How a contract gets set-aside

Sources Sought and the Rule-of-two

Per federal regulation the government has to believe that at least two capable companies will bid on a set-aside contract, and the way they meet this requirement is by issuing a Sources Sought
Sources Sought: A Source Sought is a mini-solicitation from the government that gives a brief overview of the work the government needs done, and requests that companies who can do the work, and who have a set-aside respond
The rule of two: If the government receives two or more responses from companies with a given set-aside then the government can set the RFP aside for that group

What this means for you

• If you want a contract to be set-aside you should respond to the Sources Sought
• MANY Sources Sought do not become RFPs
• it can take months to go from Sources Sought to RFP
• If you have draft content about your capabilities they creating a Sources Sought should only take an hour or two