AFWERX SBIR / STTR Open Topic 101: Maximize your chances to secure DOD funding!

In this video, I'm going to share 3 key considerations for startup founders interested in pursuing AFWERX open topic funding opportunities in their SBIR or STTR program. And this is actually a really unique program that is quite different compared to the other programs offered by the other federal agencies. So let's chat about what is AFWERX, how to strategically align your innovation to fit a particular Air Force need, and to review all the essential considerations that you need to know to maximize your chance to secure non-diluted funding from AFWERX. AFTWORKS. Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. I'm Stacy Chin from keepyourequity.co, and our mission is to help startups secure non-dilutive funding. We specialize in science and tech startups by helping them secure funding from federal programs such as those from the SBIR and the STTR. And if you're interested in learning more about those programs, I'll leave a link in the description to another video below. And we also advise other private and public companies as well as NGOs by helping to secure non-dilutive funding through navigating the federal grants and contracting landscape. Now first, let's chat about what is AFWERX. So AFWERX is an innovation program within the United States Air Force that was established in 2017, and its primary goal is to foster a culture of innovation within the Air Force by solving problems faced by Air Force customers and end users through innovation and collaboration with top entrepreneurs, industry leaders, academia leaders, and through other non-traditional contributors across the U.S. And they want to innovate in a wide range of different areas, from improvements in technology and processes to enhance the well-being and effectiveness of their members. One of the key aspects of AFWERX is the approach in engaging small businesses and startups by serving as a bridge between the Air Force and various sectors of innovation. And this is done through various programs such as the SBIR and STTR as an example. Particularly, the AFWERX has an open topic SBIR or STTR program that is quite attractive for science and tech startups to secure non-diluted funding by encouraging the development of new innovative solutions relevant to the Air Force needs. And startups may want to consider applying for these AFWERX funding opportunities. Because this can actually serve as a gateway to lucrative governmental contracts, particularly within the U.S. Air Force, as well as other potential DOD or Department of Defense entities. And in my opinion, the AFWERX SBIR and STTR open funding opportunity can be an excellent way for startups looking to accelerate their growth and pursue additional technology developments within the defense sector. However, if you're thinking of pursuing an AFWERX SBIR or STTR open topic opportunity, there are striking differences that you must be prepared for. Whether you're going for a Phase 1, Phase 2, Direct-to-Phase to application compared to the traditional SBIR/STTR grants offered by the other federal agencies. So after helping dozens of founders to secure SBIR and STTR funding from the Afwerks program, in the next portion of this video, I'm going to share 3 things that you have to keep in mind if you want to pursue an Afwerks application so that you can maximize your chances to secure non-dilutive funding from the agency. But before we get into it, I have one huge favor to ask you. We've recently learned that over 90% of our viewers have not subscribed to our channel. My goal is to get that down to 70%. So if you find any of these tips helpful, I would greatly appreciate if you could help by subscribing to this channel, and that would mean the world to me. And in exchange, I promise that I will continue to develop more helpful resources, tools, and advice to empower you startup founders with all the necessary knowledge to raise non-dilutive funding so that we can better support your journey to commercialize new innovative technologies and ideas. Do we have a deal? If so, that's fantastic. And now let's jump into it. So if you're thinking of pursuing an AFWERX SBIR or STTR open topic funding opportunity, the first consideration to keep in mind is that your innovation or solution has to fit a particular Air Force need. And you want to do this for several reasons. First, the primary goal of AFWERX is to harness external innovation and new developments able to solve critical challenges within the Air Force today. So therefore, your proposal must directly address these challenges in order for your application to have a competitive advantage. Secondly, aligning your innovation to an Air Force need ensures that your innovation has a clear path to application and implementation within a military context. And this is critical in order to secure SBIR/STTR funding, as well as to pave the way for real-world testing and validation within Air Force operations. And as a bonus, if you're able to demonstrate that your innovation can be a validated solution that meets specific defense requirements, this can lead to even further other federal contracting opportunities and customer engagements within the broader Department of Defense. Now, my second consideration, if you want to pursue an open topic opportunity within Air Force SBIR/STTR program, program is that their Phase 1 application requires a customer discovery deck and not a technical R&D white paper. So unlike typical R&D SBIR/STTR applications from the other federal agencies, where your Phase 1 goal is overcome technical hurdles to determine the feasibility or proof of concept of your technology or innovation, AFORS decided to take a very drastically different path. Here, STARS are required to prepare a deck, around 20 to 25 slides, proposing to conduct a feasibility study to identify a potential Air Force end user or a warfighter and customer program office as their end goal. AFR's customer discovery process allows startups to directly interact with Air Force end users and customers, offering a viable opportunity to further refine their technology, understand customer pain points, and so that they can best tailor their solution to meet a particular Air Force need. Because by the end of Phase 1, your goal is to understand the technology roadmap and how you plan to integrate that within the Air Force current processes, which is your focus in Phase 2. And by the end of Phase 1, you have to secure a customer memorandum, which we'll talk about in a little bit. So if you're interested in pursuing SBIR STTR funding from AFWERX within this open topic opportunity for an SBIR application, you can request up to $75,000 per project period of 3 months. And then for an STTR, you can request up to $110,000 for a period of 3 months as well. And that leads to my third consideration, which is that a signed customer memorandum is a mandatory requirement for a Phase II or Direct-to-Phase II SBIR/STTR application within AFWERX. So by now you should know that by the end of Phase I of your AFWERX SBIR/STTR opportunity, your goal is to secure a signed customer memorandum, and this is a form validating their intent to work with you as a startup on transitioning their innovation to their warfighters and customers. I'll leave a link in the description below of an example of what customer memorandum entails and looks like. And again, this is a mandatory requirement that is required within your Phase 2 SBIR/STTR application because this is where you have to begin prototyping and adapting your innovation to fit the Air Force need. And if you decide to skip Phase 1 and go for a direct Phase 2 application, this customer memorandum is still a mandatory requirement of your And if you're lucky enough to get funded by Phase 2 or Direct-to-Phase 2 AFWERX Open Topic Funding Opportunity, startups are expected to work directly with that Air Force technical point of contact to pursue further R&D developments to adapt their dual-use proposal solution to fit that Air Force need. And in Phase 2, startups can pursue a maximum award of $1.25 million of non-diluted funding for project period up to 21 months. So within the Phase 2 application, it is critical that you work with your Air Force and customer and user to define clear milestones milestones and technical objectives to deliver a milestone schedule that you both can work with as you progress through your Phase 2 effort. So with that, thank you so much for watching till the end of this video. I hope you found these tips helpful if you're interested in pursuing an AFTRS open topic SBIR or STTR opportunity to help you secure non-dilutive funding. And if you haven't done so, please like this video and subscribe to this channel. And don't forget to check out our website at keepyourequity.co to learn new, more resources, advice, and templates on how you can secure non-dilutive funding for your startup. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I'll see you in a video very soon. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]