Solutions Built by Warfighters for Warfighters

Written by Special Guests: PPS Team

In March of 1999, three men in Huntsville, Alabama started a company with the vision to create a technology-focused, employee-driven government contracting business. By the end of 1999, their dream had grown to 11 employees and achieved $1.2 Million in revenue. Twenty years later, Radiance Technologies has grown to become a $157M a year business with over 500 employees.

In August of 2018, four men from north Louisiana started a company with the vision to create a defense technology consultancy that would provide stable, quality jobs to US Veterans and recent college graduates as well as serve as a driver of economic development across the I-20 / north Louisiana Corridor. In February of 2019, their company won its first two government contracts through the USAF AFWERX program. By the end of the first quarter of 2019, their company—Precision Procurement Solutions—had created jobs for 10 veterans. By the end of their second quarter, their company had worked with over 25 startups and submitted more than $3M in defense contracts with partners and clients.

In the view of Precision’s founder, Grant Rogers, “The answer to tomorrow’s problems are right behind our eyes—the more we put our brains together using intelligence, research and development, the better our ecosystems will thrive working together. Veterans are tomorrow’s future in support of warfighters’ efforts to bridge the gap between universities, private industry, and big government.” 

So, how does Precision bridge the gap? Precision focuses on identifying technologies that have a dual-use application in the defense and private sectors, partnering with the innovators of these technologies, and shepherding them through the governmental contracting process. Precision focuses on the following sectors: Cybersecurity, Defense & Aerospace, Critical Infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence, AR / VR, Robotics, IoT, Telecommunications, CIS / MIS, Business Intelligence / Analytics, Manufacturing Automation, BioTech / BioMed, Nanotech, GreenTech, Agricultural Science, Advanced Materials, Energy, Supply Chain, and Natural Sciences.

What is the AFWERX program and who has Precision helped in using these funds to create quality jobs and deploy innovative solutions for the Department of Defense to promote our national security and keep our fighting men and women safe while at home or abroad:

Per the AFWERX official website, “Established in 2017 by the Secretary of the Air Force and reporting to the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, AFWERX is a catalyst for agile Air Force engagement across industry, academia and non-traditional contributors to create transformative opportunities and foster an Air Force culture of innovation.”

What the AFWERX program does is provide identified USAF problems to the marketplace and contract with innovative small businesses to address these problems. It does so via a three-step process:

1. Phase I — $50,000 Contract to small business entity to conduct customer discovery with USAF customers over a 90-day period.
2. Phase II – provide $750,000 to $1.5 Million in funding to conduct research and development to adapt an existing commercial solution or prototype for use by USAF customers identified in Phase I over a 12 to 18 month period.
3. Phase III – sole source contract pathway between company and USAF customers identified in Phase I.
   

Who has Precision already helped to acquire and perform AFWERX contracts?

Your6USA. Founded by decorated military veterans and proven corporate executives, Your6™ is poised to revolutionize how human capital is aligned to fulfilling and successful careers. Your6 is Precision’s first AFWERX Phase I contract awardee. Your6 came to Precision after failing to secure a contract solo. Precision delivered. Together, Your6’s CareerGPS AI solution for recruitment is already changing the lives of service personnel about to transition to civilian life.

Ziuli. Everyone has a story. What’s yours? Ziuli is Precision’s second AFWERX Phase I contract awardee. Ziuli’s technology—the social creation engine—is a blockchain / machine learning platform for cross-domain intelligence sharing within the defense and the private sector.  Ziuli assists in training automation and in the tracking of work product in a manner that aids promotion and retention decisions.

How does this story end? It ends with winning. Winning contracts. Winning technologies. Winning people. Together, Americans can and will bridge the gap not only between university, industry, and government but also to a better tomorrow. Precision, and the people behind it, are here to build that bridge—one company at a time, one technology at a time, one contract at a time.