51 Small Businesses Secure Contracts at Air Force Pitch Day; Will Roper Quoted

The Air Force awarded $8.75M in contracts to 51 small businesses at the service’s two-day pitch day event that kicked off Wednesday in New York City, DVIDS reported Thursday.

The service’s contracting officials awarded the contracts and issued initial payments to companies within minutes using a government credit card after evaluating the proposals of 59 firms selected out of 417 submissions.

“The fact that these small businesses don’t have to go get loans, or bridges, waiting for that 120 days to get on contract is a big deal. It means they can focus immediately on working with us, understanding our users, delivering for the warfighter,” said Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics and a 2019 Wash100 winner.

Over 500 participants from industry, government, academia and investment organizations took part in the event's second leg held Thursday.

Prior to the pitch day, Roper said the service held a series of contracting sprints and awarded 122 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research contracts worth $6M combined and 69 Phase II SBIR contracts valued at $60M.