Most "govcon experts" sell a guarantee that doesn't exist. We sell something better — a 90-day system that makes your small business genuinely competitive for federal, state, and local contracts. Veteran-built. Honest pricing. Real work, every single month.
Government contracting requires a real foundation before you can pursue anything — SAM registration, NAICS strategy, capability statement, portal logins. The Sprint bundles that foundation with 90 days of our ongoing $1,000/mo Pursuit Engine retainer (the recurring monthly work — daily scans, weekly briefings, capture calls). The Launch Kit is the foundation only, with the option to activate the Pursuit Engine retainer when you're ready. Bid Production is for when you've already got a specific RFP in hand. Pick what fits where you are right now.
The full ride. We set you up AND start sending you matched contract opportunities every week.
Just the setup. We get you in the game; you decide later if you want me hunting for you.
When you spot a contract you want to win, I write the proposal that goes in.
Realistic revenue ranges for the kinds of contracts small businesses like yours typically pursue. Not promises — just what the upside looks like when one of these lands. We'll model real numbers for your specific niche on the fit call.
Once your foundation is in place (via the Sprint or Launch Kit above), the Pursuit Engine takes over as your $1,000/mo recurring retainer — month-to-month, cancel anytime. No "we'll send you opportunities." No vague retainer language. Below is the exact rhythm of work: what hits your inbox, what shows up on your dashboard, what we cover together. Every single month, for $1,000.
For context: a junior capture manager in-house runs $60K–$85K/year, plus benefits. Most small businesses can't justify that headcount before their first win — which is exactly why most never get to a first win. The Pursuit Engine is built to bridge that gap.
The system we're putting in your business is the same one we use in ours. Service-disabled veteran ownership. Active federal registrations. Real opportunities in our own pipeline. We didn't read about govcon in a book — we live in the same portals you will.
We use modern AI for the heavy lifting — daily scanning, compliance matrix drafting, opportunity classification. That's how we deliver capture-manager-level work at one-tenth the cost. But the bid/no-bid call, the strategy, the relationships — that's still a human. You.
Generic "we'll register you for SAM and call it a day" is why most small businesses never see a contract. We pick your NAICS strategy, your set-aside path, and your portal mix based on YOUR business — not a checklist from 2019.
"We didn't want to sell a system we hadn't already proven on ourselves. Inside 90 days we registered with the federal government, fifteen state and local portals, got two RFI responses submitted, built a working pipeline, and shipped our first RFI to the Bureau of Reclamation. Every artifact we deliver to you, we battle-tested on Gap Hammer first."
— Trevor Neill, Founder, Gap Hammer Co. · U.S. Navy Veteran
If you're not asking some version of these, we're worried. Here's what we actually answer when prospects pick up the phone.
Honest answer: no. We scan opportunities for businesses that can actually pursue them — and you can't pursue anything without a SAM registration, a NAICS strategy, a real capability statement, and logins on the buyer portals. Paying us to find you contracts you literally couldn't bid on would be exactly the "throwing $1,000 out the window" feeling we built this offer to avoid.
That's why most clients start with the Founder's Sprint ($4,750) — it bundles your foundation AND your first 90 days of active pursuit work into one decision. If you'd rather stagger spend, the Launch Kit ($2,750) gets you set up first and you decide on ongoing pursuit later. And if you've already got an active SAM and registrations from another consultant or your own efforts, ask about our $500 Setup Audit — we verify and gap-fix, then activate pursuit work the same week.
No. And anyone who does is either lying to you or about to charge you five figures to find out they were. Government procurement is competitive, agency-driven, and timeline-sensitive — nobody on the outside controls the award.
What we do guarantee: at the end of 90 days you'll be registered, certified where you qualify, equipped with real proposal-ready assets, and reviewing opportunities every week. That is the position from which contracts get won. Most businesses never reach it.
Fair question — and the one we built the "What You Get" section above to answer. You're paying for ~7 hours of expert work on your business every month, daily scanning across portals you don't have time to monitor, weekly ranked briefings, pipeline management, monthly capture calls, and on-demand advisory whenever an opportunity lands.
