants are everywhere, all the time, but often seem unobtainable for startups. Most companies tell me about their competitors winning grants but don’t know how to secure non-dilutive funding for themselves. It’s true that the SBIR program is competitive — with only 10 to 15 percent of applicants receiving awards — but with a little guidance and perseverance, they are most definitely obtainable.

An SBIR overview

The Small Business Innovation Research program was introduced on the federal level in 1982 with the purpose of de-risking early technologies. While most investors are hesitant to invest in a company that’s still in ideation, the SBIR program would provide an initial level of feasibility funding to develop a prototype. The program issues funds to companies without taking any equity, IP, or asking for the money back.

Since its inception, the SBIR program has funded over 200,000 projects through 11 different federal agencies, including, but not limited to, the Department of Defense, the National Institute of Health, and the National Science Foundation. Federal agencies with R&D budgets over $100 million dedicate at least 3.2 percent of their budget to the SBIR program to fund research initiated by small businesses.

Eligibility and application process

It is no surprise that only small businesses can apply for this non-dilutive funding. For SBIR purposes, a small business is defined as being a for-profit entity, smaller than 500 employees, 51 percent owned by US citizens or permanent residents, and not primarily owned by venture capital groups. This small business must also have the rights to the IP that needs de-risking.

To apply, the small business must have a specific project that needs funding. Normally, this project will have three specific aims that detail the action items that will be attempted during the funded period. Some agencies require a pre-application, like a letter of intent (DOE) or a project pitch (NSF). Others don’t have a screening process and you can simply submit a full application at the deadline. Most agencies published examples of funded or denied applications for you to review.

SBIR phases

Phase I of the SBIR program is the normal entry point for every agency. It takes your product from ideation, through a feasibility study, to having a prototype. While agencies provide various funding amounts, the range is between $75,000 to $300,000 for 3 to 12 months of R&D activities. Applications contain a feasibility research plan (around six pages), an abstract, specific aims, supporting documents, and a budget.

While some programs allow for Direct to Phase II (D2P2) applications, most don’t apply for Phase II until they have secured Phase I funding. This second phase allows companies with completed feasibility studies to test their new prototype at a larger scale. The budgets for this phase range from $600,000 to $3 million and span an average of two years. The research plan is twice as robust and a commercialization plan is also needed.

Tips for success

If you’re wondering if your technology would be a good fit for a certain program, you can start by looking at the SBIR website to see the previously funded projects. The more recent projects will give you an idea of the funding priorities for each agency. Most abstracts will allude to the specific aims, meaning you can get a sense of the research projects that were approved. If you regularly see an agency funding projects similar to yours, you can search sbir.gov/topics for that agency’s research topics and upcoming deadlines.

Your team is one of the most important aspects of the application. Since you will be reviewed by academic experts, it’s helpful to have a principal investigator on your project that has a history of experience or publications with similar technology. Keep in mind that this principal investigator must be primarily employed by your company at the time of the grant. If this individual is employed by a university or nonprofit research organization, consider taking the STTR route so you can utilize their expertise.

Preparing Phase I applications should take no less than eight weeks, and Phase II should take at least ten. Your first step should be read the entire solicitation and create action items. The early action items should be

  1. Completing government registrations, like SAM.gov
  2. Writing your abstract and specific aims
  3. Contacting the program manager or director for early feedback

Any bids, estimates, or letters of support may also take time to receive, so don’t delay pursuing these items.

Don’t stop trying

If you speak to any program officer, they will encourage you to keep applying. For resubmissions, you will have a chance to explain why your previous application was denied and what you’ve done to improve. Most companies receive funding on the resubmission. If you get the feeling that a specific agency isn’t the right fit, reach out to other agencies that may be interested in the technology. You may realize that a small pivot may open up better opportunities.

There are frequently published webinars from different agencies that will give overviews of the specific solicitations and allow for Q&A. If you feel stuck or are still concerned about getting started, reach out to an individual or group that can provide guidance. There are plenty of grant writers, some of which have reviewed for the SBIR program for different agencies, who can provide strategy, guidance, reviews, and writing services to provide different levels of help.

Securing SBIR funding can be a game-changer for startups. While the process may seem daunting at first, with the right approach and persistence, it’s very obtainable. Remember, each application is a learning experience, and every iteration brings you closer to success. Whether you seek support from webinars, program officers, or professional grant writers, the key is to keep pushing forward. The potential rewards far outweigh the challenges, and with determination, your startup could be the next SBIR success story.

------

Robert Wegner is the director of business development for Euroleader.

Comcast is looking out for the one-third of businesses in the Houston metro area that are minority-owned. Photo courtesy of comcast.

