Podcasts about gsa schedule

GovClose is the fastest way to break into federal sales — or scale it.Whether you're starting out or already selling, our certification gives you the system, tools, and training to win contracts now.Start here: https://www.govclose.com/sales-certificationThe federal government is overhauling how it buys from businesses — and GSA Schedules are becoming the new gatekeepers. In this powerful interview with former GSA senior official Kevan Kivlan, we reveal:How Trump's Executive Order accelerated federal acquisition reformWhy AI and tech are speeding up the buying processHow GSA grew by nearly 50% — and what it means for small businessesThe real reason why getting a GSA Schedule now could decide your survivalHow companies without GSA access may be completely locked outWhat you must do today to stay in the federal marketIf you think the old ways of selling to the government still work, you're about to get wiped out.Free Book Download: https://www.dodcontract.com/Chapters00:00 - The GSA Wave Is Already Here03:22 - Trump's Executive Order: The Game-Changer Nobody Noticed06:45 - Why GSA Schedules Are No Longer Optional09:58 - AI Is Taking Over Federal Acquisitions (Faster Than You Think)13:12 - How GSA Grew 50% — And What It Means For You16:41 - Contractors Without GSA Access Will Be Left Behind19:55 - The Brutal Timeline To Get On GSA (12 Months or More!)23:16 - New Federal Contracting: Winners vs Losers27:40 - What Smart Companies Are Doing Right Now31:00 - Final Warning: Get GSA Ready Or Get Wiped Out#GSASchedule #GovernmentContracting #FederalContracts #GovClose #GovCon

SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH THE VIDEOS FIRST https://www.youtube.com/@govclose/?sub_confirmation=1Get the GovClose Certification: https://www.govclose.com/sales-certification Our Book is FREE, But Only Here: https://www.dodcontract.com/Watch How to Find Gov Contract LeadsThis is a video about Trump's New Executive Order: Will You Need a GSA Schedule to Sell to the Government?This video discusses a significant executive order signed by President Trump that affects how businesses sell to U.S. federal agencies. The executive order, signed on March 20th, 2025, aims to centralize federal procurement through the General Services Administration (GSA). The video details what this means for businesses, particularly those without a GSA schedule, and the implications for selling common goods and services to the government. It explains the role of the GSA, the potential impact on small businesses, and the timeline for implementation. Practical advice is given for businesses considering applying for a GSA schedule, and additional resources are offered for navigating these changes.00:00 Introduction to GSA Schedule and Executive Order00:29 Understanding GSA and Its Role01:45 Impact of the Executive Order on Businesses02:31 What is GSA and Contract Vehicles?04:22 Personal Success Stories in Government Contracting05:51 Navigating the GSA Schedule Process08:42 Conclusion and Future InsightsThis is a video about Trump's New Executive Order: Will You Need a GSA Schedule to Sell to the Government?#Trump #GSA #govclose

This week's episode covers a DoD memorandum establishing procedures for covered joint venture facility security clearances, an SBA notice relating to the Mentor-Protégé Programs, and an upcoming mass modification to all existing GSA Multiple Award Schedule contracts, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Yuan Zhou. Crowell & Moring's "Fastest 5 Minutes" is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners and a regular on Federal News Network.The wide-ranging conversation covers: Q4 do's and don'ts Issues around the GSA Schedule program, including why many do not require a Schedule The delay in Alliant 3 and issues surrounding the awarding of IDIQs Why contractors need to be agile now more than ever Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners and a regular on Federal News Network. The wide-ranging conversation covers: Q4 do's and don'ts Issues around the GSA Schedule program, including why many do not require a Schedule The delay in Alliant 3 and issues surrounding the awarding of IDIQs Why contractors need to be agile now more than ever

In this episode, Michael LeJeune and Carroll Bernard host a special guest Rich Earnest (Certified Coach with RSM Federal). The trio discuss the issues, pitfalls, and prevalent misconceptions that often lead contractors astray. Their focused exploration centers on two critical aspects: the perilous decision to pursue a GSA Schedule contract without proper guidance and thorough market research and the intricacies of generating post-award sales once a GSA Schedule contract has been obtained. It is worth noting that post-award sales do not always materialize automatically, and, regrettably, data reveal that more than 52 percent of small businesses lose their GSA Schedule contract after two years due to their failure to meet minimum sales requirements. This episode is a must-watch for those contemplating pursuing a GSA Schedule contract for their business and those who have obtained a GSA contract but do not (or don't know how to) generate sales.

Listen up all Federal Government Contractors including GSA Schedule holders before you submit your next contract bid to the Federal government or the District of Columbia.  For more information contact us preemptcorp.com.

Your Government Registration Level (“GRL”) is your roadmap from registration to award. Did you win any awards in 2022? Make sure your foundation is set by following an established process known as your GRL. Click Here to listen to Part 1 of this Podcast.In this episode we host Senior Government Contracting Specialist, Frank Krebs, to discuss Levels 3, 4, and 5 of your roadmap to government readiness by following a process for becoming a successful government contractor.What is your Government Readiness Level?Level 1: Get Registered and Optimized - SAM and DSBSLevel 2: Create Visibility for Market Exposure – Website Visibility & FedBiz Connect Level 3: Develop your Company Resume - Capability StatementLevel 4: Perform Targeted Market ResearchGet Daily Bid Opportunities - Market Intel DatabaseGet Connected to the Right Federal Buyers - Federal Connections Package Get Connected to the Right State & Local Buyers - Local Connections Package  Get In-depth Research into Your Industry Buying Trends – R.A.D.A.R. Report Get Engagement Coaching to Introduce Your Business to Contracting SpecialistsLevel 5: Become a Preferred Government ContractorGet Certified Based on Your Socio-Economic StatusGet on the GSA Schedule for a 5-Year Contract with the GovernmentIn Part 1 of our podcast, we discussed Levels 1 and 2 in more detail (Click Here to listen to Part 1 of this Podcast). Once a firm gets registered, optimized, and is visible to government buyers and large businesses alike, it's time to develop their business resume. Level 3: Develop your Company Resume - Capability StatementThe Capability Statement was created to provide government buyers with all of the information they need to identify a business for government contracts. The Capability Statement is the standard tool that's utilized by federal buyers and decision makers to conduct an initial evaluation of your firm's core competencies and qualifications. CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READINGStay Connected: Signup for our Once-Monthly "Contractor Chronicle" Newsletter Follow Us on Facebook Follow Us on LinkedIn

Your Government Readiness Level (“GRL”) is your roadmap from registration to award. Did you win any awards in 2022? Make sure your foundation is set by following an established process known as your GRL.In this episode we host Senior Government Contracting Specialist, Frank Krebs, to discuss your roadmap to government readiness by following a process for becoming a successful government contractor.What is your Government Readiness Level?Level 1: Get Registered and Optimized - SAM and DSBSLevel 2: Create Visibility for Market Exposure – Website Visibility & FedBiz Connect Level 3: Develop your Company Resume - Capability StatementLevel 4: Perform Targeted Market ResearchGet Daily Bid Opportunities - Market Intel DatabaseGet Connected to the Right Federal Buyers - Federal Connections Package Get Connected to the Right State & Local Buyers - Local Connections Package  Get In-depth Research into Your Industry Buying Trends – R.A.D.A.R. Report Get Engagement Coachingto Introduce Your Business to Contracting SpecialistsLevel 5: Become a Preferred Government ContractorGet Certified Based on Your Socio-Economic StatusGet on the GSA Schedule for a 5-Year Contract with the GovernmentIn Part 1 of our podcast, we discuss Levels 1 and 2 in more detail. To become a government contractor, you must first have proven success in the commercial world. You can't just wake up one morning and decide that you're going to become a government contractor and win awards on Day 1. Too many times businesses think, "Oh, I can just sell this, or I can sell that to the government," and then when I asked them, “Well how have you done selling that product in the commercial world?” They respond, "Well, I don't actually sell that product, but when I get the government contract, then I'll be selling and servicing the government with no problem." Well, here's a little secret, the government almost never contracts with a company that does not already have a successful commercial business and a track record of success. Level 1: Get Registered and Optimized - SAM and DSBSCLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING AT FEDBIZACCESS.COMStay Connected: Signup for our Once-Monthly "Contractor Chronicle" Newsletter Follow Us on Facebook Follow Us on LinkedIn

The long-standing debate over whether prices on the GSA Schedule contract are fair and reasonable has reached a new level of, DIScord. GSA's inspector general makes what to some will be a shocking series of recommendations about schedule prices. And GSA's Federal Acquisition Service responds with contempt for those suggestions. In his reporter's notebook, executive editor Jason Miller writes about the latest episode in this long-running squabble over schedule prices.

Marc Schulman, CEO and Founder of Advocate Consulting Group, LLC (“ACG”), leads a team of professionals providing medical devices and diagnostic testing resources for the medical community, federal government, private industry, and school systems. ACG distributes a wide array of point-of-care and over-the-counter medical test kits and a catalog of certified personal protective equipment (“PPE”). Marc previously served in the U.S. Navy, and ACG is SBA Certified as a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (“SDVOSB”). After his naval service, Marc worked in the corporate world as a turnaround specialist for Fortune 50 companies and has mentored hundreds of executives in the U.S., China, and Vietnam. Marc and his wife, Jeannie, have seven grown children and four grandchildren.ACG began working with FedBiz Access in 2021 and has been awarded his SDVOSB Certification. In addition, he has worked with FedBiz Access to maintain his SAM & DSBS registrations and to help market his business to the government marketplace with a Capability Statement and Federal Connections Package (“FCP”). He is currently working with FedBiz Access to complete his GSA Schedule. “I'd rate FedBiz Access a ten out of ten! I recommend them to anyone who is either in the government services space or looking to get into the space,” said Marc.ACG is currently working within the Veterans Administration (“VA”). Marc's goal is for the business to continue to grow by working as a subcontractor with larger prime contractors, as well as acting as a prime contractor and expanding ACG's network with the federal government.“This would not have been possible without the great help of the wonderful people at FedBiz Access,” said Marc.FedBiz Access is leading government contracting business development and marketing firm that offers research and engagement strategy coaching, registrations, certifications, and GSA Schedules, as well as marketing packages to targeted buyers at the federal, state, and local levels. The company has over 21 years of experience working with thousands of companies worldwide to help them win over $35.7 billion in awards. From registration to award, FedBiz helps businesses succeed in the government marketplace.

