Doing customer discovery on government contracting for SMBs — would appreciate honest feedback

Hey everyone,

I’m doing customer discovery around government contracting, specifically how small businesses and new vendors navigate the process of finding, qualifying for, and pursuing public-sector contracts.

I’m trying to understand the workflow before assuming there’s a product to build.

A few things I’m looking into:

How do small businesses usually get started after registering on SAM.gov?

What tools do people actually use today for discovery, capture, proposals, compliance, pricing, and subcontracting?

Where do existing tools fall short, especially for smaller or less experienced businesses?

How do companies decide which opportunities are realistic versus a waste of time?

Is the bigger pain finding opportunities, understanding requirements, writing proposals, getting past performance, certifications, pricing, or something else?

If you’ve worked in GovCon, sold into government, helped SMBs bid, or used tools like GovDash, GovWin, GovTribe, HigherGov, GovSpend, etc., I’d really appreciate your perspective.

Not trying to pitch anything here — just trying to learn where the real pain is and whether the market is actually underserved.