New products and services are the lifeblood of any industry. Businesses that constantly innovate thrive - those that don't die. Free from the large corporate culture, small businesses are the perfect incubators of innovation. Yet given the enormous R&D expenditures of large corporations and their armies of patent attorneys, small businesses are at a distinct disadvantage. The congressionally mandated Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program can help level the playing field.

Every year the SBIR program awards about $2.0 billion to small businesses with innovative ideas for new products. The SBIR program can be a key component of your business's financing plan without diluting your ownership and control. For this reason the SBIR program is very competitive - only about 1 out of 8 Phase I submissions receive awards. Often small businesses don't know which opportunities they should pursue, they have no experience with the SBIR program or writing SBIR proposals, and they are up against "professional SBIR" companies who do nothing more than feed off of SBIR funding without ever commercializing their "innovations".

Centurion Technology was founded to help small companies with truly innovative ideas succeed. We will help you identify the best proposal opportunities as well partnering opportunities. We provide proposal coaching, proposal writing and proposal critiquing services. We also coach you on how to make your business and research teams more competitive.We can significantly improve your probability of winning, and provide a significant return on investment. We also work on shared-risk, shared-reward basis. We only get our full fee if you win!

It all starts with finding the right opportunity. Many small businesses have little more than a great idea. Others have core technology, but are in the dark when it comes to matching it with government R&D needs. We spend hundreds of hours each year pouring over SBIR and non-SBIR solicitations, attending conferences, following trends in government research, analyzing government technology needs, and monitoring relevant legislative initiatives. This level of effort is required to fully capitalize on sponsored research opportunities, yet it is simply not cost effective for a small business. We offer an opportunity identification and business development service. First we analyze your ideas, technology, and capabilities. Then as we review each new development and solicitation, we look for opportunities that fit your business. We then generate a report of opportunities that are relevant to your business as well as analysis of potential barriers to success. Potential opportunities are not limited to government research contracts, but may also include commercial opportunities and partnership opportunities.

Once the right opportunity has been found, the small business must produce a compelling proposal. Often small businesses have no experience with the SBIR program or writing SBIR proposals, and they are up against "professional SBIR" companies who do nothing more than feed off of SBIR funding without ever commercializing their "innovations". Not only are SBIR awards very competitive, writing a proposal is a significant endeavor. Proposal writing is particularly time consuming for first-time proposal writers. One attractive option is to outsource this work to experienced professional who will likely lower the cost of producing a proposal and increase your chances of winning. Consider historical national average success rates - 15% of Phase I proposal are selected for funding and 40% of Phase II proposals are selected. Given the historical national averages, only 6% of attempts result in Phase I & II awards, 9% result in Phase I awards only, and 85% result in no award. This is not a very promising picture. Under the national historical averages, the mean Phase I proposal will eventually bring $60,000 in Phase I & II funding the small business (assuming $100,000 Phase I and $750,000 Phase II awards). Improving your probability of Phase I success will have a significant return on investment. Improving your odds by a single percentage point will improve your expected outcome by $4,000!!!