In this episode, we talk with Rich Earnest about How to Leverage Your GSA Schedule. Did you know that roughly 50% of GSA Schedule holders never get a single sale/contract award via their schedule? One of the most common reasons for this is that most schedule holders pursue a schedule without doing any research on their buyers. Regardless of where you are on your GSA Schedule journey, this podcast will help you understand the best practices for properly leveraging your schedule. ----- Federal Access is helping Government Contractors win more contracts. It can help you too. Here's a special offer. Visit https://federal-access.com/gamechangers today and get started for just $29. *You are going to get access to a digital copy of the Government Sales Manual. * Over 85 strategy videos * More than 30 webinars * 300 documents and templates AND * SME support. So when you run into an issue, you can email me directly for help. Go check out this special offer today at https://federal-access.com/gamechangers

Government contracting is a good way to expand your business opportunities in preparation for a potential downturn in the economy.In this episode of FedBiz'5, we are hosting Amanda Bach from FedBiz Access to discuss the how you may be able to recession proof your business by expanding your government contracting opportunities.So why is it important for businesses to learn about and understand government contracting in preparation as the U.S. and world economies approach a forecasted recession?With persistent inflation, a likely increase in the Federal Reserve interest rate, and the Ukraine war as threats to the health of the U.S. economy, diversification is important as commercial and consumer spending slows. For example, the consumer price index shot up more than 9.1% in June, creating more trepidation for the economic outlook.However, the federal government remains the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the world. With the federal government working to simulate the economy, government spending will likely continue to grow. Why not get your piece of this pie?The federal government makes “small” purchases (under the Simplified Acquisition Procedures regulation, small businesses must be considered for all federal awards under $250,000 if there are two or more small business offerors expected to compete). These purchases include everything from office supplies, office furniture, security systems, spending for commercial services, including IT software and service solutions, janitorial, landscaping, facilities management, marketing, and other services. In addition, large contracts are awarded to prime contractors that need small business subcontractors to meet their set-aside contracting goals. These large projects include everything from military hardware, large scale engineering and construction projects, and major IT system upgrades, to name a few.To take advantage of the current economic environment, time is of the essence and there is and will be an influx of businesses in pursuit of government contracting work as the recession is coming upon us. The important steps are to get informed by knowing who your government buyers are and get connected with them, as well as having your business ‘government ready', including all registrations compliant, complete, and competitive. In addition, submitting applicable set-aside certifications and a GSA Schedule contract that your business may qualify for. This is all part of your Government Readiness Level(“GRL”).It is important to be educated regarding all the contracting vehicles that are available to your business. FedBiz Access provides its clients with solutions, including registration services, training, engagement coaching, and market research. This provides you with the necessary tools and resources to find your government buyers, know when they're buying, how they're buying, and get connected with the right targeted government buyers for your business. FedBiz has over 21 years of experience working with thousands of companies worldwide to help them win over $35.7 billion in awards. From registration to award, FedBiz Access helps businesses succeed in the government marketplace.

SAM ("System for Award Management") is a federal registration that is required if you are going to participate in the federal market.  It is sometimes called your “accounting record” and is used as the primary database of vendors doing business with the federal government. In this episode of FedBiz'5, we are hosting Cassie Elbany from FedBiz Access to discuss the importance of your SAM registration.SAM can be found on the official government website (SAM.gov) used to register entities for government contracts or grants.When you register in SAM you are assigned a CAGE code (Commercial and Government Entity) and a  UEI number (Unique Entity ID) as your official federal government identifiers.  Within the SAM website federal buyers can search for your business, and you can use the system to search for contract opportunities using search features such as keywords, NAICS codes (North American Industry Classification System), or PSC codes (Product and Service Codes).That is why it is important to properly identify is your industry classification using NAICS and PSC codes. Simply put, NAICS codes are for your business function or commercial activity, and PSC describe your products or services themselves.  These codes let the federal government, or the federal buyers know what it is you do and makes it easier for them to identify you for award opportunities based on your industry and your products or services offered.A business can self-certify in SAM, but because of the complexity of the registration process many businesses are better suited to use a professional service to complete their registration.  This may be considered in the same way that many businesses use a professional accountant to file their tax returns to ensure they are complete and compliant.For businesses looking to work with the federal government, they must remain compliant and keep their registration active to be awarded a federal contract. As your business evolves, so should your SAM be updated to reflect your most current information. SAM must be renewed annually, but can be updated more frequently.Additionally, businesses must conform to the Federal Acquisition Regulations, referred to as the FAR.  The FAR are the overriding set of regulations for federal procurement and agreement to adherence to the FAR is required to be registered in SAM.  Having a clear understanding of the FAR as you are completing your SAM registration is very critical. A misrepresentation or wrong answer could not only get you in trouble but could bar you from federal work.Businesses also register their business size and socio-economic status while completing the required solicitation clauses and certification. By completing the required solicitation clauses and certifications you certify that the information provided about your company and its business activities are correct.In addition, it is very important that your SBA registration in the Dynamic Small Business Search be properly aligned with your SAM for marketing purposes.One source federal buyers turn to to easily find information you register in SAM is FedBiz Connect, a searchable database of businesses registered for federal contracting that highlights their business to contracting officers and prime contractors.  The database is searchable by keywords, business name, CAGE code, UEI No., location, socio-economic status, NAICS Codes, PSC, capability statement, past performance, FEMA registered, smart cards, points of contact, etc. FedBiz is a leading government contracting business development and marketing firm that offers SAM registration services, as well as research and engagement strategy coaching, and certification and GSA Schedule registrations.

A Capability Statement is your government resume representing your business. It is your opportunity to make a good first impression and positively impacts your ability to win awards.In this episode of FedBiz'5 we host Anthony D'Attore from FedBiz Access to discuss what makes a Capability Statement effective.A Capability Statement is usually a one-page government centric resume for your company. Just like in a job interview scenario, it is your opportunity to highlight your strengths and experience.It should be a concise, aesthetically pleasing, document that speaks to your business's competencies. Its purpose is to provide specific information that will convince potential customers within government agencies to do business with you. When written well, a Capability Statement will help differentiate your business from others.Information to Include on Your Capability Statement:Company Information: Point of Contact, Contact Information (phone number, email, website,  address), UEI Number, Cage Code, Certified Socio-Economic Status such (WOSB, SDVOSB/VOSB, MBE, 8(a), HUBZone), GSA Schedule, and applicable designations.Industry Codes: NAICS and PSC Codes for your primary business operations. Do research to pinpoint the codes that make the most sense to your target agency for the products and/or services you offer.Capability Narrative: A brief ‘About Us' description, similar to a mission statement. A short, direct, and concise general overview of your company without delving too much into your products/services.Core Competencies: Listing of products and/or services that speak to the agency you are trying to do business with.  What do you do well? Core Competencies do not need to include everything about your business, and what you are able to do. In fact, they should focus on the needs of your audience.Differentiators: Why should the government choose you to do business with you over your competition?  List the unique benefits of your products and/or services that set you apart from your competition. How is your business best suited for the needs of the targeted government agency?  A clear statement that relates to specific needs of the agency can help the buyer understand why they should choose you. Past Performance: List your previous customers, typically best to list government agency clients, but you can also list commercial clients that you have done similar projects for previously. You should include details such as the date, location, and value of the award.If you don't have Past Performance and are a new business, but have extensive past professional experience in the field, list your qualifying experience.The next step is to market your business.  Do the buyers know who you are?  Do you know how to find them?FedBiz Access (“FedBiz”) has a fulfillment team that takes the time to understand your business and ask questions to pull information from you to ensure your Capability Statement is the best presentation of your business.  FedBiz also offers marketing packages to targeted buyers in the federal government with its Federal Connections Package and on the state, local, and education market with its Local Connections Package.

Tiffanye Paige – Making an impact on the community by driving change.Tiffanye is the founder and president of Sampson, Jefferson and Associates (“SJA”), a consulting firm she launched 2017 to partner with healthcare, educational, and business organizations to drive and sustain cultural changes for effectiveness and efficiency. “Looking at all of the necessary certifications and things needed to be successful within the government space, I started doing research and found FedBiz Access. It truly was a godsend,” said Tiffanye. Tiffanye began working with FedBiz Access in 2019 and was awarded the Women-Owned Small Business (“WOSB”) Certification. In addition, she has worked with FedBiz Access to maintain her SAM & DSBS registrations, complete the process for her Minority Business Enterprise (“MBE”) Certification, and to help market her business to the government marketplace with a Capability Statement and Federal Connections Package (“FCP”). Subsequently she has been working with FedBiz Access to complete her GSA Schedule award.“I have loved working with the team at FedBiz Access. They have helped take me from registration to award. I highly recommend working with them to reach your goals in government contracting,” said Tiffanye.After being a subcontractor on other government awards, in 2021 SJA was awarded its first direct government contract with a $711,724 Award from the Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons for Education/Training Curriculum Development. SJA was tasked with creating a national database for our returning citizens as they come back into society, making sure that they have access to the necessary resources to be successful coming home.Tiffanye plans to continue to grow her business and utilize her small business set-aside certifications to win government awards to help organizations drive and sustain cultural changes.FedBiz Access is leading government contracting business development and marketing firm that offers research and engagement strategy coaching, registrations, certifications, and GSA Schedules, as well as marketing packages to targeted buyers at the federal, state, and local levels. The company has over 21 years of experience working with thousands of companies worldwide to help them win over $35.7 billion in awards. From registration to award, FedBiz helps businesses succeed in the government marketplace.

In today's LinkedIn live, Neil McDonnell talks with Josh Ladick about GSA Schedule Contracts. Josh is the President of GSA Focus and since 2006 has acquired 250+ GSA Contracts for federal contractors.Listen to learn::• Right path to get a GSA Contract• Top Tips and Top Mistakes with maintaining your GSA Contract• How to increase your federal sales using a GSA Contract Neil McDonnell brings 20+ years of government contracting experience. As a small business owner, he has personally won and supported government contracts for the Army, Navy, Air Force, HHS,VA, Transportation, Interior, Energy and the Executive Office of the White House.

Government agencies spent approximately $60 billion through the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (“GSA MAS”) program (including the VA). The MAS contract registration procedure streamlines the federal procurement process.In this episode of FedBiz'5 we are hosting Anthony D'Attore from FedBiz Access to discuss the GSA MAS as one of the best ways to establish a long-term relationship with the Federal Government.The GSA MAS is a long-term contract issued by the General Services Administration (“GSA”) and is also referred to as the Federal Supply Schedule. It is a multiple award, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (“IDIQ”) contract with pre-negotiated pricing and terms.The registration is a vendor verification process that includes review of commercial sales practices and pricing, capabilities, financials, past performance, and pre-negotiated pricing and terms deemed ‘fair & reasonable'. Once approved, the GSA MAS simplifies the procurement process because both the vendor and its products and/or services are pre-approved with no formal bidding process.To determine eligibility, the products and/or services must fit within the GSA MAS program. The program consists of 12 large categories, 83 subcategories, and approximately 300+ Special Item Numbers known as SIN's. | GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Consolidation – Large Categories |  Office Management   |  Facilities |  Furniture & Furnishings |  Human Capital |  Industrial Products & Services   |  Information Technology |  Miscellaneous |  Professional Services |  Scientific Management & Solutions   |  Security & Protection |  Transportation & Logistics Services   |  TravelIn addition to the GSA MAS program, the Veterans Administration has nine Multiple Award Schedules specifically for pharmaceuticals and medical-related equipment, supplies and services.  Companies must also be in business for at least two years, be current in their SAM & DSBS registrations, demonstrate financial stability, and have any products manufactured or ‘substantially transformed' in the U.S.A. or Trade Agreement Act(TAA) designated country. The GSA MAS is the most widely used government contracting vehicle, and it can provide credibility and access to additional procurement opportunities. It allows for a shorter more simplified sales process, and can be complimented with a set-aside certification.Products and services can be ordered directly by government buyers from GSA MAS approved contractors or through, GSA Advantage!® or GSA eBuy.The GSA MAS is a long-term contract award, valid for five years with (3) five-year extensions (20-year contract award), as long as the vendor maintains annual sales of at least $25,000.FedBiz Access has over 21 years of experience working with companies to help them win business by ensuring their research, engagement strategy, registrations, set-aside certifications, and GSA Multiple Award Schedules are current, complete, and compliant.  FedBiz Access helps companies build a clear path from registration to award.

