Does it make sense to bid on state government contracts before going to federal ones? Does it give your startup company any advantage?
Is this a good way to build references for your startup for the ultimate purpose of getting federal work or even remaining at state level and being big player down the line?
If you want to get into federal contracting, you need to start networking and researching how a particular part of the federal government operates. Pick a particular department, and start there. The biggest spenders are the DoD, the VA, and CMS, so most people start out focusing on one of those agencies, although there may be some advantage of targeting a smaller agency where there will be less competition. It's hard to overstate how much of a vendor community there is around each of these agencies, but you can start following industry newsletters and events that are specific to any one of the above agencies, although most of them will be in the DC area.
The other thing to note is that almost everyone starts off in federal contracting as a subcontractor. It's fairly unusual for a company to land its first federal contract as a prime, and this would require substantial networking in DC. Your best bet is to start networking with contracting firms, and see if you can find a niche. Once you're inside an agency, you'll have a better sense of what your next steps should be, and how you would take the leap into bidding as a prime.
Finally, it's worth noting that the federal government has multiple small business programs that you can take advantage of. The most valuable and hardest to qualify for is the 8(a) program, but there's many others for veterans, minorities, and women. Also, no matter who your founders are, you can always qualify for the HUBZone program. However, to qualify for any of these programs, you're going to need to plan for that from the founding of your business.
Anyway, I hope that helps, let me know if you have any more specific questions.
If you have a strong state presence it will be easier for the federal government to validate you for consideration for federal contracts. The best thing about doing the state contracts is if you see another contractor did a shoddy job you can bid for the work that is required to fix it (roads, buildings, computer systems, etc.) next time you are at your local courthouse or any government building ask them how things are running. If you hear complaints, there is a good chance that there is a contract out to get things fixed that you can bid on. The smaller the agency/government unit the faster the contract will normally be awarded (city->county->state->federal), though the bigger the agency normally the bigger the requirements.
If you have a nice bit of successful state contracts it should help you build up enough liquid money that is required to bid on the more lucrative government contracts (some require 1,000,000 in liquid cash to qualify) so you can pay employees even if you get a stop work order from the COTR.
Best way to get big is to start small and build a solid foundation and become a company that all levels of government can trust.
However, the idea that federal is somehow a step up from state is a bit odd to me. There are 50 states, and 1 country. Targeting the federal entities is putting all your eggs in one basket. Sure, it is a big basket... but a federal budget change could crush you.
The worst part of federal contacting is running the business. The accounting, the contacting, etc, and almost all revenue is based on butts in seats. If you can sell a product instead of time then you are much better off.
Also: For a small company it helps to be part women or minority owned because a certain percent of contracts has to go to these.
There's a lot of Federal contractors in my neck of the woods, and a few friends have joked that if they could just find a minority, female, combat-injured veteran to partner with they'd have a license to print money as you're effectively guaranteed a contract at that point.
> These groups include: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Alaska Native Corporations, Indian Tribes, Native Hawaiian Organizations and Community Development Corporations, Asian Pacific Americans and Subcontinent Asian Americans.
Additionally
> Individuals who are not members of one or more of these groups can be considered for the 8(a) program, but they must provide substantial evidence and documentation that demonstrates that they have been subjected to bias or discrimination and are economically disadvantaged.
[0] - https://www.sba.gov/blogs/woman-owned-sdvosb-and-minority-ow...
I also had a little personal experience with the state level. It came as a surprise to me that they could kinda care less if you saved them money. Save them $100K? It just gets subtracted from their next years budget.
Federal contracts are published in a handful of places as well like FedBiz.
Federally for small businesses it very much helps to be women, veteran, disabled veteran, alaskan based, or minority owned, to win work. But don't listen to haters and bad PR, you can do it if you don't fall into that category as well.
If you want to get into military or intelligence community work sometimes you need a clearance just to see the bids.
What'd I'd recommend for a lot of people is to reach out to larger, small businesses (like 300 person) and see if they have any work to sub out. Then try to go from there.
I subbed to a company that was on a large IC IDIQ and it was easy to grow under that, but that situation is unique and anecdotal.
Frankly, they are hugely underutilized resources and are effectively free labor for dealing with government grants, contracting, etc.
Alas.