Tech company to grant funds to Houston-area BIPOC small business owners

comcast cares

Comcast, the telecom, media, and entertainment conglomerate, is awarding $1 million in grants to small businesses in Houston owned by entrepreneurs who are Black, indigenous or people of color (BIPOC).

In all, 100 grants of $10,000 each will be given to BIPOC-owned small businesses in Houston. Local businesses can apply for the grants March 1-14. Grant recipients will be announced in April and awarded in May.

"Unfortunately, many small businesses in Houston were not able to withstand the many months of suppressed revenues [amid the pandemic]. While we remain optimistic about our economic recovery, public-private partnerships will play a vital role in minimizing the disruptions that so many small businesses, specifically minority-owned businesses, are facing," says Vice Mayor Pro Tem Martha Castex-Tatum, who chairs the Houston City Council's Economic Development Committee.

The Houston grants are part of a $5 million investment fund sponsored by Comcast RISE, which launched last year to provide resources to BIPOC-owned small businesses around the country. Under this initiative, grants also will be awarded in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia.

Studies show BIPOC-owned small businesses have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, and recent research by JPMorgan Chase Institute found that Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston and Philadelphia were among the top markets for sharp declines in local spending. Additionally, the majority of applications for the marketing and technology services component of Comcast RISE are from these five cities.

To qualify for a Comcast RISE grant in Houston, a BIPOC-owned small business:

  • Must be located in either Harris County or Fort Bend County.
  • Must have been in business for at least three years.
  • Must employ no more than 25 people.

To drive outreach about the program and provide support, training, and mentorship, Comcast also has awarded more than $2 million to six Houston business groups: Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Greater Houston Black Chamber, Asian Chamber of Commerce, Greater Houston LGBT Chamber of Commerce, Houston East End Chamber, and Cámara de Empresarios Latinos de Houston.

"Small businesses have always played an integral role in Houston's growth and future," Ralph Martinez, senior vice president for Comcast's Houston region, says in a February 9 release. "In the midst of the pandemic, these entrepreneurs provided many of the services and resources that have kept our communities up and running."

About one-third of businesses in the Houston metro area are minority-owned. Among largest metros in the U.S., Houston ranks fifth for the percentage of minority-owned startups (30.45 percent).

Comcast RISE is part of a broader $100 million diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative that launched last summer. In June, Comcast NBCUniversal announced a multiyear plan to allocate $75 million in cash and $25 million worth of media over the next three years to fight injustice and inequality against any race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or ability.

Houston startup Grant Source, which helps its clients find the right grants to apply for, has seen a surge in business amid the coronavirus shutdown. Getty Images

This Houston tech startup is helping businesses find the funds during COVID-19 crisis and beyond

Taken for granted

Since 2015, Grant Source has perfected the art of helping businesses, foundations, and organizations find and secure grant funding — and now their expertise has become vital to COVID-19 response initiatives.

With the devastation caused by the novel coronavirus, America's medical organizations have been scrambling to obtain the funds required to purchase the testing kits, masks, PPE, and other life-saving products needed to help curb the effects of the global pandemic and now, thanks to the mobile and web platform, they're getting the assistance they need to accomplish that goal.

"COVID-19 response is actually our claim to fame right now," says Allen Thornton, founder and CEO of Grant Source. "We have probably done more business in the last few months than we have since we started. Simply because we are helping people find grants with the CARES Act. There's over $500 billion out there, which has created overnight a $40 billion market opportunity for us."

Grant Source has worked extensively with city, county, state, and government agencies to secure grant funding, which is why they have become a game changer for those that need emergency capital to combat COVID-19's challenges.

"Initially, it was scary because we lost some of our clients, but then a bunch of medical clients came to us and asked if we could help them find funding for COVID-19 outreach," Thornton says. "We've found that they have a higher probability of success right now because with COVID-19 outreach, the procurement cycle has gone from six to nine months down to 30 days, which is unheard of."

In addition to telemedicine companies, Grant Source has been helping write grants for clients that range from airports to technology companies in order to help provide them with a path forward in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

Grant Source has created a database and a suite of resources for companies looking for grants. Photo via grantsource.com


Preventing federal funding waste

Outside of the context of a pandemic, the government uses grants as a way to fund ideas and projects that provide public services and stimulate the economy.

Grants are also essential when it comes to supporting critical recovery initiatives and innovative research, but on a fundamental level, very few even know how or where to start when it comes to applying for one and it becomes even more esoteric when it comes to getting funded. That's why so much grant money goes unclaimed, with millions of nonprofits and businesses going underfunded and not maximizing their impact.

"Over $3.2 billion in grant money goes unclaimed every single year," says Thornton. "We have a broken system and we wondered what we could do to change it, so we started Grant Source, our revolutionary grant funding system, to help organizations find and secure money for their mission."

Client-focused services and support

In addition to helping clients find grants, Grant Source assists with the necessary pre-work to apply for a grant.