Today I want to introduce you to a company that I admire greatly, End to End Computing. The company amongst a host of other things specializes in Application Development (DevSecOps), Cybersecurity (continuous defense detection and responses, Cloud & IT (engineering, integration & modernization) as well as Emerging Tech. Leading the company at the C suite are two amazing founders, Esteve mede and Carlton Harris. Esteve is a former Federal Chief Information Security Officer with over 17 years of experience delivering results to both the private and public sector. Esteve is a dynamic Information Technology executive with a broad technology, cyber security, operations, and business background in diverse types of organizations. Carlton has over 12 years of experience in the information security and cybersecurity field supporting a vast number of government agencies including the US Navy, National Security Agency, US Army Intelligence command, and Department of State. Carlton's technology proficiencies are in SOC implementation, Incident Response, and Cloud Security architecture and design. There are two reasons why I am excited for you to hear this podcast: EEC has developed a centralized Security Operation Center (SOC) platform call Singularity to continuously monitor and improve the security of an organization while preventing, detecting, analyzing and responding to cybersecurity incidents. EEC has created a team within their organization that brings blockchain solutions to the government space. With the launch of my new NFT on the ERC-20 I have now familiarized myself with all things blockchain. I am also seeing the potential it has to solve most of the needs that federal agencies incur. For small businesses who may also have technical founders, listen to the portion of the interview where we discuss their change in strategy to start winning opportunities. For IT companies wanting to model EEC success we share initial struggles, how to show the government or client they need what you are selling, also the partnership opportunities in working with EEC. If you are serving a government client or federal agency throughout the interview We discuss how their solution is solving government client problems right now. Lastly we meet the founders here about their backgrounds and take a few questions from the audience. This was a live interview that we did last year at the American Cyber League Grand Opening @ Quantico Cyber Hub. Oh and by the way, they are 8a, SDVOSB, primes on Stars III, Navy Seaport, GSA Schedule 70 amongst other alphabets in the government soup mix. Warning: It does get really technical in the middle but stick with us throughout (non technical) we do get to the good stuff after the technical piece. Let's welcome our next Giant, End to End Computing.

FEMA seeks local companies within a disaster area for goods and services.In this episode of FedBiz'5 we are hosting Ashley Duwel, Government Contracting Senior Analyst, to discuss how to do business with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”). With the recent disaster events like the tornados that moved across western Kentucky, disaster relief has been a hot topic in the government contracting community.To help our country be better prepared the Department of Homeland Security has established FEMA's Industry Liaison Program (“ILP”).  The ILP creates strategic relationships with suppliers and stakeholders; serves as an information provider for suppliers seeking to do business with the FEMA; and connects suppliers with program offices in support of FEMA's mission.FEMA's goal with the ILP is to seek local companies within the disaster area for goods and services related to a specific disaster when practical and feasible. In fiscal year 2021, FEMA awarded $2.1 billion or 22% of its total spending ($9.4 billion) to small businesses.In addition, FEMA funding flows down to the state level that also issues awards directly to small businesses.When considering how to do business with FEMA, the first steps are to make sure FEMA buys what you sell, and your registrations are in order. This includes checking the box in your SAM registration to be included in the disaster response registry and ILP.For a closer look into FEMA, what they buy, how they buy, when they buy, and from whom - be sure to check out FedBiz Access' 2021 FEMA Annual Agency Report, now available through the website. The report provides information on the top spending categories by NAICS and PSC codes, spending by FEMA offices, how contracts were competed and issued, and top prime contractors used. There are also strategic sourcing contracts which open multiple opportunities to small business for subcontracting. This requires reaching out to the prime contractors, which is also detailed in the FEMA report.In addition, the report includes access to a 90-minute video from a former top contracting officer within FEMA on how to best do business with the agency. The video gives you an inside look into how FEMA operatesFedBiz Access works with its clients across industries to complete their vendor profile for the ILP as part of establishing their foundation in government contracting by ensuring their registrations are current, complete, and compliant.  FedBiz Access' business development services include one-on-one engagement coaching, targeted market research, set-aside certifications filings, and GSA Schedule registrations. FedBiz Access helps companies build a clear path from registration to award.

Have you ever wondered about the GSA Schedule? In this episode, we discuss the GSA Schedule, what to consider when working with it and if you're a good fit for it. Listen to learn all things GSA!  Link to DHS' Strategic Sourcing Vehicle: https://www.dhs.gov/department-wide-contract-vehicles

In this episode of FedBiz'5 we are discussing the importance of knowing your market and not chasing solicitations as your first step. You want to know who buys what you sell, and how they buy. Of course, your initial step is to have your SAM and DSBS registrations complete, compliant, and optimized. It is also important to investigate what set-aside certifications or GSA Schedule categories you may qualify for. However, to immediately thereafter start digging through SAM.gov for open solicitations as your first step is probably not your best recipe for success.The vast majority of the federal spending does not go through solicitations. In fact, approximately 10% does go through solicitations. So, it is more important initially to do research and that research can encompass a lot of different things.As in any successful business you need to know what your market is. You need to know who your market is. You must have a clearly defined plan going in. Who is spending? How are they spending? And in the federal market that is even more important because you want to be able to focus your energy. Who is buying the most of what you sell? What offices, what people, who should you be reaching out to? This is about research and then creating relationships.An important first step before entering any market is to learn more about the market opportunity, and who buys what you sell. The RADAR report (Real-Time Advanced Data Analysis Report) is a deep dive into the federal government marketplace based on a keyword search through award history associated with the products and/or services you sell.The RADAR lets you know you the ‘who, what, when, where, and how' of federal buying for your products and/or services, including the procurement offices that issue the most awards and how to contact them.Under the Micro-Purchase Threshold purchases under $10,000 can be awarded without solicitation. Under the Simplified Acquisition Procedures threshold, small businesses must be considered for all federal awards under $250,000 if there are two or more small business offerors expected to compete. These markets are your best leaping off point to get started in government contracting and most of this business is awarded through relationships. To establish these relationships, you need to know who is buying what you sell and how they buy it. In addition, subcontracting is another route where relationships become key. So, there are many ways to approach the federal market that are not necessarily just going after those formal solicitations.If you plan to spend time and resources to engage in government contracting, let it be on research first so that you understand your path of least resistance and do not spend your efforts in the wrong place.Just as in your commercial business, the key to success in government contracting is educating yourself on the market and building relationships with those who buy what your sell.FedBiz Access offers research and engagement strategy sessions, as well as marketing packages to targeted buyers at the local, state, and federal government levels. FedBiz Access has over 21 years of experience working with companies to help them win business by ensuring their research, engagement strategy, registrations, and certifications are current, complete, and compliant.  FedBiz Access helps companies build a clear path from registration to award.

Welcome to our podcast - FedBiz'5, where you get informed, get connected and get results.  In our last episode we discussed what is an Engagement Strategy?In this episode we are discussing the importance of Engagement Preparation, and the value of coaching to identify what the buyer's needs are before speaking with contracting officials.  Engagement strategy or “Coaching” is one-on-one consultation with our client to help further their efforts to form relationships with government buyers. It is all about preplanning and preparation. Before contacting a contracting official, you need to have a plan and a position your business to meet the needs of the buyer.  Your positioning focus should be in parallel with what is important to that buyer. Think of the ‘needs' (products or services) of the audience that buyer serves, and that is what you focus your value proposition on.  Next, what can make your business stand out compared to the competition?  Contracting officials get calls and emails every day.  How can you stand out compared to everyone else.BE PAREPARED - Know Your Value Proposition.Make sure your SAM and DSBSregistrations are complete, compliant, and optimized, as well as having a professionally prepared and aesthetically appealing Capability Statement.  These serve as your government calling card or resume, and you only get one opportunity to make a good first impression.Succinctly address what you have to offer.  What you do, and what have you done in the past.  Past performance, even in the commercial market, provides some level of assurance that you can fulfill the requirements of the award.  Explain what projects you have completed in the past and the scope of those projects.  Do not lead your conversation with your socio-economic status but address it later in the conversation, especially when you are SBA certified for set-aside awards.  Your value proposition is more important to lead with than if you are woman-owned, veteran-owned, HUBZone, or some other category.  While these categories are very important, do not start your conversation with, “Hello, I'm a HUBZone business (or whatever socio-economic category fits your profile).  When making your initial introduction, focus on what you do and how you have done it well for others in the past.  Taylor your conversation to the needs of the buyer.  Be prepared and practice explaining your value proposition, and what differentiates your business from the rest of the packThe buyer can then make a good assessment of your business and keep you in their ‘active' file for consideration when an award solicitation opens, or an award is under the $250,000 threshold for the simplified acquisition program for small businesses.FedBiz Access offers Engagement Strategy sessions, as well as marketing packages to targeted buyers in the federal government with its Federal Connections Package and on the state, local, and education market with its Local Connections Package.  In addition, FedBiz offers SBA Certifications and GSA Schedule fulfillment services through our experienced team of professional.This podcast is sponsored by FedBiz Access - https://fedbizaccess.com.  For government contracting made simple, call (888) 299-4498.

The final phase of one of the federal government's largest contract restructurings is on the horizon, but the consolidation of GSA's Multiple Award Schedule will take time and effort.So ahead of an upcoming key deadline in mid-September, this episode of Project 38 goes over everything companies need to know at this juncture of the schedule consolidation with the help of Global Services President and CEO Courtney Fairchild.All 24 Multiple Award Schedule contracts are becoming one as the General Services Administration pushes to simplify the program so industry and government alike have fewer burdens.But phase three of this effort is the most complex and is more than just an administrative action, as noted GSA Schedule watcher Fairchild points out in this conversation with our Ross Wilkers. Fairchild and her company work with clients pursuing these very contracts, so Wilkers went over some of the most common questions she is asked about the consolidation, frequent misconceptions over what it means for companies and what it will portend for the future of government contracting.

In this FPS Podcast, I talk to Larry Allen of Allen Federal Business Partners about GSA Schedule Contracts for 2021 and beyond.  Larry provides insights on both opportunities and challenges facing Federal Government Contractors.  The GSA Schedules Contracting vehicles are a great way to sell both goods and services to all federal government agencies.  However, you must be cognizant of the compliance and keep up on GSA's changes. 

With so much attention on a series of forthcoming multiple award contracts, it might be easy for companies to forget about the old, reliable, GSA Schedule. As our next guest reminds us, the Multiple Award Schedule contract did record business last year. Larry Allen is president of Allen Federal Business Partners. He talked with the Federal Drive about why the schedule contracts might not be getting the attention they deserve right now.

