“More and more small business GWACs and IDIQs are becoming ‘large business by proxy’ competitions – leaving non-JV small businesses (or those that have anything short of the most idealized JV relationships with the most competitive large partners) out in the dark. Don’t get me wrong – as a perpetual competitor who is constantly looking for innovative ways to differentiate and win bids (#fullsteamahead), this has been a fun challenge to solve… but is it really the best thing for small business?…”
“’So clearly JVs work – the total SB obligations have gone up!’
Well… by that metric – sure. While it’s hard to say for sure if there are real trends on this small data set, there do seem to be some metrics that might disagree with that sentiment:
- The number of distinct small businesses that exist today is 2.7% less than 2 years ago – and even less if you subtract out the SBA MPP-JVs.
- The percentage of obligated dollars going to SBs is hanging pretty steadily in the 23-26% range – not exactly leaps and bounds of improvement.
- The total number of SB Prime Contractor awards is going down consistently year over year and as of 2020 was 10.6% lower than it was in 2017…”
“As more JVs come to the table on these large IDIQs, the odds of a non-JV winning a slot (which are specifically structured to be evaluated by scoring points for checking specific boxes as opposed to adjectivally rated) is less and less likely since it is unlikely they will be able to score as many points as a JV with a LB partner could. Further, if we expand the JV-to-available-slot analysis to smaller award pools on SB IDIQs and BPAs where the government wants more on the scale of 2-10 awardees, you can see how contracting vehicles and avenues to reach small businesses who aren’t ‘backed’ by LBs are going to become increasingly hard to find…”
“It’s hard to say what the perfect answer is – and their may not be one. Anecdotally, I’ve heard more complaints about the dependence on JVs than praise, but I also have first-hand experience with some largely successful ones. I’m torn. I do believe JVs have a place in the Federal marketplace – the question is where? We could debate that all day, but one thing I remain steadfast on is leaving avenues for SBs to grow without having to compete against large businesses… In fact, as I was writing this article SB and WOSB RFQs for Polaris were released… and the first pre-award protest for violation of SBA regulations has been submitted by BD Squared…” Read the full article here.
Source: The Rise of the “Large Business by Proxy” Competition – By Ryan Lewis, March 29, 2022. LinkedIn.
