The Small Business Administration's (SBA) new mentor-protégé (M-P) program allows mentors and protégés to joint venture (JV) together on government small-business set-aside procurements. That JV enables a small business/protégé to gain valuable experience in growing its capabilities with the help of a large business (mentor). The Air Force's requirement that a protégé have the same experience level as all other offerors defeats the purpose of the SBA rules.

In the matter of Innovate Now, LLC, B-419546, 2021 WL 1610896, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) ruled on April 26, 2021, that an Air Force request for proposal (RFP) requiring protégés of an M-P JV to meet the same experience requirements as other offerors violated SBA regulations.

The RFP required past experience of each offeror or venturer demonstrated by past work samples. The samples had to be during certain time periods, and all offerors had to have had a satisfactory performance rating in the recent past. Continue reading >