What is federal contracting? To understand federal contracting, you first need to understand the fundamentals before we dive into any other related subjects.Welcome to our new podcast.  FedBiz'5 is your definitive resource to accelerating government sales.  FedBiz'5 is a hard-hitting, 5-minute series of free government podcasts designed to help federal contractors find and win more business. Each episode brings new information and strategies from leading experts to help simplify government contracting and provide you a clear path from registration to award.  The FedBiz team has more than 20 years of experience in government contracting with over $27.9 Billion in client awards. If you think of the federal government as a business, it is the largest buyer of goods and services in the world. Everything that they use, everything that they need, office supplies, everything must come from somewhere, and that place is typically the private sector. So, if you have a product or a service that is valuable in the commercial world, in all likelihood, there's a place for you in the federal market.If you are trying to sell your product or service to the government and you are not getting anywhere, the reason may be you do not meet their basic requirements.  Federal contractors will not just buy anything from anybody. There are certain steps and certain requirements you need to meet.Your preliminary requirements are registrations through SAM (System for Award Management) and DSBS (Dynamic Small Business Search).  These are your business and marketing profiles that need to be complete, compliant, and optimized.  Secondarily, you need to investigate if you may qualify for a socio-economic certification for special set-aside contracts.  In addition, your finances and operations should be in good order so that you can show your ability to sustain and fulfill awards. Once you have established this foundation, you need to address these questions:How can I best showcase my products/services and capabilities? How do I create relationships with federal agencies and contracting officials?What is the best way to find opportunities – published and unpublished? While published opportunities can be found on beta.SAM.gov (soon to revert back to SAM.gov), a large percentage of awards never sees the light of day in the form of a public solicitation. It is estimated that less than 35% of the actual market ever gets posted in the form of an open solicitation.  Many awards are via government credit cards, purchase orders, sole-source set-asides, GSA Schedule awards, renewed awards, and many other closed award procedures.  As the Small Business Administration points out about identifying your market, which is really after you've determined whether you are a good fit or not for government contracting, is to know whether there's a market for you and you can sustain it. The next step beyond your registrations is to then determine who your buyers are and how to get your foot in the door.This podcast is sponsored by FedBiz Access - https://fedbizaccess.com.  For government contracting made simple, call (888) 299-4498.

Counsel Liza Craig kicks off the first of a three-part podcast series focused on GSA contracting. If you are new to the contracting field, tune in to learn all about the General Services Administration, its mission and GSA-Schedule contracts generally. For more information, please visit Reed Smith's Government Contracts & Grants page.

This week's episode covers the new Supply Chain Executive Order, a False Claims Act settlement involving small business matters, and waiver of a GSA Schedule solicitation requirement, and is hosted by partner Peter Eyre. Crowell & Moring's "Fastest 5 Minutes" is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.

A ton of GSA vendors have opted into the Disaster Purchasing Program and the Cooperative Purchasing Program. Have you opted in? Find out how and why these programs exist as well as what opportunities this opens up for your company.As always, if you have any questions, or requests for a future episode, please feel free to reach out to us at podcast@elevategsa.com. Episode Notes:GSA’s link to Disaster Purchasing Program: www.gsa.gov/disasterpurchasingGSA’s Link to Cooperative Purchasing: https://www.gsa.gov/buying-selling/purchasing-programs/gsa-schedules/schedule-buyers/state-and-local-governments/cooperative-purchasingLook up your contract here: www.gsaelibrary.com All purchases made under the State and Local Disaster Purchasing program must contain the mandatory order language below:This order is placed under GSA Schedule number "insert number here" under the authority of the GSA Disaster Purchasing program. The products and services purchased will be used in preparation or response to disasters or recovery from major disaster declared by the President, or recovery from terrorism or nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological attack.

Scott M. Davidson CPT. USA, Retired has more than 14 years of professional consulting and contracts management experience supporting Federal Government Contractors. Scott is the Managing Principal at The GCO Consulting Group (GCO) a growing Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business that is focused on GSA Schedule Consulting, Federal Business Development Strategy, and Federal Contract Compliance Support to small and large businesses.In his role at GCO, Scott provides specialized management consulting expertise in GSA Schedule Contracting Compliance, Federal Contract Management & Compliance services and Federal Proposal and Business Development support for all sizes of business from Small Businesses to Fortune 500 clients. Scott has prepared, negotiated and had awarded over 500 GSA Schedules since starting the firm in 2009. Scott’s focus areas also include GSA Schedule audit and litigation support and has provided audit and data analysis support for GSA Schedules for clients responding to over 30 GSA Office of the Inspector General investigations in which the disposition of findings was favorable for the clients.Prior to GCO, Scott served as the Director of GSA Schedules for the URS Corporation (Ranked 248 on the Fortune 500) in which he was responsible for the management and contract compliance of URS’s Federal Division’s GSA Schedules Program Office. Scott was responsible for the management of all the Federal Services GSA Schedules which generated over $300M a year in revenue for the company.Bourbiz.com: Scott Davidson, Justin Constantine and Isabella Edelman teamed up to start VSRG in 2014. The longtime friends, veterans and entrepreneurs aimed to create a one-stop shop that connects veterans with the knowledge, resources and contacts they need to achieve success after service.But the idea that led to VSRG and BOURBIZ dates to about a decade earlier. As Davidson and Constantine recovered from injuries that ended their military careers, they discussed their difficulties negotiating a deluge of organizations, services and headhunters. Together they wondered how service members with fewer resources managed to find the right person at the right organization.After years of planning, VSRG and BOURBIZ held their inaugural event in New York City in 2014. Through a process of trial-and-error, the expos have grown and expanded. Our most recent expo attracted more than 1,400 attendees to MGM National Harbor. In 2020, locations in California and Nevada will be added to a roster of host cities that includes San Antonio, Washington, New York and Tampa.Scott served honorably in the United States Army as both enlisted soldier and a commissioned Officer and has served multiple combat tours throughout Southwest Asia to include Iraq and Afghanistan and is the recipient of the Bronze Star Medal. Scott was Medically Retired from the United States Army during his tour in Iraq in 2007.

On today's podcast, we discuss the SSPC contract with the General Services Administration (GSA), what it means for SSPC to be on the schedule, and how members benefit from this contract.

The GSA Multiple Award Schedule Program is known as the "Schedule." These businesses on the GSA Schedule gives access to millions of commercial products and services to federal, and educational institutions through this program. There are several benefits if you have a GSA Schedule. The most significant advantage is that your pricing is pre-approved. Also, GSA has vetted your technical capabilities. No more wondering if the government is going to say that your business does not have the technical skills to perform on the contract. Plus, you have access to exclusive GSA Tools and opportunities. Lastly, you have access to marketing tools and visibility through GSA's website.

This week's episode covers CMMC, GSA schedule, and cost accounting news and is hosted by partners David Robbins and Peter Eyre. Crowell & Moring's "Fastest 5 Minutes" is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.

On this episode of Fed Talks, we discuss the impact of the Federal Government’s category management approach to procurement with Baker Tilly team members Leo Alvarez and Michael Ryan. Questions addressed include: How has category management impacted Federal acquisitions, including impacts of GSA Schedule consolidation? What are “Best in Class” Contract Vehicles? What key opportunities should contractors pay attention to in 2020 and beyond?

Murray Energy, West Virginia's largest coal producer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October. The United Mine Workers union said it was a long time coming. We talk to Taylor Kuykendall of S&P Global Market Intelligence about the impacts of the Murray bankruptcy. Advantage Technology has been awarded a U.S. GSA Schedule 70 contract. This means we’ve worked through the stringent GSA proposal process to demonstrate our past and current performance, pricing and financial stability, as well as our outstanding customer satisfaction. To find out what we can do for your business, visit advantage.tech/podcast. Listeners: We’d love your feedback and to learn more about you! Fill out our short survey here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OUtbg6F4l7IfCjqRl8ad_cpPiGPoblubBGcYlhT0ayw/edit

If you haven't noticed, 2019 has been a very busy year in government contract acquisition changes. A lot of changes have been percolating for years, but we witnessed a major shift in the market in 2019. This episode talks about category management, GSA Schedule consolidation, contract bundling, pitch day competitions, the 809 Panel, the new SAM website and a lot more. Joshua Frank breaks down what's going on, what to expect, and our gut reactions about these changes. The changing landscape and graphic mentioned in this episode can be found here: bit.ly/ChangingLandscapeGraphic ----- Link to Amazon Book - The Insiders Guide to Winning Government Contracts: bit.ly/InsidersGuideBook ----- Checklist for Government Sales Do you have a copy of our Checklist for Government Sales? I'd like to give it to you. In fact, I'd like to give you 20 documents at no cost. We recently celebrated the release of our Federal Access version 3.0 release. This upgrade features a brand new FREE for life version that comes with: * Our Checklist for Government Sales * Three Capability Statement Templates * Core Business Concepts for Government Sales * A Step by Step Market Sales Strategy * Bid / No Bid Qualification Process and Instructions * Hiring a Business Developer - Interview, Recommendations, and Responsibilities * IDIQ and Task Order Management Process * And 10 other documents! * As well as over 60 Strategy Playbook training videos To get instant access, simply visit https://federal-access.com/ Choose the Free version.

In this episode, Michael LeJeune talks about three big concepts that no one is talking about in government contracting. People are always talking about getting your certifications, a GSA Schedule, or mastering a system like FPDS to get to the next level. Don't get me wrong, those are important issues, but there is literally NO ONE talking about the fundamental principles that will help your company grow super-fast regardless of your current stage. Listen now to find out what these three principles are and how you can apply them to your business to grow faster. ------ Have a question about this episode? Email me at michael@michaellejeune.com ------ Does your business need a breakthrough? Are you stuck and just don't know what or how to get to the next level? Schedule a Business Breakthrough Session today. Just click here: https://rsmfederal.com/breakthroughcoaching

This week's episode covers GSA schedule, cybersecurity, and FCA news, and is hosted by partners Peter Eyre and David Robbins. Crowell & Moring's "Fastest 5 Minutes" is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.

