Inside Track on Federal R&D Grants for Innovative Companies

An overview of the SBIR/STTR federal grant program that provides $3.2 billion annually in R&D funds to help early stage small businesses develop viable commercial innovations and meet Federal R&D needs.  Our speaker Gerry Barañano will provide a comprehensive overview of the SBIR program and will give pointers on how to improve the odds of being funded.

Gerry will cover the following topics:

• Overview of SBIR/STTR program
• Participating agencies and their SBIR budgets
• Eligibility requirements
• Intellectual Property rights under SBIR program
• Phase I and Phase II — description and differences
• How to research topics for your technology
• Typical proposal outline
• Proposal review criteria
• Common reasons for decline

SPEAKER BIO :

As principal of his own company, The RevLaunch Company for over twenty years, Gerry Barañano provides go-to-market strategies and strategic business development for tech companies and gets them their first paying customers.  In 2012 Gerry Barañano co-founded Tech Futures Group and served both as the director and an entrepreneur-in-residence for the Tech Futures Group from 2014 to 2020. Tech Futures Group, a non-profit funded by the US Small Business Administration and State of California is a group of experienced advisors who act as the complete advisory board of select startups and small, established tech companies. Since its inception, TFG helped more than 750 companies raise over $400 million in equity and government grants.

In his career, Gerry was VP of Marketing and Sales for companies ranging in size from Fortune 100 to startups. He was instrumental in selling a technology startup for over $3.2 billion dollars. 

Gerry is a graduate of Yale University and earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

MODERATOR BIO: 

Porter Wong who is a Board of Director at the USPAACC Western Region Chapter will be moderating this session.   Porter Wong has known Gerry for a number of years and have both been very active in helping Entrepreneurs in early stages of start ups.  Porter Wong is an Executive In Residence of Plug and Play, Mentor at Cleantech Open, the U.S. National Laboratory Entrepreneurship Academy, and the UC Entrepreneurship Academy.  Porter served as Chairman of IEEE Computer Society Santa Clara Valley Chapter.  Prior to actively working with startups, he held C-level and senior management positions with four successful technology startups, two went IPO and two were acquired by Fortune 500 companies.