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New · The 28-Page Insider Guide for First-Time Founders
Win Your First SBIR Grant. Keep 100% of Your Company.
The insider playbook for landing non-dilutive federal R&D money. No equity, no dilution, no proposal-writing fluff. Written by a 16-year federal lobbyist.
One-time $297. Or free when you work with Lobbyit.
Instant PDF download, plus the full template pack. By Paul Kanitra, founder of Lobbyit.com.
The Insider's Playbook
How to Win SBIR
The Washington insider's guide to winning federal R&D grants, and surviving what comes after.
Paul Kanitra · Lobbyit.com
$323,090
Typical Phase I award. Non-dilutive. You keep your equity.
$2,153,927
Typical Phase II follow-on for teams that make it across the gap.
Free
The full Playbook, free with any Lobbyit engagement.
How to Win an SBIR Grant
SBIR and STTR are the federal government's non-dilutive R&D grants for small companies, which means you keep 100% of your equity. Whether you need SBIR proposal help for your first Phase I deadline or a repeatable system instead of paying SBIR grant consultants $10,000+ per proposal, the playbook below is the insider version of what the consultants sell. A Phase I award (feasibility) runs up to $323,090 and a Phase II (development) up to $2,153,927 without special SBA approval, and eleven agencies set aside 3.2% of their external R&D budgets to fund them. Roughly ten thousand companies apply each year and most lose, and the reason is rarely the science. First-time founders write to a topic they forced a fit with, and they write in silence. The applicants who win treat the topic as what it is, a real problem a specific person inside an agency is trying to solve, and they open a conversation with that person in the short window before the solicitation closes. That relationship and timing layer, not proposal polish, is what separates the winners, and it is the part most grant-writing help skips. Early-stage company weighing federal funding? See also our lobbying firm for startups.
How do you win an SBIR grant as a first-time founder?
Pick a topic you genuinely fit, not one you talk yourself into, then contact the topic author or program officer during the pre-release window and listen for the problem behind the topic. Design your Phase I to set up your Phase II on purpose, because agencies fund the continuation of promising work, not a fresh start. The written solicitation tells you what to submit. The conversation tells you what will actually win.
How much money can an SBIR grant give a startup?
As of April 2026, an agency can award up to $323,090 for Phase I and up to $2,153,927 for Phase II without special SBA approval. These are ceilings and agencies vary. Phase III, commercialization, uses no SBIR dollars but lets an agency or prime contractor buy your solution through a sole-source pathway, and most founders have never heard of it.
Is SBIR really non-dilutive funding for startups?
Yes. SBIR and STTR are grants and contracts, not investments, so you give up no equity and take on no debt. For a hardware, deep-tech, or defense-tech company, winning a Phase I and Phase II can fund years of development while your ownership stays intact, which is exactly why they are worth the effort of learning to win them properly.
Who can help you win an SBIR grant?
Most paid help is grant writers who polish the proposal, and proposal polish is not what decides awards. The higher-leverage help is on the insider layer: which agency actually fits, when and how to reach the topic author, and how to line up Phase I to unlock Phase II and then Phase III. That is what the SBIR Insider's Playbook teaches, and where Lobbyit's team works directly with companies pursuing the Phase III transition and program-level advocacy that turn a grant into a durable federal customer.
When should you start working an SBIR topic?
Earlier than almost everyone does. Forecasted topics are published weeks or months ahead, and for agencies like Defense the conversation that wins the award has to happen in the first few weeks, before most competitors have even noticed the topic exists. A few agencies, including NASA and the Department of Transportation, cannot discuss a topic with you once the solicitation opens, so the head start is not optional there, it is the whole game.
Last updated: July 2026.
Most First-Time Founders Lose. The Winners Knew Something You Don't.
There is free federal R&D money sitting on the table. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, no equity taken, no investor on your cap table. Yet most first-time founders never get a dollar of it. They write a technically perfect proposal, submit it cold, and lose to a team that understood how the agency actually decides. That gap is not about your science. It is about knowing the system. This Playbook hands you the system.
Meet the SBIR Insider's Playbook
28 pages. 12 chapters. One downloadable template pack. Everything a first-time founder needs to go from never heard of SBIR to award letter.
🔒
Insider, not academic
How agencies really pick winners, from someone who has worked them for 16 years.
⚡
Built to act on
A template pack you open and use today, not theory you have to translate.
🎯
Written for founders
No jargon, no consultant filler. Short, direct, and technical-founder friendly.
What You'll Learn That the Consultants Won't Tell You
Twelve chapters of insider mechanics. Here is where the real edge is.
✓The legal pre-release call that wins awards, and the agency rules on when you can make it.
✓How each agency really decides, and why a buyer agency is nothing like a portfolio one.
✓Reading a solicitation for the unstated need behind the words.
✓The firewall: what you can and cannot influence, so no one steers you wrong.
✓Winning Phase I by proving feasibility, not overbuilding.
✓Phase II and the commercialization story that wins the bigger money.
✓Keeping your agency relationship alive after the award.
✓Surviving the valley of death when the research money stops.
✓Phase III and the sole-source authority most founders never use.
✓Getting your technology adopted by the people who hold the budget.
✓Protecting the program that funds your whole field.
✓The full template pack: outreach emails, call scripts, trackers, and plans.
PK
Paul Kanitra
Founder, Lobbyit.com
16 Years in Washington
Founder, Lobbyit.com
16 Years in Washington
Why Trust This Over the Other Grant Gurus?
Paul Kanitra has spent 16 years inside the federal system as the founder of Lobbyit.com, a Washington firm that works agencies, timing, and relationships every single day. This is not recycled webinar advice. It is how the game is actually played, from someone who plays it for a living.
And yes, Lobbyit is a lobbying firm. If you win and hit the valley of death, that is where we can help. The Playbook works whether or not you ever call us.
Do the Math
$5,000 to $7,000
What SBIR proposal consultants charge, per proposal.
$297
The Playbook. One time. No cut of your award.
$2,000,000+
A single Phase II award. Non-dilutive. On the table.
Two Ways to Get the Playbook
The Playbook
$297 one time
- 28-page PDF, 12 chapters
- The full template pack
- Instant download
- Yours forever
Best Value
Free With Lobbyit
$0
- The complete Playbook, free
- A firm that works the agencies for you
- Help across the valley of death
- Insider representation, not just a guide
Questions
Is this just proposal-writing tips?
No. Plenty of guides cover the forms. This covers the insider mechanics they skip: timing, relationships, the legal pre-release call, and surviving after the award.
Do you offer SBIR proposal help or consulting?
The playbook is the productized version of that help: the insider process SBIR grant consultants charge five figures to run, for $297. If you want hands-on federal support beyond the proposal itself, Lobbyit is a lobbying firm with published pricing from $2,500 per month.
I have never applied for a grant. Is this too advanced?
It is built for first-timers. It starts at zero and ends with what to do after you win.
Do I give up any equity?
No. SBIR and STTR are non-dilutive. No equity, no investors, no dilution. That is the entire point.
Can a lobbyist really get me the award?
No, and the Playbook says so plainly. Awards are decided by independent review behind a firewall. What a lobbyist helps with is everything around it, especially commercialization and Phase III after you win.
What do I get, exactly?
A 28-page, 12-chapter PDF plus a downloadable template pack. Instant access after checkout.
The Money Is on the Table. Go Get It.
Stop leaving non-dilutive federal R&D money to founders who simply knew the system better. Now you can too.
One-time $297. Or free with a Lobbyit engagement.