Growing a federal business often means taking on work larger or more complex than you have performed before. The SBA’s mentor-protégé program is designed to help with that. It allows a small business, the protégé, to partner with a more experienced firm, the mentor, for business development assistance, with certain protections from the affiliation rules that would otherwise apply.
The SBA consolidated its earlier 8(a) mentor-protégé program into a single program for all small businesses, often called the All Small Mentor-Protégé Program. The details are set out in SBA regulations and may change, so check sba.gov for current requirements.
What the program offers
Under an SBA-approved mentor-protégé agreement, the mentor may provide assistance such as:
- Management and technical support, including help with systems, processes and capabilities
- Financial assistance, which may include certain equity investments or loans
- Contracting support, such as help with proposal development and business development
- Assistance with forming joint ventures to pursue federal contracts
The agreement must describe the specific assistance the mentor will provide, and the SBA expects the relationship to deliver real development benefits to the protégé.
Joint ventures between mentor and protégé
A key feature of the program is that an approved mentor and protégé may form a joint venture that can qualify as small for federal procurements, provided the protégé qualifies as small for the procurement and the joint venture meets SBA requirements. This allows the joint venture to pursue set-aside contracts that the mentor could not pursue on its own.
SBA regulations set specific requirements for these joint ventures, including the content of the joint venture agreement, the protégé’s role as managing venturer, and the share of work the protégé must perform. Joint ventures pursuing contracts set aside for specific programs, such as 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB or WOSB, must meet additional requirements tied to those programs.
General eligibility themes
In general terms, a protégé must be small in the NAICS code for which it seeks assistance, and a mentor must be able to carry out its responsibilities and show good character and financial capacity. There are limits on how many protégés a mentor may have and on the duration of agreements. The SBA reviews and approves agreements and conducts annual evaluations of the relationship.
Making a mentor-protégé relationship work
The most successful relationships are built on aligned goals and genuine mutual benefit. Before entering an agreement, both parties should discuss:
- Which capabilities the protégé most needs to develop
- Which agencies and opportunities the partners plan to pursue
- How decisions will be made and how work will be divided
- How the protégé will be positioned to compete independently later
Mentor-protégé agreements and joint venture agreements are legal documents with meaningful consequences for eligibility and compliance. Have them reviewed by a government contracts attorney before submission.