Create a teaming interest
Post a teaming interest on a federal opportunity, IDV, contract vehicle, forecast, or award, set whether you are looking for primes or subs, and let GovTribe generate your anonymous public profile.
Open the record you want to team on, click Teaming in the page header, and click Post your interest.
Teaming is available to GovTribe accounts where the feature has been enabled. See Choose the right GovTribe plan for plan details.
Where you can post a teaming interest
You can post a teaming interest on five kinds of federal records. Each one shows a Teaming button in its page header and a Teaming tab:
- Federal contract opportunities
- Federal contract IDVs
- Federal contract vehicles, for task-order teaming with vehicle holders
- Federal forecasts, for pre-positioning during capture before the solicitation is released
- Federal contract awards, for pre-positioning ahead of an incumbent's recompete
The steps below use a federal contract opportunity as the example, but they work the same way on every record type that has a Teaming button.
How teaming works
Teaming pairs two vendors who want to work together on the same record. You post a teaming interest on each record you care about, then send and receive anonymous teaming requests with other vendors who have the opposite role.
Every teaming interest takes one of two roles, which the modal labels as Find Subcontractors or Be a Subcontractor:
- Find Subcontractors posts a Prime teaming interest. You intend to lead the bid and want subcontractors to join your team.
- Be a Subcontractor posts a Sub teaming interest. You want to offer capabilities under another vendor's prime bid.
GovTribe matches you with vendors on the opposite side. Either side can send a teaming request to the other. The recipient sees the requester's anonymous profile, then accepts or declines. A conversation opens the moment the request is sent, so both vendors can message each other right away — anonymously, using public profile names. When the recipient accepts, both vendors see each other's company name and logo, and messaging continues in the same conversation with the revealed identities.
Post your interest from the record
Open a record you are evaluating — for example a Federal contract opportunity — and click Teaming in the page header, just left of Pursue. The Teaming tab opens the same page if you prefer to browse the tabs.
The header button carries a count, such as Teaming (4), of the vendors currently open to teaming on this record. The count leaves out your own teaming interest. It covers both roles, so it is not the same as the number of vendors you could team with — you can only team with the opposite role. When nobody has posted yet, the button reads Teaming with no number.
Click Post your interest to start.
The workflow is a guided multi-step form. Each step focuses on one decision or set of intake questions so you can move through it at your own pace. The modal title reflects the role you pick and the record you are on, such as Post your interest for this Federal Contract Opportunity for Find Subcontractors, or Join a Team for this Federal Contract Opportunity for Be a Subcontractor.
Choose how you want to participate. Pick Find Subcontractors if you intend to lead the bid and want subcontractors (a Prime interest). Pick Be a Subcontractor if you want to offer capabilities under another vendor's prime bid (a Sub interest). GovTribe matches you with vendors on the opposite side.
Choose the vendor you want to represent. GovTribe pre-fills this with the vendor on your designated capture profile when you have one, otherwise the vendor already linked to your account. Search for a different vendor by name or UEI to change it for this interest. Your vendor is not revealed to other vendors until a teaming request is accepted.
Answer the intake questions. The questions depend on your role. Find Subcontractors answers two required questions about your capture stage and subcontractor workshare expectations. Be a Subcontractor answers two required questions about your role and relevant experience, plus four optional questions about socioeconomic value, clearance and location, partner preferences, and staffing capacity.
Save your teaming interest. GovTribe sets the status to Open and makes the interest visible on the record's Teaming tab.
As you fill out an intake question, GovTribe automatically suggests AI feedback on your draft when you move out of the answer field. The suggestions help you sharpen your response without changing what you actually save.
Set-asides on the record
When you post a Find Subcontractors (Prime) interest on a record that carries a set-aside, the create form shows a banner such as This is a [set-aside type] — you're looking for partners eligible for it. The set-aside comes from the record itself, and GovTribe matches you to eligible partners based on your vendor's award history.
You do not enter set-asides, socioeconomic status, or clearances anywhere in this form or on your profile. Your eligibility is derived from your designated vendor's federal award history. See Capture profiles for how posture and eligibility are determined.
Pre-filled steps and your capture profile
GovTribe pre-fills your role and vendor from your capture profile whenever it can, so you usually start on the intake questions:
- Your role is filled from the Preferred role on your capture profile. If you have not set one, GovTribe suggests a role from your vendor's federal award history. If you respond to another vendor's interest from their card, GovTribe automatically picks the opposite role.
- Your vendor is filled from your designated capture profile vendor, or from the vendor already linked to your account. If neither is available, type a vendor name or UEI in the search to choose one.
- When both your role and your vendor are pre-filled, the modal opens on the first intake question. You can still expand the earlier steps to change either choice.