show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) Greg Stilson, Director of Product Management at Aira, joins Pete and Jeff in the Blind Abilities studio and talks about the new plans and opportunities available to everyone. From the Guest plan, where anyone downloading the Aira App, can use the Aira Access at a growing number of sites in the Aira Access Network. To the Intro plan, where you can get 30 minutes a month for $29 a month. And the Standard plan, which I like myself, you get 120 minutes for $99 per month. And if you want the Horizon Kit, it will be $124 per month as the $600 Horizon Kit is divided up over a 2-year period. The advance Plan gives you 300 minutes per month for $199 and $224 respectively if you want the Horizon Kit acvantage. Join Greg, Pete and Jeff in this informative cast and learn about all the new Aira Access points and opportunities created by the Aira team. Seems like the value keeps growing and growing as their team and recognition keeps growing as well. Hear about the latest news and the Time Magazine recognition for Ara being one of the best 50 inventions in 2018. You can find out more about Aira on the web at www.Aira.io   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store. Full Transcript: Aira Director of Product Management, Greg Stilson, Broadens the Horizon on New Aira Access and Plans Greg Stilson: It's a testament to our Explorers as well, right? I mean the product wouldn't be where it is today without the great and constant feedback that we get from our Explorers. Jeff Thompson: Aira, your life, your schedule right now. Greg Stilson: We're so excited to have our Intro Plan. That's $29 a month, 30 minutes a month. Jeff Thompson: Greg Stilson, Director of Product Management at Aira. Greg Stilson: Almost 10,000 Walgreens in the U.S. now are Aira Access locations. The most exciting option, which is our Aira guest program, and that is that you don't even have to be a subscriber of Aira to use the service. Jeff Thompson: Checkout Aira on the web at aira.io. Greg Stilson: We are now on the GSA Schedule for federal government. If you a federal employee, you can get Aira purchased as an accommodation from your employer. If you're a veteran, any VA can purchase the product. Jeff Thompson: For more Podcasts with a Blindness Perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the App Store and the Google Play Store. That's two words, Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: Are you done for the year, Greg? Greg Stilson: No. No, we're not done for the year. Not at all. Jeff Thompson: You guys are open? Greg Stilson: 24/7 baby. 24/7 Jeff Thompson: There we go. Welcome to Blind Abilities, I'm Jeff Thompson. Today we're talking about a company that's been around for a little over three years, but it seems like they got something new all the time. Time Magazine 2018, one of The 50 Best Inventions of 2018, and that's Aira. Today we're going to Greg Stilson coming on and talk about their Horizon product, their pricing, and what Aira is today. It's evolved and I agree with Time Magazine, it is a new invention for 2018 because it's changed so much. With me today is Pete Lane. How you doing, Pete? Pete Lane: I'm great, Jeffrey. It's been awhile. How you been doing? Jeff Thompson: Really good. You are an Aira Explorer yourself. Pete Lane: I am. I'm coming up on my two year anniversary in December of this year. I joined as an Aira Explorer in December of 2016. So yeah, a long time. One of the early ones, not one of the original ones, but a long time Explorer. Jeff Thompson: Well, we've been covering Aira for it seems like three years when we first talked to Suman. Pete Lane: Yeah. It was right after NFP Convention in 2016 when we interviewed Suman. Yeah. Jeff Thompson: Back then when you first came onboard with Aira, tell us about the configuration, the form factor that they used? Pete Lane: Well, Aira, which has evolved big time since then, originally started with the use of your smartphone kind of as a controlling unit that would either be the iPhone or the Android. I think they had both the iPhone and the Android from the get-go, but their original glasses was a wireless glass called Google Glass. Now that Google Glass had been around for about three or four years prior to the time that Aira actually incorporated it into their configuration, but Google Glass was a technological kind of anomaly when Google introduced it back in probably 2012, maybe 2013, but it was a wireless connection that connected to your smartphone. Essentially it was the same basic configuration. Pete Lane: You would tap on the Aira app in your smartphone, connect to an agent, and then the wireless connection would bring in the Google Glass and the agent would have access to the video camera on board on the Google Glass. Now since then, they've evolved even further. They developed a second kind of a form factor of their glasses, which was called Austria. It was a little bit more technologically advanced, but it was a still wireless solution. It's a little lighter weight, maybe a little bit more appealing as far as the aesthetics go. The Google Glass, if anybody has seen it, was clearly a tech device. Pete Lane: Everything about it looked tech. It was kind of heavy. Had no lenses and kind of odd. It was noticeable when people would wear it. The Austria Glasses evolved a little bit. Had the lenses on there and looked a little bit more like a seamless pair of sunglasses. But then most recently back at the beginning of May, Aira introduced their current configuration, which is the Horizon Kit. The Horizon Kit is now a wired solution, but it actually incorporates the use of a separate controlling unit, which is the Samsung J7 Android phone, which is a dedicated phone equipped with all of the Aira configuration. It's tethered to the Horizon Glasses through actually a very hardy, braided, heavy-duty cable. Pete Lane: Not heavy in terms of weight, but durable. It provides for a much more stable and reliable connection. Jeff Thompson: Right. If I may, when we did the Super Bowl with Greg- Pete Lane: Right. Jeff Thompson: ... where we did the podcast before and after, little did people know that he was actually testing the Horizon format that is being used today. Pete Lane: That's actually correct. As a matter of fact, Jeffrey, you may recall my son Patrick and I traveled to Dallas where we had the opportunity to watch a Cowboys game with Emmitt Smith serving as the agent for the game. I was testing those same glasses at that point. That was in October of 2017 I believe. Yeah. Jeff Thompson: That glass actually adds to the agent's use a wide angle lens so they can cover more, like a 120 degrees I believe, of what the Explorer is looking at. Now they have a bigger picture. They can see more. They can take in more and give you more feedback of what is in front of you. Pete Lane: Right. Right. Plus, the quality of the ... I don't know if it's a pixel count, but the quality of the video feed is considerably better than the older glasses. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, and without being tethered. Pete Lane: Right. Jeff Thompson: Always improving. Here in the Blind Abilities studio today to talk about the new opportunities and improvements and plans that they've created at Aira is Greg Stilson. How you doing, Greg? Greg Stilson: Good, Jeff. How are you? Jeff Thompson: Great. Pete Lane's with us too. Pete Lane: Hey, Greg, how are you? Greg Stilson: Great, Pete. Thanks for having me on, guys. Pete Lane: It's been a while. We haven't spoken with you since post Super Bowl back in February. Greg Stilson: Yeah, it's coming up again. Jeff Thompson: There we go. We won't mention The Packers or The Vikings this time. Pete Lane: Or The Jags. Yeah. Jeff Thompson: Or The Jaguars. Yeah. Greg Stilson: Or The Jags. Yeah. All three of our teams are not exactly tearing the cover off the ball here. Pete Lane: Mm-hmm (negative). Jeff Thompson: But you guys seem to be tearing the cover off Time Magazine. I just saw that 2018, Aira, one of The Top 50 Best Inventions of 2018. Congratulations. Greg Stilson: Hey, man. Thank you. It was a surprise and a tremendous honor for us. I was involved in sort of the representation of Aira working with a few of our other team members when we were talking with Time Magazine. It was one of those things where we were nominated and we're like, "All right. Well, we'll do this. That's great." I mean it's an honor just to be nominated in the first place, and then to actually have won it and to be named as one of the top inventions is just a tremendous honor for us. Jeff Thompson: I've been calling my friend saying, "I know this guy. I know this guy." Greg Stilson: Well, then it's one of those things is it's a testament to our Explorers as well, right? I mean the product wouldn't be where it is today without the great and constant feedback that we get from our Explorers. I mean this honor is as much yours as it is ours because you guys have helped make the product what it is. Just to be recognized as a company that is doing the things that we're doing and helping the people that we are is really awesome, especially from a mainstream magazine like Time. Jeff Thompson: Exactly. Very mainstream there. Greg Stilson: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Jeff Thompson: I think that's one of the biggest crossovers that's been happening over the last years. You got the attention from AT&T. You got the attention from Time Magazine. Because all your agents are sighted, so you're bridging the gap between the sighted world and the blind community. Greg Stilson: Yeah, and I think it's also just in general regardless of the community that we're working with. It's a really awesome blending of human and technology, right? But we're doing something that hasn't really been done in this capacity before in that we have really highly trained agents working with really high technology. Smart glasses and AI and dashboard all blending into one solution that just works and it works to really change people's live and benefit people's lives. In addition to being a service that works as well as it does, it's an easy and awesome story to tell the mainstream so that they can see that this is a solution that is beneficial to everyone. Jeff Thompson: Greg, we've been following Aira for well over since 2016, somewhere around there, and all the advances they have been making. Can you give some of our listeners who may not be as familiar what is the Aira package? Greg Stilson: Absolutely, yeah. The Aira package, man, it's funny you mentioned that you've been following it since 2016. I've been with this company ... It'll be coming up on a year now. Just to see the way the company has evolved in a year, let alone two to three years since you guys have been following, is crazy. The company started out strictly as a smart glass option. In order to use the service, you had to have a pair of smart glasses. You had to have it connected to your app on your phone via a MiFi, and that was really way that you could use it. Today, when you look at the way that it's used today, it's used in so many different capacities. Greg Stilson: I mean we still are a smart glass company, so we designed our own Horizon Smart Glasses that can be added to any package or any service plan that you want to get. But in addition now, we have just the service only options, which are to be able to use the app just on your smartphone using the smartphone camera as the video source. We've simplified sort of our plans and things like that. The plans are now real simple. We're so excited to have a low entry point plan, which we call our Intro Plan. That's $29 a month, 30 minutes a month, that you can use with your smartphone. Greg Stilson: That's really to get a taste of the service, to start using it, see how it fits into your life and see if a higher tier plan is something that's going to benefit you. Then we have what we call our Standard Plan, which is the plan that we're really excited about because it covers ... Based on the data that we've collected, it covers the highest population of our users and that's $99 a month for 120 minutes. That's service only plan, but you can add the Horizon Glasses to that if you feel that the hands-free option would benefit you. Those Horizon Glasses can be added for either rent to own for $25 a month or you can buy them outright for $600 right off the bat if you want to. Greg Stilson: Then we have our Advanced Plan, which is $199 for 300 minutes a month, and then you also the option of adding the Horizon Glasses to that as well. The biggest thing that I think has changed over the years is that we started out as sort of a subscription option. Today, that is so far from the limits of what you can do. We started at the end of last year I want to say, maybe even earlier than that, offering this concept of Aira Access. Aira Access is a way for businesses to offer Aira as an accommodation to their locations or their products or their services for those who are blind and low vision. Greg Stilson: What is really cool about this is it's a way to offer Aira to more people and it's also a way if you are a subscriber for your minutes to go further. For example, the whole Aira Access journey started with airports. Airports are traditionally one of the most challenging places for a blind person. Not just a blind person, but anybody to get around. We started out getting a lot of interest from airports as an accommodation to the blind and low vision passengers because not only did it allow them to get to their gates and things like that much easier, but it actually allows a blind person ... I'm living proof of this. I'd spent a year pretty much traveling the last year only with Aira in airports. Greg Stilson: It really makes a blind person a real patron of an airport. If I wanted to go get a bite to eat or something to drink or go shopping or find a restroom, I could do that on my own, whereas before you would either need to ask somebody for help, try to get somebody to escort you to those locations, or just try to find constant directions that may or may not be correct. Today, we have over 35 airports now that are Aira Access locations. Jeff, Minneapolis, St. Paul is obviously one of the first ones that we signed up. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. I want to thank you for that because now I sit with the bags while my wife goes voyages around getting food, coming back. Thanks, Aira. Greg Stilson: Anyway that we can help, Jeff. Anyway. That's really where the Aira Access journey started, but the Aira Access journey kind of exploded from there. We signed up the Wegmans grocery store chain I think it was a couple months ago now. It's a grocery store chain of almost a hundred grocery stores in the northeast. Just this week we announced our largest partnership, which was Walgreens. Almost 10,000 Walgreens in the U.S. now are Aira Access locations. If you need to just go fill a prescription or just go buy something for the holidays or whatever, you walk in to any of these Walgreen stores and you'll get a notification on your phone that says that this is an Aira Access location and all usage is free. Pete Lane: Yeah, that's huge. Greg Stilson: Sponsored by Walgreens. Jeff Thompson: Wow. Greg Stilson: Really where you look at the benefit is yes, if you are a subscriber, now your minutes go further because you're not using your own minutes in these locations, but then we also created what I think is the most exciting option, which is our Aira Guest program. That is that you don't even have to be a subscriber of Aira to use the service. If you download the app, we have a button there that says sign in as a guest. You just give us your phone number and your email address and you instantly are signed in as a guest. When you sign in as a guest, you can use the service in any Aira Access location, any airport, any Walgreens, any AT&T stores. Greg Stilson: We have almost 5,500 AT&T stores now that are live, and you can also, if you're signed in a guest, use what we call the Aira Access products and promotions. The last thing I'll comment on. It's a long-winded way of saying what are our packages, but there's a lot of different ways that you can use Aira. The last way that I'll say is using our partnerships with companies who are supporting us by offering Aira as a service to support their products or their promotions. We partnered with Intuit QuickBooks to support any blind person who is a small business owner or contractor who really works in their own small business. Greg Stilson: Anything that you're doing related to your small business, you can sign in as a guest and there's a button on the bottom of the app that says "call Aira with an offer" and you can choose one of the offers, being the small business offer. If the agent verifies that you're going to be doing something related to your small business, those minutes will be sponsored by Intuit QuickBooks so you don't need to even be in a location now to make a free call as long as you're doing something related to your small business. That could be scanning receipts. That could be filling out an expense report. That could be picking out paint for your office, your home office, if it wants to be. Jeff Thompson: Greg? Greg Stilson: Yeah? Jeff Thompson: Could you tell our listeners what Intuit is exactly? I know QuickBooks. It's business management software. Plus, they do a lot more. Greg Stilson: Yeah, they do a lot. Intuit is the company that really created TurboTax is really what their claim to fame is. QuickBooks and business management software, any of that, their big promotion here is to help the employment of blind people. They want to make sure that blind people ... We always talk about the really high unemployment rate and things like that. This is a way that they can help the employment rate of bling people is providing Aira as an accommodation to supporting their small business. As I said, any task related to your small business. Greg Stilson: If you choose the Intuit small business offer, there's a text box right in the app that says that you can inform the agent on what you're doing. At that point when you call, the agent will actually get a notice on their dashboard that this is what this person wants to do. If you even explain in your note to the agent that, "Hey, I'm doing an expense report for my business," you know, that's already validated and away you go. You don't even have to be an Aira subscriber. You can sign in as a guest and just use it right off the bat. Then the last one I want to mention is our partnership with Vispero. Greg Stilson: If you're a JAWS user, a ZoomText user and something isn't acting right with your software, let's say that JAWS isn't speaking or there's a window that blocking JAWS from being able to do what it needs to do, you can actually call in to Aira for free, sponsored by Vispero, and get a sense of visually of what's going on the screen. The agent even have the capability ... A lot of people don't know this, but agents actually have the capability to remote into your computer, with your permission, and actually close the window that maybe causing the problem or shut down the program that could be causing issues, or maybe it's just as simple as restarting JAWS. Greg Stilson: Even though you can do that with some commands and things like that, maybe the JAWS application isn't restarting for whatever reason. Well, the agent can actually manually do that with the mouse by remoting in. Just so many various offers that are available to really get a taste of Aira, to compliment your minutes so that your minutes will go further, and then try it out as a guest. Pete Lane: Greg, I wanted to amplify a little bit that the TeamViewer or Zoom connectivity feature where you just spoke about agents being able to remote into your computer, I've used that several times. Not just on clogging something that's not working with the computer, but actually going into online websites, things like that, assisting me with purchasing items. They can actually use your credentials, and of course, they're a very trusted secure agents. It's a really good feature. Greg Stilson: It's something that I think is not widely known, but it's a really powerful thing. Especially when you think of the amount of unfortunately still inaccessible web content that's out there, there's a lot of thing ... I'll give you one example. We have a lot of users who go on and use Airbnb. Agents will actually do descriptions of what the photos of the Airbnb location looks like. Unfortunately, those photos don't have the most robust descriptions attached to them, so using an agent in that capacity to understand how the Airbnb looks, what amenities do you see in the picture. Because something written in text can look very different than what it is in a photo. Greg Stilson: Just getting that level of explanation on a website that doesn't always have the most robust description of their photos. Pete Lane: Greg, another development that Aira announced just this week as well is Sendero. They've actually signed over access to the Sendero GPS technology to Aira and Mike May has joined the Aira team. Talk a little bit about that. Greg Stilson: Yeah, this one is really exciting to me. I've been a user of Sendero's GPS technology for a long, long time. Probably since 2002-2003. I remember using it on my BrailleNote Classic. Pete Lane: Yeah. Greg Stilson: I remember the feeling that I had when I first used Sendero, which was when I did that point of interest search to be able to hear all the places around me. Just completely opened my eyes to information that I never had before. GPS has become significantly mainstream now with Google Maps and Waze and Apple Maps and everything else in the iPhone. There's a ton of GPS apps for the blind to really cater to the way that a blind person travels. One of the things that we wanted to look into is what solutions are we looking to really build into AI to compliment our agents. GPS navigation is the obvious one, right? We have Explorers today using agents in conjunction with this app, with the Sendero Seeing Eye navigation app. Greg Stilson: We said, "Well, that makes total sense because you're getting automated directions and then if you need to call an agent later on, you can." Because remember, GPS doesn't get you to the door. It just gets you close to your destination, right? A lot of people refer to it as the last 50 feet, right? It'll say, "Hey, you've arrived at your destination." Now how do you actually find the entrance to the door? How do you find the entrance of the building that you're looking for? Sometimes those entrances are very different than where your GPS says that you've arrived. What's always then sort of our dream is to make this beautiful synergy between autonomous GPS and sort of the human-in-the-loop type of assistance. Greg Stilson: That's really where Sendero came in. Sendero on top of being one of the most trusted GPS names in the industry, I've always heard it called The Cadillac of GPS. It's almost been the most robust information source from a GPS that I've ever seen for blind people, but on top of that, what they do is they have different than several of the other GPS apps that were out there for blind people, they have their own routing engine that they use. You can within the same app use their routing engine to get you from point A to point B, getting turn by turn directions, whereas a lot of the other apps would ask you to leave that app and go into Google Maps or go into Apple Maps and use their routing engine. Greg Stilson: The difference there is that their routing engines in those other apps aren't designed for a blind pedestrian. That's really what really attracted us so much to the Sendero solution is Sendero provides some of the robust descriptions of intersections and directions as you're walking. It's very verbose and it gives you very clear pedestrian instructions. For a blind person, the pedestrian side is the most important. That combined with just the amount of information and things like that. What we've acquired from Sendero and we're still retaining much of the Sendero staff, their software developers during this transition period to make sure that we're keeping the apps updated. Greg Stilson: But most importantly, if you are an owner of the Seeing Eye GPS or the RNIB Navigator or the Guide Dogs GPS in Australia, nothing changes right now. Those apps will continue to be updated. Aira and the Sendero developers are working together to update these apps. We already have a feature list from Sendero of the most requested features from the users. Most importantly, I want to say nothing is going to change right now. At this point, just expect that those apps ... Actually we have update pending here that's going to be released relatively shortly that I've been working on with the team. Most importantly, nothing is going to change with your apps today. That's something that we want to make sure nobody is concerned about. Greg Stilson: Going forward, a lot of people asked me what are we going to be using this for. In my view, this directly impacts our AI offering with Chloe. To be able to take what Mike and the team over at Sendero have done and to be able to add that in with today's sort of modern Google-oriented GPS technology, if we can sort of blend all of that into an AI solution that is sort of synergistic with the human-in-a-loop offering, it's going to be a pretty darn good solution for somebody who's navigating. We have people walking for 20-25 minutes with agents at time. If you can do the majority of your route with an autonomous GPS and maybe you only need the agent for the final 50 feet or the last step, maybe that's a better solution for you. Jeff Thompson: You know, when you take Mike May, Anirudh Koul, your team with Chloe, I can only imagine what's around the corner for everyone. Greg Stilson: We're pretty excited. It's a really fun time to be looking at the future of Aira. Especially with Aira Access and with the offerings, there's a lot of potential with indoor navigation. There's a lot of potential with AI object and