ATLANTA — GT APEX Accelerator’s laser focus on client support has helped a second client land an award as part of a 10-year federal contract. Entellimetrix was awarded a contract on the Missile Defense Agency Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with a ceiling of $151 billion. This contract encompasses a broad range of work areas that allows for the rapid delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter with increased speed and agility.
The GT APEX Accelerator, housed in Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2), is part of a national network of APEX Accelerators supported by the federal government through the Department of Defense’s Office of Small Business Programs. APEX Accelerator counselors coach business leaders on how to go after and succeed in the government (federal, state, and local) contracting space.
Entellimetrix is a data analytics consulting services company. Will Parker, an Atlanta-based GT APEX Accelerator counselor, has been working with Magha Devan, co-founder and partner at Entellimetrix, for a couple of years. It’s work that has proved successful for Entellimetrix in smaller ways and now has the potential to pay off for the company for 10 years or more.
The company is exactly the kind of client Parker says is best positioned for success in going after government contracts.
“Magha is one of our very senior clients. He is very strategic in how he works with us,” Parker said. “He comes to our events. He uses our bid match service. He is involved with networking groups.”
Devan credits Parker and GT APEX Accelerator with helping put his business, which has been in operation since 2015, in a position to bid as a prime contractor. It has proven its readiness for government contracting through its work with private companies, as well as working as a subcontractor with federal agencies including CDC, Department of Labor, U.S. Marine Corps, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, Parker said.
“My very first interaction with GT APEX Accelerator was an in-person meeting with my mentor, Will,” Devan said. “He got to understand who we are. He said, ‘Looking at where you are, the good part is you understand federal subcontracting work. You have past performance.’ He said, ‘What you don’t have are your proposal writing skills for large proposals as a prime and knowledge of how federal procurement works from a prime perspective.”
Growing those skills is what Devan focused on. He took classes, both webinars and in person, to learn how to write proposals, and he attended networking events to meet key government contacts. He also began using the bid match tool, which resulted in a contract to provide data analytics consulting services to the state of Arizona.
That tool allows clients to input keywords about their business offerings and get daily emails about possible matches from federal, state, and local governments.
Not only will Devan continue working with GT APEX Accelerator, he also recommends it to other small business owners.
“Being a small [business] is not easy,” he said. “These are the times we need external support.”