Compare it to hiring a junior capture manager in-house — that's $60K–$85K/year plus benefits. The Pursuit Engine gives you the function of that role for ~$12K/year. Once you win your first contract, that math becomes obvious. The hard part is doing the disciplined work to get to a first win — and that's the work we do.
It depends what you mean by results. Positioning results — registrations live, capability statement done, portals dialed in, pipeline filling up — usually within 60 to 90 days.
First contract win — the honest range is 6 to 18 months for most small businesses, even with a good system. Some niches (IT services, professional services) move faster. Others (specialized construction, food service) take longer. We tell you up front what's realistic for your specific vertical, not what sounds good on a sales call.
No — and here's why. Even if you don't win in your first 12 months, you walk away with: an active SAM.gov registration that took us weeks to do correctly, certifications (where you qualify) that took months to earn, portal registrations across 8–12 buyer markets, a real pipeline with deadlines and intel, and a written playbook your team can run without us.
Most small businesses spend $5K–$15K on consultants for a fraction of that footprint and never touch it again. You keep every artifact we build. And if you decide to pause Pursuit Engine, your registrations and assets are yours — not locked behind a software login.
Pursuit Engine is month-to-month after the first 90 days. The first 90 are required because that's the minimum honest setup window — anything shorter and we can't actually deliver the foundation we're promising. After that, cancel with 30 days' notice. Everything we built stays with you.
Launch Kit is one-time. Bid Production is per-bid. Nothing rolls into a long-term contract you can't get out of.
We use a structured bid/no-bid framework looking at six factors: fit with your NAICS and past performance, set-aside eligibility, agency relationship potential, competition density, scope feasibility for your team size, and probability of win (Pwin) based on incumbent and award history.
Each weekly briefing comes with our reasoning, not just a list. You decide whether to pursue — we don't push you toward bids that pad our hours. Most weeks we'll recommend ignoring more opportunities than we recommend chasing. That's a feature.
Probably yes. The federal government legally requires 23% of its contract spend go to small businesses, and most state and local governments have similar mandates. There are entire procurement vehicles (set-asides, micro-purchases, SBIR, simplified acquisition) designed specifically for businesses smaller than yours.
That said — if your business hasn't done any commercial work yet, hasn't generated revenue, and has no real capability to deliver, we'll tell you. Govcon doesn't reward "first jobs." It rewards businesses that can already do the work. If that's not you yet, the honest answer is to come back when it is.
Strongest fit: IT services, AI / data, professional services, HVAC, janitorial, security services, training providers, construction trades, and food service distributors. These are the verticals where we have proven NAICS playbooks and active intel.
We will turn down work where we don't think we can deliver. If your industry isn't on this list, the right answer might be a one-time advisory engagement instead of full Pursuit Engine — we'll tell you on the fit call.
Three reasons. First, we built the delivery system around modern AI from day one — that lets us cover 4x the scanning surface area at a fraction of the labor cost. Second, we don't have a sales team, a Beltway office, or partners taking 60% of the revenue. Third, we're targeting small businesses on purpose — at scale, on the right systems, that's a great business for us at honest prices.
You won't get a 15-person account team. You get one veteran consultant of record and the AI-augmented system behind him. For most small businesses, that's the right ratio.
A 30-minute fit call. No pitch deck, no high-pressure close. We look at your business, your goals, your timeline, and tell you honestly whether you're a good fit for the Launch Kit yet — or whether you should focus on commercial growth first and come back in 6–12 months.
If we're a fit, we walk through what the first 90 days look like and you decide. If we're not, you walk away with a clear next step. Either way, your time isn't wasted.
Gap Hammer Co. is a service-disabled veteran-owned business based in Texas. I started building this govcon practice because I watched too many capable small businesses get fleeced by consultants who promised them contracts and delivered a SAM registration and a folder of templates.
I'm not from the Beltway. I'm not a former contracting officer. I'm a veteran small business owner who built the system we're selling on my own company first — same registrations, same portals, same scanning rhythm, same disciplined bid/no-bid work — and I'm productizing what works.
You don't need a $200K capture firm to break into government contracting. You need someone who shows up every week, does the boring repetitive work, tells you the truth, and helps you make the right call when an opportunity actually lands.
That's what we do.
If you've read this far, you already know the difference between a guarantee and a real path. Let's see if your business is in the right spot to start one.