facial recognition and all that kind of stuff that's out there. But for us, I wanted to start with sort of the basics. The basics were that we were definitely missing a straight up, really high reliability GPS navigation tool. To be able to have that built into Aira down the road is something that I think everybody can be really excited about. Jeff Thompson: Well, that's really neat because I remember when Mike May first started in 1993. With all that experience coming into Aira now, as I mentioned Anirudh Koul with the Seeing AI, the developer of that, coming into Aira, it just seems like you're still growing. Greg Stilson: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: You're still a new kid on the block in a sense. It's very interesting times. Greg Stilson: I can't speak for Anirudh, but the fact that he wanted to join Aira I think speaks very highly of our CEO and the vision that we have. Anirudh I'm assuming saw a significant potential here. It's exciting. It's a really fun place to be. I was talking to my wife last night and we were kind of just talking about the Time Magazine. Then I stopped for a second. I looked at the things that we've accomplished this week. This week. We launched 10,000 Walgreens stores in partnership. We did a technology transfer of Sendero GPS. We were named one of the Top 50 Inventions of the Year in 2018, and then we also launched AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, as another sight access location. Greg Stilson: That's a pretty good month for some companies, so for us to do that in a week ... She said, "Why do you seem so tired?" I said that's it. It's been a week. Jeff Thompson: Are you done for the year, Greg? Greg Stilson: No. No, we're not done for the year. Jeff Thompson: Okay. Greg Stilson: Not at all. Not at all, but it's one of these things where it's fast-paced and it's exciting, but this is all really awesome stuff that's going to benefit a lot of people. If you think about the amount of people that shop at Walgreens, just to get their prescriptions filled or just to buy one or two things, and to not need to always go up to the counter and pull somebody away from the register to go help you or to wait in line to find somebody to help you, now you can just walk in with your phone as a guest or if you have a glasses as an Explorer and just walk around. That is super, super empowering. Jeff Thompson: Just to add to that, or the people who waited in the car because why walk in sometimes. Now they can go in and explore. Greg Stilson: Exactly. I love what you say there, Jeff, because I can't tell you the number of times I've gone shopping with sighted people and you just choose to wait in the car while they go buy something. Jeff Thompson: Exactly. Greg Stilson: There's so much out there that you can learn and just to be able to walk in not worry about how many minutes you're taking or anything like that, just go in and explore and see what's on sale or see maybe there's a new beverage or food that they have that you didn't even know existed. While somebody else is shopping for something that they want, you can actually be exploring as well. That's something that is really, really exciting. Jeff Thompson: Why shouldn't you be able to walk out of the store and say, "I went in there to spend 10 bucks and I come out spending 30." Pete Lane: Exactly. I don't want to beat this dead horse, but the guest account is huge, Greg. Anybody listening to this podcast who is not an Aira subscriber can download the free Aira app, create a free, free, free guest account, and walk in and use their smartphone camera and do everything we're talking about. It's incredible. Greg Stilson: It is. It doesn't hurt to leave that app even on your phone because the reality is that we're adding ... I mean we're adding new access locations on a weekly to biweekly basis. If there's not a place near you right now, there most likely will be soon. The reality is that we're looking at not just one-off locations like this airport and that airport, but as you see with Walgreens, big chains that are global or national, where they're going to be everywhere. That's one of the most exciting things about Walgreens is it's the first chain, that and AT&T, are the first chains that are pretty much everywhere in the U.S., that you can go everywhere and find a Walgreens or an AT&T store. Pete Lane: And Wegmans groceries, while it's not nationwide, it covers a great geographical area up in the northeast in the Eastern seaboard. Over a hundred stores. Greg Stilson: Exactly. Just having the app on your phone, having signed in as a guest one time, it doesn't hurt to leave it on there. I don't even know how many megabytes, but it's not that many. What that means is that when you walk into one of these locations, it will just notify you that, "Hey, you're entering an Aira Access location." Now we have a searching capability where you can search. If you go to the more tab of the app, you can actually search for where Aira Access locations are. If you ever are in a location that you want to figure out, you can contact one of our agents as well and they can even do the search right on their dashboard and tell you where some of the access locations are as well. Jeff Thompson: Now, Greg, I believe here in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities area, the YMCAs are a part of the Aira Access network. Greg Stilson: Yup. I believe it's the YMCAs that are there. Jeff Thompson: That's great for people to go in, explore the place. At least enter the door like we were talking about Walgreens. Go in. Explore. Greg Stilson: One of the things that I would say is a little bit daunting as a blind person when you walk into a gym that you've never been in ... I travel all over the country and globally and stuff like that. One of the things that is often a deterrent for me going to a motel or a hotel gym is I don't know how to use the machines, right? I've got a treadmill at my home gym and I've got a stair stepper that I've learned how to use, but having an agent there to orient you to where the buttons are, just telling them, "Hey, I want to start this type or run," or they could tell you what option there are, one of the things ... There's so many fancy treadmills now with built in TVs and stuff like that. Greg Stilson: Maybe you just want to watch TV while you're running. You know what I'm saying? Being able to work those type of touchscreen devices and things like that are never accessible. So to be able to have an agent actually get you started, get you on the channel, show you what the buttons do or generally where they're located, it's a pretty powerful thing. Maybe we'll get a few people we'll say less apprehensive to go the gym because you're concerned about not knowing how the things work. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. 15 minutes later they could come back on and say, "Greg, keep going. Keep going, Greg." Greg Stilson: There you go. Jeff Thompson: Encouragements. Pete Lane: Motivation. Jeff Thompson: I think that is a big thing because there is so many situations where you don't even try. You don't even take that step. You don't walk out the door or go into some place, travel at the airport. I remember when you're talking about running through an airport to make a connecting flight. Greg Stilson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yup. To have the freedom to be able to run like that with nobody at your side and just have the agent letting you know, "All right. Off to your right. Off to your left," now granted I informed them ahead of time that I was going to be running, but just to have that type of freedom and not have to wait for somebody. I'm a super impatient person in general, so to be able to have that freedom is pretty powerful. Jeff Thompson: You know, one last thing that I want to bring up is, probably not the last, but with the Veterans, Suman announced at the NFP Convention last summer that the Veterans signed on to Aira. Greg Stilson: Yeah. Yup. This is really big. I covered so much of the packages and things like that that are available. All I've touched on there are the regular like everyday subscription packages or the Aira Access Guest packages. The way that you can use it as a guest, but you're right. What I didn't touch on is the federal government, the VA. One of the things that we didn't have much of a presence in at all last year or the year before is the federal government. Some of the really exciting stuff that we've done this year is we are now on the GSA Schedule for federal government. If you are a federal employee, you can get Aira purchased as an accommodation from your employer off the GSA Schedule. In addition, we are officially approved by the VA. Greg Stilson: Any VA can purchase the product. If you're a veteran, you can ask your Dist. coordinator or your bros or whoever you're working with and ask them. We do have VA pricing that's available. Jeff Thompson: Which is very appealing from what I've heard too. Greg Stilson: It is. It's great option for the VA. Then lastly, I want to say that one of the things that we struggled for a long time early on was getting approved as a vendor in States for Voc. Rehab. We heard Dan Frye earlier this year who's really an experienced person in the vocational rehabilitation services. He's done a great job helping us get on those list in different states. But what we've learned is that even if Aira is not an approved vendor in your state, you can still get the product purchased for you. We do have voc rehab pricing available, but you do have to write a justification letter. Greg Stilson: We're more than happy to help write any of those letters for you if you are looking to have voc rehab purchase Aira for you. We have annual pricing for voc rehab that fits into their purchasing schedule in the way that they purchase things. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's great. Like I said to other people, I said, "You know, the prices really haven't changed that much since they started, but the value added just multiplied over and over again." Greg Stilson: Yeah. It's 100% true, Jeff, and you're only going to see that increasing as our AI options continue and things like that. What I think I'm the most excited about with regard to the changes in prices and things like that is the lower entry point price. This was something that we've been asked for by all of the consumer groups out there, NFP, ACB. That was the number one request that we got from everyone is how do I ... If I'm not able to afford the $99 a month, can I get a little bit of Aira for a lower price? That's something that we're really excited about is at $29, you can get 30 minutes a month and use it for those things that maybe you don't think you need. Greg Stilson: You're not going to need 60 minute session or something like that, but maybe it's one or two minute task. I can give you one clear one that I use every single week. I have a two year old. I go to take her to school or to her daycare in the morning. On the way back, if we're low on her milk, I'll stop off at the convenience store in the corner, which they have milk there, and I'll run in and grab her a new gallon of whole milk. When I walk in, I could try to use one of the four OCR apps that I have on my phone to try to read the type of milk and the expiration date, but that rarely works. Greg Stilson: In 90 seconds, I can have an agent direct to where the whole milk is and check all of the expiration dates going back ... I learned very early from my mother that you always pick from the back. We always start from the back and check the expiration date. Jeff Thompson: Shout out to mom. Greg Stilson: Exactly. But it's one of things where what I could do in probably five to 10 minutes using various apps and solutions and maybe eventually just getting frustrated and going up and finding somebody to help me, I can do in less than 90 seconds with Aira. That's just one example of 30 minutes you have potential tasks that will be made a heck of a lot easier, even if it's just sorting through mail every few days. You can sort through mail in five minutes with Aira and do the amount of mail that would probably take you 30 to 45 minutes if you were using various apps or other solutions. Greg Stilson: All I'm going to say is that we're super excited to have this sort of low entry point option that allows you to really get a taste of Aira, see if it fits in your life, and you can go from there. Remember, if you are living near an access location, 30 minutes can get you pretty far if you live near an access location that you frequent regularity. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert asked the question, "Hi, Greg. I'm just wondering. I'm from Colorado. I work at a vocational rehab center. What is the response to the changes that you've just made from the community?" Greg Stilson: As you can imagine, the responses is mixed. I'm a straight shooter. I always have been. Anytime you change prices, I don't care what business you're in, Jeff, the response is going to be mixed. There's going to be people that love the changes. There's going to be people that don't like change in general. Jeff Thompson: As a rule, yeah. Greg Stilson: As a rule, right? We knew that going into it, but the reality and what I will say is there are certain things that had to be changed. One of the things we modified was the unlimited plan. It was not sustainable as a business. If you want Aira to be here in 12 months, the pricing and the plans that were there were just flat out not sustainable. I urge everybody to kind of look at that and say, "This company is growing. We are expanding. We are doing everything we can to really transfer the onus of minutes from the subscriber more towards businesses and more towards access solutions. But for us to do that, we have to be a sustainable business." That's where I would say that those changes had to be made. Greg Stilson: In the process, what is most exciting is, as I said, the low entry point offering, the low $29 plan so people can try it out. But I would say also we were able to reduce the cost per minute for our consumers on our most popular plan, which is the Standard Plan. We went from $.89 a minute down to $.83 a minute. You're getting 120 minutes now for $99 as opposed to 100 minutes for $89. When we looked at our consumption numbers, we learned that the vast majority of people were falling within that 30 to 120 minutes. How could we make it the most affordable possible for our most common customers to be able to use Aira on a monthly basis. That's really where I'm really excited that we were able to do that. So yeah. Jeff Thompson: 24/7 too. Greg Stilson: Yeah, and that's the other side is that we're increasing our costs by going 24/7. That's been another very sought after request from our customers is having the time with no agents was not an acceptable solution for people. We accommodated that as well this year. This is something that needed to happen in order for Aira to grow and expand and continue to change the way that we're able to do business. I think you're going to see significant improvement. Remember, we're always evolving as well. All of these changes came from listening to our Explorers and listening to the community. We're always listening as well. Keep that feedback coming. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Greg, I know Suman will probably tell you today or tomorrow, but what about next week? Greg Stilson: Next week's Thanksgiving, man. Pete Lane: There you go. Greg Stilson: Next week I'm eating a lot. That's my plans for next week. Jeff Thompson: You guys are open. People can use the service during Thanksgiving and- Greg Stilson: We are. Jeff Thompson: ... Christmas, New Years. Greg Stilson: 24/7 baby. 24/7. Jeff Thompson: There we go. Pete Lane: Greg, I wanted to add a question that I've been getting from my various communication platforms that I participate with Aira. Greg Stilson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Pete Lane: There's been some concern over the last several months about the quality and responsiveness of Aira tech support and customer care. I know that Suman himself came out with an email to all Explorers a few months ago explaining that he was aware of it and that they're putting a great deal of effort into improvement. Can you talk a little bit about what's improved with customer care, tech support, and what our Aira Explorers might expect if they make a contact? Greg Stilson: Absolutely. Customer care, as we're a growing company, first off, the number of customers has exploded and how many customers that we're serving. Making sure that we were able to accommodate and support those customers when things weren't working or when you had issues with your billing or when you had issues with your glasses or whatever else. We recognized that our support was not where it needed to be. As a startup company, this is a constant learning phase for us. We took a huge initiative. Suman took that very personally and made that one of the highest priorities internally. We implemented several changes. Greg Stilson: First off, we did ramp up our support hiring to make sure that we had enough specialists to answer your calls, but we also implemented an operator system. This is something that I think is really great is there's two ways of getting connected to a support agent now. Whenever you call in, you're going to get our operator. Our operator's job, if it's a simple problem, the operator can even solve the problem for you. If it's not simple, we have a number of different now care teams that specialize in various questions or issues that you maybe having. Whether your issue is related to hardware, to glasses, to billing, to the app, to your account, there's different teams that support those. Greg Stilson: Different connection points that the operator can get you to. If one of those team members is free, they'll do a direct transfer right then and there for you and you'll be able to work with that teammate to rectify your problem. If they're not, what we're doing is basically doing a scheduling a callback situation where you don't have to sit on hold anymore. You don't want to wait. Our agent will call you back at the specified time that you want to be called back in or a suggested time that works for the agent and yourself. This is something that we took very, very seriously. We're also significantly ramping up on our email communication. Making sure that within 24 hours you get an email communication back. Greg Stilson: It's something that, as I said, we took seriously and we're continuing to improve. Keep that feedback coming. If you're not getting the support that you feel you should be, make sure you let us know. It's support@aira.io. Make sure to let us know you are seeing the changes if they are improving or if they're not. That's the best way that we can learn. Jeff Thompson: The Explorers can now leave feedback for the agents. That there's certain things in the app that you have been improving so that you can get feedback to the agents better. If you're going to use a product or something, you can save time and your minutes by directly connecting up and they know what they're there for. Greg Stilson: Exactly. Yup. There's been a lot of changes to the app. We've always taken the feedback to the agents very seriously. You can rate an agent as good or poor, and then you can always leave comments. We urge everybody do that. It's the way that our agent analyst can help improve things if they're not going well or can give people a congratulatory pat on the back if they're doing something great too. It's a great way for us to understand how things are going for you. Then your comment, Jeff, about the access offers, that is a big change that we made in the app is to be able to initiate the access offer yourself rather than needing the agent to initiate it on their end. Greg Stilson: To be able to do that and actually call with an offer, you can actually call for free with one of those Aira Access offers so that you start that call using the sponsor's minutes rather than yours. As I said, you just use the button ... Not the big call button in the middle, but a button just below it called call with an access offer and that's where you can choose the small business offer, you can call using the Intuit QuickBooks product, or you can call using the Vispero product as well. We hope to add many, many more products and companies as time progresses. Jeff Thompson: My wife uses Chloe a lot at work because she has paperwork and stuff like that and she really likes that feature. Just the OCR just to be able to read it at will when she wants. Greg Stilson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yup. I'm excited to say that we're very close to releasing an update to the Horizon system. It's been a really fantastic year with Horizon. It's been super exciting and just the response that we're hearing from Explorers on the significant improvement in their agent experience. We're going to be releasing an update to Horizon and to Chloe very shortly, which will significantly improve the reading capability. Then in addition, we're also going to be offering a document capture capability very similar to that of KNFB Reader and Seeing AI and that kind of stuff to be able to actually capture a full sheet and have it read to you. Greg Stilson: I think that's really just the beginning of what we're going to be doing with reading. Jeff Thompson: That sounds great. Greg Stilson: Yes. There's that. In addition, we're bringing a lot of the Aira Access offers piece up to sort of parity with the iOS and Android app where you actually can say to Chloe, "Hey, make an access call," and she'll actually ask you, "Okay. Do you want this to be a Vispero product call, an Intuit QuickBooks call," so you can now initiate just by using your voice any of these access calls as well, and even to the point where you can ask Chloe, "Hey, where's my nearest access location?" She'll actually do a quick search and tell you, "Hey, you've got a Walgreens right down the street." Pete Lane: Cool. Jeff Thompson: I just want to compliment you guys. We went to England and my wife took all these pictures with her Aira Glasses and stuff. One of the big things is they label them. Greg Stilson: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: She didn't need someone else to help her with Facebook or something or posting it here or there. It was done. It just rounded out her vacation. That's what you do on vacations. You take pictures and you send them out, and she did it while walking along. You know? It was really quite an experience. Greg Stilson: I can tell you, as a blind person who cannot see pictures, it's one of the most sort of powerful and yet underappreciated features is the labeling capability. For those of you who don't know, the agent can take pictures either with your glasses or your phone. We have so many Explorers who literally work with agents just to get that perfect selfie. They can label those images for you. What's really cool about that is that is that the label will actually go into the photo, it's part of the meta data in the photo, and it's read by VoiceOver. They'll send that picture to your app on your phone. Greg Stilson: Even if you take the photo with your Horizon Glasses, even though you're not using your smartphone at the time, the photo will go to your smartphone's app and you can add that photo directly to your camera roll or to your photos on your phone, or even share with something like Google Photos or Dropbox or anything like that for later on. But the nice part about that is the description that the agent put in will stay with that photo. Whatever screen reader you're using, whether it's Voiceover or Talkback or JAWS on a computer or in VDA, it'll read to you as touch that photo or go over the top of that photo. That's super powerful both in a social setting, but also we have so many students who will ... Greg Stilson: Let's say that they don't have a professors who's really verbose in reading the board or a PowerPoint slide or something like that, I had professors like that all the time, we have some students who will ask an agent to take a photo of the board and just label or write down the information into the photo label of what that is so that they can go back, either connect it to a Braille display later on. Just when they're in their dorm room studying- Jeff Thompson: That's amazing. Greg Stilson: ... they can listen to the content. Jeff Thompson: Fantastic. Pete Lane: That's awesome. Jeff Thompson: Greg, I really want to thank you for coming on the Blind Abilities here and talking to our listeners and telling us all the new opportunities people have with Aira. Pete, is there anything you want to add? Pete Lane: No. I just wanted to thank Greg as well. We've been speaking with Greg Stilson. Greg is the Director of Product Management for Aira. He's a regular guest here on Blind Abilities. It's always good to hear from you and chat with you, Greg. Thanks for the updates. Greg Stilson: Thanks for having me on, guys. It's always a pleasure and have a great holiday next week. All the listeners have a fantastic holiday. Keep that feedback coming. We're always growing and evolving and you guys are the reason why this product is what it is. Jeff Thompson: Thank you, Greg. Pete Lane: Thanks, Greg. Jeff Thompson: Such a great time talking to Greg Stilson once again. Be sure to check out Aira on the web at aira.io. I want to thank Pete Lane for coming back in the studios and a big thank you goes out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music. You can find Chee Chau on Twitter @LCheeChau. Chee Chau. Chee Chau. Once again, I want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye, bye. [Music]  [Transition noise]   -When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes... [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence] ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter at Blind Abilities. Download our app from the App Store, Blind Abilities. That's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.

