Stacy L ChinFounder, KeepYourEquity · I get the government to write you checks

The Non-Dilutive Funding Founders Overlook

18 Sept 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:45

In this segment of Stacy L. Chin’s YouTube video, she outlines a realistic timeline for securing Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding, noting an optimistic six‑month window for initial awards and a 10‑15% success rate among startups. She explains the resubmission pathway: using reviewer feedback, making revisions, and submitting a one‑page rebuttal, which adds roughly four months to the process. Chin emphasizes the necessity of a 6‑12‑month strategic roadmap that coordinates multiple non‑dilutive funding opportunities in parallel, ensuring founders don’t rely on a single source and can iterate quickly if an initial application is rejected.

Chapters

And so if all goes well, bet around 6 months on an optimistic timeline. Now the percentage of startups getting awarded SBIR can range anywhere from a 10 to 15% rate, right? And so if you don't get it the first time around, you can go after a resubmission. You can take those reviewer comments, make updated changes, include a one-page rebuttal, and then try to submit it again. When you resubmit it, it's another 4-month timeline, et cetera, et cetera. So that's why it's really important to kind of think through what is my 6-month to 12-month roadmap of getting more non-dilutive funding and going after different opportunities simultaneously.