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 doesConnect companies to grant money (simplify process)Enable startups to engage government as ally The friction points OpenGrants solves forOpportunities spread out over internet, poor UXDirect matches for companies that set up profile How startups benefit from federal fundingDe-risk and develop tech for companyDon’t have to pay back (cheapest $ in market) Who qualifies to receive federal grant fundingInnovators in science and technologyPrograms that solve for social good What inspired Sedale’s interest in the spaceGovernment can invest in technically risky projectsGet more diverse ideas to government How Sedale bridges the gap between government + startupsBureaucracy has created ‘culture of incumbency’Bring government to diverse ecosystem of innovatorsCreate tools for government to realize its policies How Sedale’s background informs his work at OpenGrantsOperationalizing difficult-to-get data setsBackward experience w/ grant funding at carbonBLU Who Sedale’s team works with at OpenGrantsEarly-stage science-based startups, nonprofitsSeries A/B startups doing additional R&D The culture of incumbency around federal fundingCan’t act on good intentions due to infrastructure 98% of 2018 NIH grants went to ‘old, white guys’ Sedale’s definition of successStructure life around what makes you happy Connect with SedaleOpenGrants https://www.opengrants.io/OpenGrants on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/opengrantsio/OpenGrants on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/opengrants.ioOpenGrants on Twitter https://twitter.com/opengrants_ioSedale on Twitter https://twitter.com/STurbovsky ResourcesGrants.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.htmSamuel Pierpont Langley https://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/langley/intro.htmHHS’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 Connect with Boost VCBoost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVCBoost VC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/boost_vc/