ScaleUp America

Added: May 19, 2015 12:43 pm All questions and comments to this notice shall be submitted to robert.atchison@sba.gov with the solicitation number in the subject line of the email. Phone inquiries will not be accepted.

Solicitation number SBAHQ-15-Q-0040 will be issued at a later date as a Request for Quotes (RFQ) for non-personal services along with the final Statement of Objectives (SOO). The procurement will be conducted IAW FAR 13.5, Test Program for Certain Commercial Items.

The SBA intends to solicit quotation requests from community partners seeking to implement this initiative on or about June 5, 2015.

SBA intends to issue this solicitation under NAICS code 541611 - Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services, as a partial small business set-aside. Small business preferences as listed in FAR 19.203 will not be used. The current size standard for this NAICS code is $15.0M.

THIS IS NOT A GRANT OPPORTUNITY OR A SOLICITATION FOR AN IDIQ CONTRACT.

This pre-solicitation notice SHALL NOT be considered as an invitation for bid, request for proposal or statement of interest, or an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. Your response to this notice will be treated as information only. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or changes by the Government will arise as a result of this announcement.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), officially established in 1953, maintains and strengthens the nation's economy by aiding, counseling, assisting, and protecting the interests of small businesses, and by helping families and businesses to recover from national disasters. SBA's mission includes assisting small businesses to start, grow, and compete in markets by providing quality training, counseling and access to resources.

ScaleUp America builds on the agency's core mission by supporting communities' efforts to deliver targeted intensive assistance to established high-potential small businesses and entrepreneurs that are primed for growth beyond the start-up or early stages.

A few key statistics emphasize the rational and focus of ScaleUp America: small businesses are responsible for more than 63 percent of all net new private-sector jobs, according to a report by the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Office of Advocacy. Additionally, the majority of new jobs (60%) are being created through the sustained, incremental expansion of small businesses across a wide range of industries. Very few resources, however, have been directed toward enhancing the support services and ecosystem to help growth-oriented small businesses scale up and take their business to the next level. And this is especially true for firms led by underserved and underrepresented entrepreneurs. While women and minorities represent the fastest growing segments nationally, their ventures are smaller and experience far less success in terms of revenue and employee size. The most recent data show that women-owned businesses averaged only $130,000 in receipts, while African American owned businesses averaged $50,000, Hispanic owned businesses averaged $120,000 and Asian owned businesses averaged $290,000.

In order to assist communities' efforts to strengthen support to growth-oriented small business and entrepreneurs --with a specific focus of supporting underserved and underrepresented small businesses-- SBA is pleased to announce the intent to expand ScaleUp America.

Offerors would be asked to provide a data-driven assessment of the proposed community's entrepreneurial ecosystem as it exists today and identify training, education and support gaps for high-potential entrepreneurs and growth-oriented small businesses with average annual revenues of $150,000-$500,000. Offerors would need to propose an intensive entrepreneurship education and growth support program plan that provides targeted support to participating entrepreneurs in an effort to increase their ability to scale up their business and create jobs and local economic impact while at the same time, enhancing the local entrepreneurial ecosystem and promoting greater inclusion of underrepresented and underserved business owners. Offerors would also need to demonstrate an ability to reach those underrepresented and underserved business owners with cultural competencies reflecting local demographics.

Each community's ScaleUp program plan will be required to include:

1. Entrepreneurship Education Curriculum: Delivery of a proven, existing curriculum for growth-oriented entrepreneurs and small businesses, with the curriculum focused on the unique challenges of scaling established businesses, and which allows participants to develop a growth strategy that addresses topics such as, but not limited to process, strategy, financing, marketing, human resources, leadership, contracting and market/product development plans;
2. Management Assistance & Support: On-going one-on-one support, mentoring and technical assistance, such as, but not limited to providing data-driven market research analysis, business strategy development; assistance with increasing sales and identifying strategic partners, etc.;
3. Access to Capital: Assistance and connections to growth capital, such as, but not limited to assisting with loan package preparations, organizing matchmaking events with local lenders and funding streams, facilitating business pitch events to angel and venture funds; and
4. Connections: Opportunities to build and strengthen connections and networks, such as, but not limited to instituting CEO roundtables, forming advisory boards, matchmaking events with potential joint venture partners and regional manufacturers/suppliers, local federally funded resource partners, etc.

DELIVERY/PLACE OF PERFORMANCE: TBD after award

SBA intends for the formal solicitation to result in multiple awards. The MAXIMUM number of awards resulting from the formal solicitation will not exceed 7. At least 2 of the 7 awards will be provided to small businesses. The remaining will be unrestricted, full and open competition. The number of awards is not firm, and could change based on the quality of acceptable quotes as determined by the evaluation board. Again, total number of awards issued will not exceed 7. Each individual award will not exceed $240k. It is anticipated that the resulting contracts will be firm fixed price (FFP) with a base year of twelve (12) months and four (4) 12 month option periods.

Attached is a draft copy of the Statement of Objectives (SOO) which interested parties shall use to assist in identifying one (1) geographical community, and describe how they will assist SBA with the delivery of ScaleUp America specific to that proposed community.

If you are interested in this effort please note, unlike previous years where a single party was invited to submit multiple quotations for multiple locations, this year the SBA will only accept one quotation per Contractor for this effort.

The attached SOO shall be considered a draft document and may change prior to issuance of the formal solicitation.

This is not a new requirement, and 8 firm-fixed price awards were issued competitively last year.

For more information about SBA's ScaleUp Initiative, please see: https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/sba-initiatives/scaleup-america-initiative.