"We started out as just a database where you could find grants and grant writers," says Thornton. "But in listening to our customers, they wanted us to do everything full service, too. So, I flew all across the country from Minneapolis to Kansas to Los Angeles to Toronto and put all the top grant writing associations on retainer and created what is Grant Source today, which is pretty much mobile for grants."

Thornton says Grant Source has more than 1,500 consultants across the U.S. and Canada, and these professionals each have different specialties — much like a lawyer or a doctor — and relationships in different states.

For a flat fee that ranges from $500 to $5,000 per month, Grant Source will set out to procure its clients grants that range anywhere from $50,000 to $1 million based on their goals. To date, Grant Source has helped businesses and organizations find and secure over $6 million in grant funding.

New clients first sign up for an assessment with Grant Source that establishes what the client's goals are and how the company is set up. Once Grant Source has established a few options for the client, they get started on submitting to the grants. In order to protect its customers from the uncertainty of the process, Grant Source offers investment protection for 12 months.

"We have the investment protection so customers won't be left empty handed," says Thornton. "It's risk free, so if they don't at least get their investment back within the first 12 months, we'll either continue their grant at no cost or we'll give them a credit for the difference."

Founded from a personal need

Treating customers with fairness is important for Grant Source because they started out as a nonprofit seeking grant funding themselves and soon learned that there was a lot that they did not know about the process.

"When I was at UTSA in 2006, the African American graduation population was less than 6 percent, which was unacceptable, so we started a nonprofit," says Thornton. "We made a lot of impact in just a few years. We increased the graduation population from 6 percent to about 38 percent, And, for the 2008 election, we were able to register over 3,200 students."

After graduation, Thornton says he saw an opportunity to expand to other colleges, but lacked funding to do so.

"We saw grants as a huge opportunity and they are, but unfortunately, they're also a huge hassle and it takes a lot of time and energy and effort to even find one that you qualify for," he remembers. "And even when you do, if you don't know how to write the proposal, you're dead in the water."

After the grant process failed, Thornton's money was gone with no communication or valid reason as to why. That frustrated him to the point where he wanted to provide coherent solutions to the problem himself.

"I spent a ton of money on education and researching top grant writing associations," says Thornton. "Most people don't know where to find grants, and there are so many different types of grants and places you can find them. For instance, we're working on a federal proposal with the federal government, there's 26 different agencies that still don't even know how to talk to each other."

Creating a lasting impact

From the outset, Grant Source started creating corporate responsibility programs and impact within a cost center for organizations that were for profit companies. They seek to put them in ideal situations to create the kind of impact that warrants grant funding.

"What we teach our clients is that you can't approach the process with the idea that you will get the grant money and then go out and create come impact," says Thornton. "You have to focus on being able to showcase the impact that you're already creating and then we can go find money for that. If you can articulate the impact of whatever you're doing is creating, we can find the person that cares about that.

In addition providing the software and platform for grant seekers, Grant Source offers a book, courses, seminars, workshops, and conferences that offer the baseline information needed to secure grant funding.

"At the end of the day, Grant Source is a technology platform that helps organizations find money for their mission," says Thornton. "We've streamlined the grant writing process and the grant finding process. At Grant Source, we don't focus on the money, we focus on the impact and then we give people a clear path to make it happen."

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

CPRIT grants $22M to bring top cancer researchers to Houston

fresh funding

Several prominent cancer researchers are coming to the Houston area thanks to $22 million in grants recently awarded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

The biggest CPRIT recruitment grant — $6 million — went to genetics researcher Jean Gautier. Gautier, a professor of genetics and development at Columbia University’s Institute for Cancer Genetics, is joining the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to continue his research.

The website for Gautier’s lab at Columbia provides this explanation of his research:

“The main objective of our research is to better understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for the maintenance of genome stability. These controls are lost in cancer, which is characterized by genomic instability.”

Aside from his work as a professor, Gautier is co-leader of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Cancer Genomics and Epigenomics Program at Columbia.

Other recipients of CPRIT recruitment grants include:

  • $2 million to recruit Xun Sun from the Scripps Research Institute to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
  • $2 million to recruit Mingqi Han from the University of California, Los Angeles to MD Anderson.
  • $2 million to recruit Matthew Jones from Stanford University to MD Anderson.
  • $2 million to recruit Linna An from the University of Washington to Rice University.
  • $2 million to recruit Alissa Greenwald from the Weizmann Institute of Science to MD Anderson.
  • $2 million to recruit Niladri Sinha from Johns Hopkins University to the Baylor College of Medicine.
  • $2 million for Luigi Perelli to stay at MD Anderson so he can be put on a tenure track and set up a research lab.
  • $2 million for Benjamin Schrank to stay at MD Anderson so he can be put on a tenure track and set up a research lab.

