Is the NSF SBIR program interested in YOUR start up Idea? 3 ways to find out if you qualify!

Are you interested in pursuing SBIR funding from the National Science Foundation? If so, you're in luck. In this video, I'll be sharing 3 ways you can figure out whether or not the NSF SBIR program is even interested in your startup idea. So if you're a science or tech founder looking for non-dilutive funding opportunities from the NSF, make sure you stick around to the end of this video so you won't miss out on these tips. Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. I'm Stacy Chin from keepyourequity.co, and our mission is to help science and tech startups secure non-diluted funding from federal programs called the SBIR and the STTR. If you're interested in learning more about those programs, I'll leave a link in the description to another video below. In addition to that, we also help lots of other startups, businesses, both public and private, on their grant strategy that we can get them non-dilutive funding to support projects that can make a big impact in some of today's biggest global problems. So if you're watching this video, you're probably already aware that securing SBIR funding from the National Science Foundation is an excellent way to get non-dilutive funding for for your science or tech startup. For instance, the National Science Foundation can invest up to $2 million of seed funding for startups while taking zero equity. And the NSF SBIR program has been funding startups for over 40 years to help them transform their innovative ideas towards commercial products and services. And each year, the NSF SBIR program gives away over $200 million of non-diluted funding to over 400 startups across America. And yeah, that's a lot of money. And the NSF has a really unique SBIR program because they're interested in funding lots of different startup ideas across science, tech, energy, environment, software, and so many more. However, the NSF SBIR program may not be a good fit for all startups, and so that's why it's so important for founders to be aware of these factors, because it might end up saving them so much time and effort in case there's a way more appropriate funding opportunity that they should pursue instead. I have a whole other video that goes over the top 9 reasons why startups may not want to pursue SBIR funding, so if you missed that video, check out the link in the description to that video below. However, in this video, I'm going to share 3 ways that you can figure out whether or not the NSF SBIR program is even interested in your startup idea. And this is critical for founders to figure out whether or not their innovation is aligned to the goals and objectives of the NSF SBIR program. So if you're interested in pursuing NSF SBIR funding, make sure you watch until the end of this video so you have a much better understanding how to navigate the NSF funding opportunity and to understand whether or not this is the right non-dilutive funding path for you. But before we jump into it, if you can take a moment to like this video and subscribe to this channel, by doing so you'll gain a wealth of knowledge of how you can secure non-dilutive funding throughout your fundraising journey for your startup. And of course, don't forget to check out our website at keepyourequity.co where you find lots of more resources, advice, and templates to help support you in your non-dilutive fundraising journey. And with that, let's dive right into it. So my tip number 1 is to make sure that your startup innovation is aligned to the NSF SBIR program's topic and subtopics of interest. The NSF SEED program pretty much funds all startups across any technology areas and market sectors imaginable. And because they cover such a wide range of different markets and research areas, many startup founders have share with me, they're not even sure whether or not the NSF is even interested in their idea. And so let me walk you through how you can find out whether or not your startup is aligned to NSF SBIR's topic and subtopic areas of interest. Let's jump behind my computer right now. Hey guys, okay, here I am behind my computer.

So to find out whether or not the NSF is interested in your idea based on their topics and subtopic areas, you'll first want to go to the NSF website, which is seedfund.nsf.gov. And on this website, you first want to click on Portfolio here, and then you want to scroll down to see all the different cool technology and research areas they're interested in funding for your startup. So things like, I mean, advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, biomedical technologies, digital health, Internet of Things, robotics, and wireless technologies. So this is a great way to just understand whether or not your technology is within some of this topic area of interest. Now let's go under biomedical technologies, for example. If you scroll over or hover over that box, you'll see these are the subtopics of areas of interest to the NSF SEED Fund program.

So things like diagnostic, drug delivery methods, and so forth.

And you can even learn more about what is even about medical technology they're interested in funding by clicking on that, and that'll take you to another page where you can even do a more deep dive as to what is about medical technologies, a little description of what they're interested in funding, and also more information on the subtopic areas. Here you also learn about this program director who's in charge of these subtopics. You send them an email or look at their bio, and if you scroll down further, you'll see there's a couple featured companies that got funded through this program that you can check out. Now another really cool thing is that if you go back to the portfolio and the topic areas, you can scroll down even further, and there is something called a searchable PDF of all the technology topics and areas. And so if you click on this, this is a PDF file that summarizes all the topics and subtopic areas. So again, this is a great another resource for you to figure out whether or not the NSF SBIR program is interested in your startup and technology idea. So make sure before you do anything, check out this document, check out the website before you proceed on to applying for an application.