- Changing your role here updates your Preferred role for next time. Changing your vendor applies to this interest; when you have a designated capture profile, it does not change the profile itself. Manage capture profiles from Capture profiles in your settings.
What happens after you post
- Your teaming interest appears on the record's Teaming tab and on the Teaming page in your Your Interests rail under OPEN.
- The record's page header adds an envelope button next to Teaming. Click it to jump straight from the record to your own teaming interest and its conversations, without starting from the Teaming page.
- GovTribe saves a generic public label on your interest — Looking for subcontractors for a Prime interest, or Looking for prime contractors for a Sub interest — and immediately starts an AI-assisted public name and summary in the background. While that runs, your public card shows Generating public profile.... You'll get a notification when your interest is live with its descriptive profile.
- Other vendors with the opposite role on the same record can now send you teaming requests. New requests appear in the Conversations panel on your interest's detail page and as Teaming notifications.
- You can edit your interest later. Open it from the Your Interests rail, click Manage, then click Edit on the Your Public Profile card. Updating your intake answers regenerates the AI-assisted profile.
How GovTribe creates your public profile
After you create a teaming interest, GovTribe writes an anonymized public title and summary that other vendors see before they send you a teaming request. The generated text uses your selected role (Prime or Sub) and your intake-question answers as input. Your raw answers are never shown directly. GovTribe is designed to keep your vendor name and any unique identifiers out of the generated text, and it runs an extra check on the generated output that discards it if your vendor name slips through. When that check trips, your interest keeps the generic Looking for subcontractors or Looking for prime contractors label until a future regeneration succeeds.
The same public title and summary are what other vendors see on the record's Teaming tab and on incoming teaming requests until a request is accepted. Only after the recipient accepts does GovTribe reveal your vendor name and logo. For more on what is and is not visible before acceptance, see Respond to teaming requests.
Teaming interest statuses
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Open | Your teaming interest is visible to compatible vendors and can receive teaming requests. |
| Matched | You have at least one accepted partnership on this interest. |
| Hidden | Your teaming interest is paused. Other vendors cannot find it and you stop receiving new requests, but your existing matches and conversations are unaffected. |
| Withdrawn | You have ended the teaming interest. It is removed from the record's Teaming tab. |
You change the status from Manage on the interest's detail page. The available actions depend on the current status and your role — see Respond to teaming requests for how matching, locking in a team, and disbanding work in practice.
Common questions
What kinds of records can I post a teaming interest on?
Any record that has a Teaming button in its page header: federal contract opportunities, federal contract IDVs, federal contract vehicles, federal forecasts, and federal contract awards. Contract vehicles are useful for task-order teaming with vehicle holders, forecasts help you pre-position during capture before the solicitation is released, and awards help you line up partners ahead of an incumbent's recompete.
Can I edit my teaming interest after I post it?
Yes. Open the interest from the Your Interests rail, click Manage, then click Edit on the Your Public Profile card.
Why does the modal title say "Join a Team" instead of "Post your interest"?
The modal title reflects the role you picked. Be a Subcontractor opens as Join a Team for this Federal Contract Opportunity, while Find Subcontractors opens as Post your interest for this Federal Contract Opportunity. If you opened the modal by clicking Message on another vendor's card, the title is Send a message request to ... instead.
Why is the role or vendor already filled in when I open the modal?
GovTribe pre-fills your role and vendor from your capture profile — your Preferred role and your designated capture profile vendor. When you have not set a preferred role, GovTribe suggests one from your vendor's award history; when you have no designated capture profile, it uses the vendor already linked to your account. If you opened the modal by clicking Message on another vendor's card, GovTribe pre-fills the opposite role automatically so you can team with that vendor.
Do I enter my set-asides or clearances anywhere?
No. GovTribe derives your teaming posture and set-aside eligibility from your designated vendor's federal award history. There are no set-aside or clearance fields on your profile or in the create form. See Capture profiles.
Related articles
- Teaming: Review how Teaming works and the statuses you will encounter.
- Capture profiles: Set the vendor and preferred role that pre-fill this form.
- Find teaming recommendations: Post interests straight from the Explore feed's suggestions.
- Respond to teaming requests: Send and receive teaming requests, message partners, lock in a team, and disband when you need to.
- Federal contract opportunities: Search and review federal contract opportunities, including the Teaming tab on each opportunity.
Find teaming recommendations
Browse the Teaming Explore feed to find vendors already looking to team, opportunities matched to your vendor profile, records you have viewed, and records that are popular on GovTribe.
Respond to teaming requests
Send and receive teaming requests on your teaming interests, message partners anonymously, accept or decline, lock in a team, and withdraw or disband when you need to.