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

Unlock Funding: SBIR/STTR Grants for Innovation Success

14 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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In this concise presentation, Stacy Chin highlights the SBIR and STTR federal grant programs, emphasizing that they allocate over $4 billion annually to small‑business innovation. She cites landmark companies—Qualcomm, 23andMe, Biogen, iRobot—as products of these grants and argues that the programs offer a unique, non‑dilutive advantage: founders receive time and freedom to develop technology without giving up equity or control. The talk explains how the funding enables PhD researchers to spin out biotech firms and helps climate‑tech, AI, and advanced‑manufacturing startups secure runway before venture capital arrives. Over four decades, the programs have generated thousands of jobs and spurred billions in private investment, underscoring their role as a catalyst for industry‑defining breakthroughs.

Chapters

That's why more than $4 billion every year are dedicated to small business programs, because these grants have helped create technologies in the past like Qualcomm, 23andMe, Biogen, iRobot, and thousands more. So the SBIR and STTR program give founders something that venture capitalists can't really give them: time and freedom to build without dilution. No equity given up, no loss of controls, just pure funding for innovation that truly matters. Because let's face it, the SBIR and STTR program allows that PhD researcher spin out their first company from a research These critical funds also help small biotech companies take discovery from the lab towards the clinic. And this is really what gives climate tech, AI, and advanced manufacturing startups the runway to scale before investors come on board to get interested in what they're building. So bottom line, for the past 4 decades, these programs have launched technologies and new innovations that have defined entire industries. Not only have they created hundreds or thousands of jobs, but rather a few billions in private funding investments, all started from one small federal grant.