Now my tip number 2 for you guys to figure out whether or not the NSF SEED program is interested in funding your startup idea is to check out the past SBIR and STTR awardees. And by doing so, you'll get a wealth of knowledge and valuable insights as to what has been successful in the past in terms of getting SBIR funding from the NSF. And by looking into this database, you'll have a better understanding as to what types of projects, ideas, and scopes they'll be interested in funding so that you can best align your proposal efforts to the NSF's objectives and priorities. So when you're conducting this search, it's really important that you pay attention to the project descriptions, the technologies, and the overall focus of their SBIR/STTR efforts. Here you want to look for patterns or themes that might emerge, such as specific scientific disciplines, technological innovations, or areas of social impact. And that's because understanding the characteristics of what a successful SBIR proposal looks like, this can help you to identify whether or not your startup idea falls within the scope of the NSF SBIR program. And of course, this exercise will also help you to tailor your proposal more effectively so that you can increase your chances of success. By evaluating the past awardees, this will also give you valuable insights as to the level of innovation of what is considered as high risk, as well as their commercialization potential, and the level of scientific rigor expected by the NSF program. And this information can be super helpful to guide you to prepare a really compelling narrative and a competitive application that can showcase the uniqueness and innovative feature of your technology and startup idea. So now let's jump behind my computer once again, and I'll show you how to find this database. All right, so here I am back on the seedfund.nsf.gov website.

And again, if you click under portfolio, just like we did last time, you scroll down, and before you touch the technology topic areas, you'll see buttons that leads to the active Phase I awardees, active Phase II awardees, COVID-19-related awards, and all awards. So for example, let's go into active Phase I awardees. And here you can see that there are 230 active Phase I awardees funded through NSF program. Now, if you scroll down, you can see all the different technology areas and the number of awardees per topic area. And this is actually very important to keep in mind because you'll see that there are way more awardees within the biological or biomedical technology sectors versus those in the cybersecurity authentication. So it can give you an idea of the level of competitiveness depending on which topic area you want to go for. So here's all again the topic areas and different awards within these sectors. Now for example, let's go to the first one in advanced manufacturing. Here we see that there are 11 awardees. If you click on that and scroll down, you'll see that there's different companies available along with location, the award amount, and the award date. And again, this is a great way to figure out who got awarded within the subtopic area. Now, for example, let's go into the first company and see what this brings us to. So here you'll see that there is an abstract along with the project leader, as well as the NSF award and the award amount to date. And so again, by reading these abstracts and doing your homework, this can give you a really good insight as to what was successful in the past NSF SBIR awards. Now, if you go back under portfolio once again, you'll see view all awardees, and if you click here, this brings you to a database of all previous and past awardees. So here you can filter through different Phase I awardees, different Phase II awardees, along with anyone from different states and all the different companies that have been awarded. So for example, let's say I wanna look for companies that got an SBIR or an STTR award in the mental health space. So I click— I can put in that keyword search here, and with that we can see all the different companies that have an active award in this mental health area. So again, this is a great database for you to look into just to figure out whether or not the NSF SBIR program would be interested in your idea by going back and looking at these past different awardees and companies that have been successful in the past.

So the take-home message here is that by looking at past awardees, hopefully this will help you get some insights as to what has been successful in the past, which can help you to write a more compelling SBIR application. And by learning from these past successes and strategies, you'll have a better understanding as to what the NSF SBIR program values and is seeking within the potential awardees. So that's why it's really important to take the time and to go through that database, review the list of past SBIR and STTR awardees, and to gather as much information as possible. And by doing this homework, you'll definitely have a better understanding as to whether or not your startup or innovative idea will be a great fit for the program. And my last but final tip to figure out whether or not the NSF SBIR program would be interested in your idea, to go ahead and submit an NSF Project Pitch Application. So submitting an application to the NSF Project Pitch is a great way for founders to get really quick feedback from the agency to determine or not whether they're interested in your startup idea and innovation. But either way, in order for you to go forward for a full Phase 1 application, you're going to still need to do the Project Pitch application because this is a mandatory process, and the approval that will be sent to you through an email is a mandatory component of your full Phase 1 SBIR application. So in the Project Pitch, there are 4 main prompts that you'll have to respond to that won't take nearly as long as preparing a full Phase 1 application itself. In my opinion, this is just a great way for founders to get a quick and dirty idea as to whether or not their innovation may be aligned to the NSF SBIR goals and objectives. I have another video that can walk you through step by step of exactly how to go about this NSF project pitch application, so I'll leave a link to that video in the description below. Also, you can check out our website at keepyourequity.co where you have a template that walks you through step by step also of how to go through this project pitch application. And if you use the code APPROVEMYPITCH, you can get 50% off of that template. And with that, thank you so much for watching until the end of this video. I hope you found these tips helpful to help you understand whether or not the NSF SBIR program will be aligned to your startup goals and innovative ideas. If you haven't done so, please like this video and subscribe to this channel. It truly does help us a lot. And of course, don't forget to check out our website at keepyourequity.co for lots of other resources, templates, and advice about how you can secure non-diluted funding throughout your fundraising journey. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I'll see you in a video very soon.

Yeah, yeah.