Over $20.2 million in academic research grants were awarded to researchers at:

  • Baylor College of Medicine
  • Houston Methodist Research Institute
  • Rice University
  • Texas Southern University
  • University of Houston
  • University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston

In addition, nearly $4.45 million in cancer prevention grants were awarded to one researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and another at Texas Southern University.

Also, five Houston businesses benefited from CPRIT grants for product development research:

  • Allterum Therapeutics, $2,999,996
  • CTMC, $1,342,178
  • Instapath, $900,000
  • Prana Surgical, $900,000
  • InformAI, $465,188

“Texas is a national leader in the fight against cancer,” said Kristen Pauling Doyle, CPRIT’s CEO. “We can measure the return on investment from CPRIT grants … not only in the economic benefits flowing from increased financial activity and jobs in the state, but more importantly in the cancers avoided, detected early, and treated successfully. Thanks to the Legislature’s vision, this commitment is saving lives.”

Overall, CPRIT approved 61 grants totaling more than $93 million in this recent round of funding.

The Houston app that makes your commute smoother, greener + more rewarding

Return to Office

As Houstonians transition back to the office, navigating the city’s complex traffic landscape can feel overwhelming. Fortunately, Houston ConnectSmart, a free app designed specifically for the greater Houston area, is here to make that return easier on your schedule, your wallet, and even the planet.

Unlike national navigation apps, ConnectSmart is built with local commuters in mind. It offers features tailored to Houston’s unique traffic patterns, such as real-time alerts about road closures, construction zones, and flooding. The app also integrates live traffic camera feeds and notifies users about adverse weather conditions, helping them adjust their routes efficiently and avoid delays.

ConnectSmart goes beyond basic navigation. It’s the only local app that keeps commuters fully informed with proactive, real-time trip alerts. These alerts tell users exactly when to leave, flag incidents on their routes, and provide alternative paths to ensure the smoothest possible drive. Additionally, through the Tow and Go program, users stranded on eligible freeways can access no-cost towing to a safe location.

For those looking to save money, time, and the planet, ConnectSmart also shines as a carpooling tool.

With its Carpool feature, users can coordinate rides with colleagues or friends, making use of HOV lanes and cutting down on the number of single-occupancy vehicles on the road. Whether you're a driver or a rider, the app allows you to customize your commute by setting pick-up points, schedules, and drop-off locations. If plans change, Trip Protection ensures you won’t be stranded, offering compensation for a backup ride home in the event of a last-minute cancellation.

Carpooling with ConnectSmart doesn’t just ease stress — it also lightens your environmental footprint and reduces the wear and tear on your vehicle. The app even provides real-time parking information for garages, lots, and street spaces, making the end of your commute as hassle-free as the journey itself.

For employers, ConnectSmart offers an Employer Commute Suite that enables organizations to set up private carpool groups for staff. This feature fosters a more connected, sustainable workplace culture and helps businesses support employees in managing their daily commutes.

Whether you're driving solo or looking to share a ride, Houston ConnectSmart brings a smarter, more sustainable way to get around the Bayou City. Download the app for free from the App Store or Google Play, and start your commute with confidence, convenience, and community in mind.

For more information about setting up an Employer Commute Suite, contact ConnectSmart today and take the first step toward transforming how your organization gets to work.

California company to launch Walmart drone delivery in Houston

taking off

California-based Wing will soon touch down in Houston.

The drone delivery company has partnered with Walmart Supercenters in Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando and Tampa. According to a news release, Wing’s drone delivery services will be available at 100 Walmart stores across the selected markets by this time next year.

Wing also plans to expand to additional Walmart stores in Dallas-Fort Worth, where Wing and Walmart already serve customers from 18 Walmart Supercenters. Wing reports that it has completed thousands of deliveries from DFW-area Walmarts with an average fulfillment time of under 19 minutes. Wing and Walmart launched their first location in the Dallas area in the fall of 2023.

"The popularity of drone delivery in DFW is a testament not just to its convenience, but to the way this technology quickly becomes a part of everyday life,” Wing CEO Adam Woodworth said in the news release. “Walmart has been a strong partner that shares our commitment to innovation and is equally eager to bring this new type of service to many more households.”

Customers in Houston and the other markets in the latest expansion can visit wing.com/walmart to be notified when drone delivery becomes available in their area.

The service works similarly to any other online shopping platform, and users can select the exact location for the drone to drop off their package. Items are packaged in a specialized box that a Wing drone retrieves from Walmart. The drones cruise up to 65 mph and drop off the package outside a shopper's home.

“This is real drone delivery at scale,” Woodworth said in the release. “People all around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex have made drone delivery part of their normal shopping habits over the past year. Now we’re excited to share this ultra-fast delivery experience with millions more people across many more U.S. cities.”