SBIR Awardees

The total population of SBIR-STTR Awardees over life of the program now exceeds 32,304 entities of which some 10,124 are currently Program-Active, Arguably the largest single concentration of technical talent, those having been funded include many now well-known corporations and others having made - and even more who are now making - technical contributions of major significance.

For the previous 25 years, decision to apply for SBIR research funding was far more loosely determined that it is today. The initiative being primarily that of the individuals involved - person or firm. With important focus on PI status at the time of award - versus at the time of application - it was estimated at one point several years into program operation that perhaps as high as 20 percent of the awards funding were being used

• to open the doors of the receiving entity for the first time
• and/or to bring onto the staff someone whom the small firm could probably not otherwise afford.

Our data suggests that while the latter may still be applicable, with fewer awards being made the number coming new into the program has dropped to levels not previously seen over the life of the program: see chart here.
In the near term, though there are awardees in our records marked

• "Lost Trace" - particularly among those early-involved and having very limited SBIR participation: 1,556 of them
• "No info available" despite considerable digging to include principals of the firm: another 2200+. Most were also SBIR-active in the earlier years but these also include several hundred in receipt of award within the past 8-10 years but, apparently - on the part of some, by careful choice - opt to fly under the radar
• "Out of Business" - where we know for sure - or "Out of Business(?)" where management just seems quietly to have closed the doors - sadly, a far more common occurrence in the past 5-6 years. Sometimes this involves a firm having been acquired - and we pick that up later - or simply has changed it's name - a very common occurrence which we also maintain as part of the the awardee record. In almost all cases, we will at least have some level of useful information about the firm.

However, in addition to our full and current record of every SBIR-STTR award along with other federal funding (post (and other) SBIR contracts, earmarks and plus-ups), other research funding sources (foundation, contract R&D funding etc.) our systematic compilation of data relevant to assessment of the business condition of each awardee includes
  VC investment in SBIR awardees     IPOs and subsequent trading    Mergers and Acqusitions    Business partnering and collaborations   Patent issuance activity   In- and Out-licensing    Patent issuance activity

Designed as a single, government-wide system tracking SBIR awards by company across all agencies, the system was instituted as a Relational Database almost as soon as those powerful, analytical tools became available in the mid-eighties. By this means, in various Congressional testimony and related political activity over many years, along with a full calendar of SBIR Participation presentations around the country before all types of audiences, we have been able to discuss in detail precisely

• how the program was being managed and used in the various participating agencies,
• which firms in what locations were getting how many awards, from which agencies, for how much money and with what sort of Phase II conversion rates and business outcome.

In addition to recipient Company data and Principal Investigator (both Phase I and Phase II if these are different), the awards entry record includes various information on the year(s) Phase I and Phase II, source (Agency and Department as relevant), full abstracts, dollar commitment at each stage and, in many cases, the relevant tracking number used by the agency re. that award. Single year commitments to a multi-year (Phase II) project - as in the National Institutes of Health and, sometimes in DOD - are logged individually by year and dollar amount. The full dollar allocation is then totalled out for the published award record.

• Detailed Company Profile: full contact info
• Names by which also and/or previously known. Address history & multi-site locations
• Business Identifier: synopsis of primary business and technology focus
• Personnel: Current & former management; all Principal Investigators: Many personal emails and bios
• Overview of current Financial & Business condition: founding date; employment range; revenues. Other data relevant to company history
• Synopsis: extent of SBIR-STTR involvement: sources, dollars, Phase I-II conversions, Current SBIR status
• Forms of any follow-on federal funding: Phase III procurement contracts, earmarks and plus-ups
• Venture Capital: date(s), source(s), type, dollars and round(s). Liquidity events: IPO (Track stock) and M&A
• Intellectual property: patent detail to include citation(s)
• Working relationships with major-mid-sized corporations
• Any spins-in & spins-out. Acquisitions
• Technical thesaurus: indicator of technical competencies
• Business or Technology Recognition Awards
• Media coverage: business and popular press and other sources
• Document Repository: Professional & technical papers; Presentations; White Papers; Business Profiles and Nutshells; and Marketing materials

Also tracked are NAICS codes, various technology classifications, DUNS & CAGE numbers, Congressional District, GSA Schedule