In this episode, Joshua Frank takes over the recording studio to give you a breakdown on what you should expect from the Future of Government Contracting. A quick disclaimer: We don't have a crystal ball. No one does. HOWEVER, we have been in this market for more than 25 years. We have seen the ups and downs in the market. We regularly speak with government agencies, contracting officers, and boots on the ground. Therefore, we believe we have a lot of insight on the direction of this market. You will hear some bold predictions about the future of GSA Schedules, new systems that the government is testing, strategic sourcing, and a whole lot more. UPDATE: This podcast was originally scripted in late 2018. In December of 2018, the General Services Administration (GSA) notified industry that the GSA Schedule program would consolidate into a single GSA Schedule. Sometime in 2019, GSA will shut-down the schedule program to new contractors as they migrate to the single schedule. Then in 2020, companies that have a GSA Schedule will be migrated to the new schedule. Yes! This falls under strategic sourcing and category management. If you want to keep up to date on this, be sure to connect with Joshua Frank on LinkedIn. Get Your Free Government Contractor's Success Kit now with key templates, strategies, graphics packs, and free bonus training video. Just click here: federal-access.com/?wpam_id=6

In this week's Risk & Repeat podcast, SearchSecurity editors discuss the Trump administration's removal of Kaspersky Lab from the GSA Schedule 70 for federal IT contracts.

