Blackdragon The Only True Gig Economy Marketplace In The Federal Industry

While doing business with the Federal Government, both federal contractors and subcontractors assume certain obligations. Federal contractors are mostly individuals or employers who form a contract with the US department or agency for offering any specific product or service. Blackdragon is the first-of-its-kind full-spectrum management consultancy focused on helping select federal contractor bidders win targeted government contracts. It is the premier crowdsourcing platform in the federal contracting sector that efficiently and powerfully forms Dream Teams of subject matter experts (SME’s) worldwide that self-form within our proprietary online marketplace and then create turnkey winning proposals on behalf of our bidder clients.

The mission of Blackdragon is to completely revolutionize the way new contracts with the US Federal Government are identified, pursued, and ultimately won. The company proudly considers itself a modern-day Free Company. The core values of Blackdragon are centered around the ancient concept of optimizing collaboration to advance mutual objectives for the group. The company aims to leverage the Gig Economy with its ever-expanding remote workforce of industry experts. It allows using of platforms to replace traditional linear businesses and transform the entire industry. It employs outcome-based compensation to replace ineffective hiring of hourly individuals.

Blackdragon encourages value-based compensation with peer reviews instead of hourly or salary rates. It also empowers freelance experts to proactively form Dream Teams for a preferred bidder client. Combined with preparation and efficiency, as a key advantage, Blackdragon allows you to stress Bidder Expertise. It also lets you stop recycling old proposal content, limited personnel, and outdated strategies.

The unique Winning-as-a-Service (WaaS) product line

Blackdragon is not only different but is unique in terms of the services offered. Its clients rely on its Winning-as-a-Service (WaaS) product line to win federal contracts for them.

Better experts with better expertise are the result of the new Gig Economy. Its matchmaking service connects freelance experts with bidder clients who need them to win.
Better proposals with better insights are based on motivated partnering with compensation tied to winning. The Deal Teams are not just augmented staff support but are experts at winning contracts.
Better processes with a better experience are attained by successfully working with multiple bidding clients as a third-party proxy bidder, continually optimizing best-of-breed solutions.
Better depth of talent is available with thousands in our global coalition of experts, allowing very refined searches for people with specialized skills or personal experience.
Better bidding is based on shared risk. With its compensation tied to winning, the company is less likely to partner with a bidder client who is not likely to win. This helps to avoid wasted efforts.
Better pricing options are gained with fixed-fee agreements and scaled compensation models, significantly improving budgeting and managing cost expectations.
Better team morale is felt because every bid has a reasonable expectation for winning, unlike hourly workers who just put in their time to get paid, regardless of bidding outcomes.
Better bid sharing is realistic when a motivated subcontractor is willing to pay for the services on behalf of a prime bidder. This may allow a prime to bid at no cost to their organization.

We managed to have a conversation with Rob Rosenberger, the visionary CEO and Founder of Blackdragon, to get detailed insights into the company. Here are a few important excerpts of the same:

Q. How is Blackdragon revolutionizing the federal contracting arena?

Before Blackdragon was created, bidder companies relied exclusively on humans to identify, analyze, qualify, pursue, and win contracts using routine proposal preparation procedures. Furthermore, those humans worked as full-time employees or hourly contractors to augment the corporate bidding staff.

This business model incentivizes biased personnel to prolong employment and accumulate as many billable hours as possible, leaving the employer with all the risks for winning/losing.

Blackdragon is different and better as it uses the Gig Economy model to leverage on-demand freelance experts who are compensated based on a combination of two things: 1) their peer-reviewed value contributed to each project, and 2) winning contracts on behalf of clients. In other words, they are highly motivated to win so they must work well in custom teams to be competent, fast and resourceful. If they do not win, they are not paid as much and the client gets a bargain for the whole proposal preparation because no win bonus is payable. This also translates to Blackdragon assuming a large portion of the win/loss risk instead of only the bidding client.

We do this by leveraging the combined power of global social connectivity, advancing technology, predictive analytics, and a one-of-a-kind crowdsourcing platform comprised of the world’s top industry experts. Dragons only work on projects they believe in—this helps avoid wasting time and money pursuing unwinnable contracts. As a bonus to our bidder clients, our pricing model is a force multiplier enabling them to pursue two to five more bids each year with the same resources, compared to conventional methodologies.

“The vision of Blackdragon is to become the indispensable strategic partner for all aspects of helping bidder companies plan, target, prepare, pursue, and win the right contracts for their organizations.”

Q. We understand that Blackdragon does more than just write winning proposals. What else do you do?

While our Winning-as-a-Service™ (WaaS) product line is our flagship, our integrated suite of on-demand products and services cover the entire lifecycle of bidding on federal contracts. Other product lines include Advising, Pipeline, and Capture. These are designed to work together to help bidder clients win targeted contracts in the shortest time, with the lowest investment risks and minimal disruption to daily operations. Blackdragon also provides experts who can support customized lobbying initiatives, strategic planning and preparation for mergers & acquisitions, and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC).

Q. From your perspective, how is the industry evolving? And what are the trends that you see?

The federal contracting industry is notorious for being slow to change. While competitive commercial industries reward successful risk-takers, the Government (buyers) and contractor firms (sellers) generally do not. This mindset promotes job security while avoiding new technology, global connectivity, or automation of generic processes.

However, the global pandemic has been a transformational wake-up call. This outmoded industry is recognizing that, like others, it too can function with fewer brick and mortar facilities and far fewer personnel filling up cubicle farms. The Government is changing what it buys, leaving bidders to reform their offerings while also adjusting to winning new contracts differently than it has been done before. Modern technology, accessed in real-time on connected devices in our pockets, is progressively altering how new deals are identified, analyzed, qualified, pursued, and captured.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers?

The US Department of Defense (DoD) now requires all contractor firms to meet Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) standards to be eligible for being awarded contracts by 2026. These new standards will affect over 300,000 companies competing for those contracts. Blackdragon’s global workforce of freelance experts, available on-demand, is already offering applicable services to help these bidder firms better understand the new standards and assist them in getting certified per the upcoming mandates.

Meet the CEO

Rob Rosenberger is the visionary CEO and Founder of Blackdragon, a highly innovative global consulting firm increasingly recognized across the US federal contracting industry as a major disruptor. Mr. Rosenberger was inspired to create a novel approach to winning federal contracts based on his unique experience, which includes Contracting Officer, Federal Contractor, Special Adviser, Executive Leader, and Congressional Fellow. The company radically changes how contracts are identified, pursued, and ultimately won.