Ep. 105: Get Uncle Sam to Invest in Your Startup—with Sedale Turbovsky of OpenGrants

Most founders avoid dealing with Uncle Sam unless absolutely necessary. But what if you could engage the government as an investor in your startup?

Sedale Turbovsky is the Cofounder and CEO of OpenGrants, the most powerful grant search tool in the US. The OpenGrants team is on a mission to unlock billions of dollars in grant funding for the best startups in the world, providing entrepreneurs with a single platform where they can find, apply for and manage grants. Sedale is a three-time founder with a background in helping companies navigate the public funding space.

On this episode of Boost VC, Sedale joins us to explain how startups benefit from federal funding and who qualifies to receive grant money from the government. He weighs in on the culture of incumbency in the space, describing his vision to connect a diverse ecosystem of real innovators with the funding opportunities available. Listen in for insight around the government’s capacity to invest in breakthrough innovation and learn how OpenGrants can help you access the funding to get your startup on its feet!

Topics Covered

What the OpenGrants platform does

• Connect companies to grant money (simplify process)
• Enable startups to engage government as ally

The friction points OpenGrants solves for

• Opportunities spread out over internet, poor UX
• Direct matches for companies that set up profile

How startups benefit from federal funding

• De-risk and develop tech for company
• Don’t have to pay back (cheapest $ in market)

Who qualifies to receive federal grant funding

• Innovators in science and technology
• Programs that solve for social good

What inspired Sedale’s interest in the space

• Government can invest in technically risky projects
• Get more diverse ideas to government

How Sedale bridges the gap between government + startups

• Bureaucracy has created ‘culture of incumbency’
• Bring government to diverse ecosystem of innovators
• Create tools for government to realize its policies

How Sedale’s background informs his work at OpenGrants

• Operationalizing difficult-to-get data sets
• Backward experience w/ grant funding at carbonBLU

Who Sedale’s team works with at OpenGrants

• Early-stage science-based startups, nonprofits
• Series A/B startups doing additional R&D

The culture of incumbency around federal funding

• Can’t act on good intentions due to infrastructure 
• 98% of 2018 NIH grants went to ‘old, white guys’

Sedale’s definition of success

• Structure life around what makes you happy

Connect with Sedale

OpenGrants https://www.opengrants.io/

OpenGrants on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/opengrantsio/

OpenGrants on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/opengrants.io

OpenGrants on Twitter https://twitter.com/opengrants_io

Sedale on Twitter https://twitter.com/STurbovsky

Resources

Grants.gov https://www.grants.gov/

beta.SAM.gov https://beta.sam.gov/  

SBIR.gov https://www.sbir.gov/

California Grants Portal https://www.grants.ca.gov/

carbonBLU http://www.carbonblu.com/

FINRA https://www.finra.org/

SEC https://www.sec.gov/

Momentum https://buildmomentum.io/

NIH Grants https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/funding_program.htm

Samuel Pierpont Langley https://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/langley/intro.htm

HHS’s VC Fund for MedTech https://medcitynews.com/2018/06/funding-healthcare-accelerators-an-hhs-unit-is-taking-a-vc-approach-to-innovation/

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss https://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Patrick-Rothfuss/dp/0756404746

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