In this week's Risk & Repeat podcast, SearchSecurity editors discuss the Trump administration's removal of Kaspersky Lab from the GSA Schedule 70 for federal IT contracts.

In this episode, we interviewed Joshua Ladick, President of GSA Focus, Inc. about What it Takes to get a GSA Schedule. This interview is broken into three parts. 1. Pre-screening (do you qualify and does it make sense for you) 2. The GSA Contract process (what to expect) and 3. Post-award(how to get sales). Get Your Free Government Contractor's Success Kit now with key templates, strategies, graphics packs, and free bonus training video. Just click here: https://federal-access.com/?wpam_id=6

Don Zavesky is the Procurement Specialist with the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) affiliated with the University of North Florida located in Jacksonville, Florida. Don works with Florida companies who are interested in pursuing federal, state, county, and local government business. His 20+ years of government contracting experience encompasses the Department of Defense and civilian agencies, large multi-million dollar contracts, GSA Schedule contracts, and all facets of business operations. Kevin Monahan has over 20 years of professional economic development experience. He has served in a wide range of business assistance roles in organizations such as the University of Florida, New Jersey Department of Commerce, Metro New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, and First Energy Utilities. He specializes in community economic development planning and small business development having worked with over 75 municipalities to improve their local economies. Contact information:  Website www.sbdc.unf.edu or call UNF SBDC 904.620.2476 Don Zavesky - email: don.zavesky@unf.edu Kevin Monahan - email: kmonahan@unf.edu

    Don Zavesky is the Procurement Specialist with the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) affiliated with the University of North Florida located in Jacksonville, Florida. Don works with Florida companies who are interested in pursuing federal, state, county, and local government business. His 20+ years of government contracting experience encompasses the Department of Defense and civilian agencies, large multi-million dollar contracts, GSA Schedule contracts, and all facets of business operations. Kevin Monahan has over 20 years of professional economic development experience. He has served in a wide range of business assistance roles in organizations such as the University of Florida, New Jersey Department of Commerce, Metro New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, and First Energy Utilities. He specializes in community economic development planning and small business development having worked with over 75 municipalities to improve their local economies.  Contact information:  Website www.sbdc.unf.edu or call UNF SBDC 904.620.2476 Don Zavesky - email: don.zavesky@unf.edu Kevin Monahan - email: kmonahan@unf.edu

     Don Zavesky is the Procurement Specialist with the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) affiliated with the University of North Florida located in Jacksonville, Florida. Don works with Florida companies who are interested in pursuing federal, state, county, and local government business. His 20+ years of government contracting experience encompasses the Department of Defense and civilian agencies, large multi-million dollar contracts, GSA Schedule contracts, and all facets of business operations. Kevin Monahan has over 20 years of professional economic development experience. He has served in a wide range of business assistance roles in organizations such as the University of Florida, New Jersey Department of Commerce, Metro New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, and First Energy Utilities. He specializes in community economic development planning and small business development having worked with over 75 municipalities to improve their local economies.  Contact information:  Website www.sbdc.unf.edu or call UNF SBDC 904.620.2476 Don Zavesky - email: don.zavesky@unf.edu Kevin Monahan - email: kmonahan@unf.edu

Are you ready to take on the mountain of opportunity that is the federal government? Then join Eileen Kent, "The Federal Sales Sherpa" every Tuesday at 5pm CST here on Linked Local Network. On this episode, Eileen covers what it takes to get and to KEEP a GSA Schedule. This is for anyone interested in obtaining a GSA schedule - and afraid of losing their schedule due to lack of sales in the first 2 years. About the Federal Sales Sherpa: Eileen Kent has traveled the country over the past 10 years training over 10,000 executives on the game of how to win federal contracts and they've come back to her time and time again with success stories of winning millions in federal business. Besides training, Eileen has "street smart" knowledge as she, too, has lead sales teams to capture tens of millions in federal contracts. Eileen has a personal motto: "Educate the New, Motivate the Frustrated and Validate the Experienced," so if you're brand new to federal contracting or you've been at it for years, Eileen and her personal portfolio of experts will be here - every week - happy to keep you informed, motivated and winning! If you would like to work with the Sherpa on your federal sales action plan or need training on proposal writing, contact Eileen at 312-636-5381. Are you ready to take on the mountain of opportunity that is the federal government? Then join Eileen Kent, "The Federal Sales Sherpa" every Tuesday at 5pm CST here on Linked Local Network.  

Are you ready to take on the mountain of opportunity that is the federal government? Then join Eileen Kent, "The Federal Sales Sherpa" every Tuesday at 5pm CST here on Linked Local Network. On this episode, Eileen covers what it takes to get and to KEEP a GSA Schedule. This is for anyone interested in obtaining a GSA schedule - and afraid of losing their schedule due to lack of sales in the first 2 years. About the Federal Sales Sherpa: Eileen Kent has traveled the country over the past 10 years training over 10,000 executives on the game of how to win federal contracts and they've come back to her time and time again with success stories of winning millions in federal business. Besides training, Eileen has "street smart" knowledge as she, too, has lead sales teams to capture tens of millions in federal contracts. Eileen has a personal motto: "Educate the New, Motivate the Frustrated and Validate the Experienced," so if you're brand new to federal contracting or you've been at it for years, Eileen and her personal portfolio of experts will be here - every week - happy to keep you informed, motivated and winning! If you would like to work with the Sherpa on your federal sales action plan or need training on proposal writing, contact Eileen at 312-636-5381. Are you ready to take on the mountain of opportunity that is the federal government? Then join Eileen Kent, "The Federal Sales Sherpa" every Tuesday at 5pm CST here on Linked Local Network.

In this podcast, watch Larry Allen, CEO of Allen Federal Business Partners and Comstor’s principal Federal Consultant discuss GSA in government.  Larry will review what a GSA schedule provides Cisco resellers; benefits of Comstor GSA schedule and compliance do’s and don’ts of a GSA schedule.For more information on this Federal podcast series contact the Comstor Federal Team at federalsales@comstor.com or 800.955.9590