Gesso FederalDone-for-you federal business development desk
gesso (n.): the primer coat that makes a canvas ready for the work.

The worst part of winning
federal contracts is the paperwork.
Let us handle it.

The worst part of winning
DLA contracts is the paperwork.
Let us handle it.

Whether you sell software to the Air Force, nuts and bolts to DLA, or moonshots to DARPA, we’ll save you hundreds of hours, keep a technicality from ever taking you out, and take bidding off your mind until it’s time to hit send.

01 The ask

Every week, the government asks for help.

Requests for quotes or information. Task orders. SBIR topics. Broad agency announcements. Prime contractors looking for small-business teammates. The buyers publish exactly what they need, in writing, on a schedule: the work isn’t hidden, it’s posted. Reading it all takes a special kind of person. Answering one well takes a week. You have neither to spare.

RFQ SBIR Topic Task Order BAA Data Call

SAM.gov alone posts thousands of notices a week. DoD posts new SBIR topics the first Wednesday of every month. The stream never stops.

One quick question

How should those requests reach us?

“You watch the boards for me.”

Nothing slips past. We monitor every board that matters and bring you the fits.

“I forward what I want answered.”

Your buyers email you, or your board only shows itself to you. Forward it. We take it from there.

The story below tells itself your way.

02 The Watch

So we watch every board that matters to you.

In discovery we learn what you sell, what you have won, and what you will never bid. Then every posting is scored against your fit: high fits start building, maybes arrive as a one-line brief, noise dies silently. Prime portals where you are registered are checked weekly as your authorized user, and the rare board only you can open (a BPA-restricted pool, say) you forward while we watch everything else. Nothing that fits you slips past unseen, and nothing gets dropped. You get one calm weekly email instead of twenty tabs. Reply “draft these three” and it is moving.

Your Fit Criteria
SAM.gov: daily Grants.gov · NSF: daily DIBBS: daily DoD SBIR topics: scored the first Wednesday they post Your registered prime portals: weekly, as your authorized user
03 The build

When one fits, we build the response.

This is the week you get back. The solicitation is taken apart line by line and every volume is assembled from your documents: past performance, monthly reports, catalogs, bios. Not a template, not filler, and never a blank page. The parts change with the vehicle; the rigor never does. And a package with an open compliance item cannot leave the gate. A technicality never takes you out.

Technical Volume Price Volume Admin Volume Quote Entry Sheet Certs & Traceability Tech Data & Packaging One Package 0+ Checks Passed
  • Critical PWS paragraphs mapped and answered, honed to the page cap, never padded
  • Past performance and monthly reports mined for the metrics that score
  • Priced to your schedule ceilings; amendments rebuild every affected volume
  • Per-item eligibility first: bidding CAGE, approved-source status, tech-data access
  • The full packet, assembled in the solicitation’s own order: traceability, certificates of conformance, packaging and marking
  • Price-only automated solicitations handled at their real speed; awards can land in days, and you submit from your own DIBBS login
  • Scored against the 34 win factors in our SBIR playbook and the agency’s own criteria
  • One working session with your PI: the science stays yours, in your voice
  • Budget built to the agency’s ceiling; every eligibility gate cleared before writing

Constant across all three: 178 mapped tasks, 130+ checks before anything reaches you, and every factual claim traced to a document in your folder. And when the government amends the solicitation mid-pursuit, forward it: everything the change touches is rebuilt to the new terms, required acknowledgment included.

04 The finish line

We carry it to the finish line.

We own the response, and you decide where the finish line is. For most clients, most of the time, it is the very end: a finished package, ready to review and submit. Want pricing left blank for you or a specific person? We build the space and route it. Several people each adding a piece? We coordinate every one of them. Controlled data we cannot touch, so your stakeholder takes that handoff into a space already built. However far you want it carried, everything up to your finish line is off your plate and off your mind. We own it.

The First Ninety-Nine Miles If You Keep Pricing We leave the blank and route it to you If Controlled Data Your stakeholder drops it into a space we built Ready To Submit We Carry It

Wherever you set the finish line, everything before it is already ours: the reading, the mapping, the drafting, the pricing within your rules, the formatting, the checking.

05 Your send

You review and hit send.

The package arrives submission-ready with a plain summary: what passed, what we flagged, any remaining steps, and the deadline with its timezone. Instead of days of grinding work, you give a few minutes of judgment and submit.

Signed by you, the only person who can Send
06 The compounding

Every response makes the next one easier.

Every finished response is paired with its solicitation and filed in your folder. Every correction becomes a standing rule the machine never forgets. When an agency offers debrief feedback, it is harvested and wired into the next attempt. An incumbent’s biggest advantage isn’t talent, it’s their library. Gesso Federal builds your library for you.

Your Library, Response by Response Submit Outcome Debrief New Rule Every Cycle
07 The start

And with Gesso Federal, your first response is free.

We don’t ask you to trust us until you’ve seen and approved your first finished response, built from a real solicitation. Two ways in, both risk-free, both at a Founding Client rate locked for the life of our partnership:

Startups · SBIR / STTR / BAA

Only pay when you win.

$200/month. The Watch, the drafting, RFI responses, and your setup included; we earn when you win.

Win fees capped: 5%, never more than $5,000, on Phase I; 2%, never more than $15,000, on Phase II.

You pay nothing until you accept your first proposal.

Contractors · GSA / DIBBS / Task Orders

$0 until you accept your first response.

Starts at $500/month for Founding Clients.

$1,000 per response, annualized into one flat monthly rate. Add the Watch for $500/month.

Your first response is free, and the response rate starts only the day you accept it. The Watch runs, and bills, from day one.

Schedule an introduction call → One call: we learn your shop, you learn the desk, and you leave with a custom proposal and your final price. Nothing to prepare; a capability statement or line card speeds it up. After the call, setup is one shared folder of documents you already have. We do the organizing.
joshuarasberry@gmail.com · Birmingham / Huntsville, AL · If the fit isn’t there, we’ll say so.
Gesso Federal, a division of Gesso AI, Inc. · We never guarantee awards and never submit on your behalf; you approve everything. · Process figures: Gesso task register (178 tasks), response runbook (130+ checks), win-factor playbooks (GSA 39 · DLA/DIBBS 40 · SBIR 34).