It's Nicole here. As a longtime and experienced reviewer of both Phase I and Phase II SBIR proposals, I have had so many questions about proposals for the upcoming SBIR deadlines that I wondered if proposing teams, even experienced teams, would be interested in a "mini course" on what actually happens behind the scenes during the Review Process of SBIR proposals.
I'm reaching out to the VentureWrench community to see if you might be interested in such a course. Because of the submission timing, I would plan to run a 90 minutes (plus Q&A) live webinar course next week. Everyone who signs up would be invited to submit questions and issues that they would like to see addressed so that I could make sure to add the most value.
Elements of the mini course could include:
- Identifying the different types of reviewers on a panel and how this impacts the process
- What reviewers are asked to do for each review (and how this impacts your proposal!)
- Why an SBIR Program Director said on a road tour this summer that just a few things can raise your odds of being awarded funding from 15% to over 50%!
- Why the Introduction can make or break your entire proposal
- The order in which experienced reviewers read your proposal - and why it matters.
- Differences and similarities between Phase I and Phase II reviews, and why your Phase I review is really the first part of your Phase II review
- Do letters of support really matter - and how not to get them
- What is really needed in the commercialization section of a Phase I (vs. Phase II)
Of course, such a course can't guarantee any results in a competitive program like SBIR, but the small cost of this mini course could provide the insights you need to move from that 15%, up to that 50% chance of receiving an award in Phase I and to further improve the odds of a Phase II win. In fact, I have never served on a Phase I review panel where more than 3 out of 10 proposals were even rated highly enough to be CONSIDERED for funding. And on most panels that number is 1 or 2 out of 10 that are even in the running for funding.
If you're potentially interested, drop me an email at VentureWrenchCommunity@gmail.com or reply to this email and let me know you're interested.
Based on interest levels, I'll let you know if we're going ahead.
