Women-led Startups and Small Businesses Have Advice for Government

“Tell your company’s story and how you will help make things better,” was the simple yet powerful advice provided by Kate Lucey of H.S. Dracones to other women-led startups and tech companies at yesterday’s Breakthrough for Startups and Small Business session.  

H.S. Dracones, like other up and coming startups trying to help government and public sector focused companies, represents an opportunity for the government to open up the market and work with best of breed players that can help deliver results.

However, small businesses (and even many larger ones) face an uphill battle when trying to “breakthrough” to the government market.  Shelly Kapoor Collins, founder of Shatterfund, a fund focused on women-led companies, emphasized the need to simplify processes and make it easier for government to find opportunities. 

Erin Rothman, CEO of StormSensor – an innovative company that helps government manage stormwater by utilizing a patented combination of networked sensors, cloud-based software, and smart analytics –  said they have tried to come up with smarter ways to work with government, often making their projects so small that it makes it easier for government to get to them.  

Alisa Gus, CEO of another startup, Wish Knish, a blockchain company focused on improving customer engagement and learning, mentioned the difficulty of getting in front of government users and finding avenues to contract easily with the government.

So what is the government doing to help small businesses? 

Emily Harman, Director of Small Business for the Navy, offered candid advice to companies about doing their homework, following through on advice they receive, and honing their message in on the value they deliver, not the minority status they may hold.  She also provided examples of innovative approaches the Defense Department is taking along with the myriad of resources they are providing. 

Some advice to small businesses offered by government and other experts included:

In general, the themes and advice offered by companies in attendance to government  included:

Please join us for future Breakthrough and other events that help us bring government and companies together so we can continue “to create an open government market”.

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