I've worked for the government on small jobs here in the EU a couple of times, as long as you stay below a certain amount you can bypass a ton of requirements. But once you go above that threshold the number of players drops very rapidly and there is no escaping the formal process.

If you are capable of selling large contracts to the US Federal Government without having to submit a typical bid proposal then you are in a very fortunate position, but the people that I know that have done this in the past have all worked on stuff that either required their fairly unique skills or they were working on extremely small contracts (< $250K).

In 2005, Packouz (23 years old at the time) joined Efraim Diveroli (19 years old at the time) in Diveroli's arms company AEY Inc. By the end of 2006, the company had won 149 contracts worth around $10.5 million.[1] In early 2007, AEY secured a nearly $300 million U.S. government contract to supply the Afghan Army with 100 million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, millions of rounds for SVD Dragunov sniper rifles, aviation rockets and other munitions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Packouz

EDIT: added quote from Wikipedia

I do grant writing for nonprofit and public agencies, along with some research-based businesses, and people interested in getting into this sort of thing will contact us, or people like us.

We're a little like lawyers: it is possible to do everything right, but it's very hard and unlikely if it's your first rodeo.

To take one small example: when you submit a budget, is it a program budget or a total project budget? Err and your application may be disqualified. Or consider indirect cost rates: http://seliger.com/2016/05/16/federally-approved-indirect-co... .

Again, either of these things are small, but multiply them x1000 and suddenly you'll understand why organizations hire us!

http://www.aptac-us.org/

An acquaintance with a setup similar to yours does well with a virtuous cycle of rolling SBIR and STTR results into his commercial products, which fuel more SBIR wins. He also does lots of legwork in the form of hand delivering white papers he’s written in office calls with customers and potential customers during site visits.

People do business with people — particularly those we like, know, and trust — not companies and agencies. Find someone whose headache you can make go away. Keep the conversation moving.

This is a patient person’s game. Sometimes you’re planting seeds that will bloom later.

If you think big projects are given on merit, then you are naive.