Meet Jeffrey Payne...Serial Entrepreneur, USNA, MIT and Wharton graduate and now Founder and CEO of Accordant Federal!  Jeff has a ton of valuable insights and experiences that he shares with aspiring entrepreneurs.Contact Info:www.AccordantFederal.com [email protected] https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreycpayne/

There are tons of books, podcasts and social media outlets by successful leaders, business executives, and motivational gurus.  Without question, these people are wildly successful.  However, does that make them good mentors...FOR YOU? Chances are...no.  Finding a great mentor is incredibly important! But they must be aligned with your goals to be truly impactful.  Listening to a motivational speaker tell you that you must find your inner self will not help you find low-cost benefits administration support.  Similarly, reading a leadership book by a Navy SEAL about  a "snatch and grab" mission will not help you manage a disgruntled customer...well maybe it will, but then you have to dispose of the body.  :-)Your ideal mentor is a person who is five to ten years ahead of you on YOUR business path...in YOUR industry.  And these folks aren't writing books.  You have to find them. 

Let's be politically INcorrect for a bit.  Regardless of industry, if a startup or ultra-small business bought all of the requisite infrastructure to ensure successful execution of a win, they would go bankrupt.  Leadership is not "spending away risk."  Heck, anybody can do that.  real leadership is understanding what risks must be managed.  The easiest way to manage infrastructure risks is to have a robust infrastructure PLAN that can be IMMEDIATELY executed.  Are there still risks?  Absolutely.  But your company will avoid the catastrophic risk of going bankrupt funding corporate infrastructure before it is fully needed. 

Writing a winning government contracting proposal is hard.  That's why a proposal must by "built."  You cannot simply starting writing on page one of a proposal and continue to the page constraint and address all the necessary perspectives to win.   These perspectives include:  1.  The bidder's perspective2.  The customer's perspective3.  External perspective4.  Competitions' perspective

Pramod Raheja is the CEO and Co-founder of Airgility Inc.  Airgility is a company dedicated to making a big social impact by creating unparalleled aerial unmanned systems that can fly anywhere, including areas where there is limited or no GPS access and in confined areas. These capabilities allow Airgility to conduct the most important missions which include search & rescue, protecting our borders, delivering medical supplies to remote areas and many more important missions. Our drones utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning so they can perceive their surroundings, which enables them to map areas, track objects and provide analytical feedback in real-time.Airgility.coEmail:  [email protected] LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/pramodraheja/

When launching a company, an iterative business model or framework is tremendously more effective that focusing on completing a massive business plan template that are available online. 

This podcast discusses the sensitive relationship between customer and business owner/service provider. 

ISO certification can be the competitive edge that empowers you to take your business to the next level. In the crowded field of Federal Government contracting, small businesses must show that they're mature, low-risk, and employ best practices. ISO 9001 Quality Management System Certification PROVES you embody these traits, setting you above 99.8% of other U.S. businesses.In this FREE webinar, industry insider Randal Wimmer will let you know how ISO certification can expedite your business' growth and ability to scale. With GCA, achieving ISO certification is so much easier than you think! 

GCA Cohort member, Rich McCormack, is the Co-Founder of Viqtory and Founder of Assured LogIQ.  He has over 20 years of experience starting and operating media, marketing and technology companies. Upon leaving the Navy, graduating from business school and a short stint with International Paper, Rich took his short, but impactful experience, and embarked on his entrepreneurial journey. Joining up with Navy friend Chris Hale, in 1998, Rich and team launched a number of companies, most notably a venture-funded startup called Stars & Stripes Omnimedia incubated out of Carnegie Mellon University. In 2001, after the burst of the dot.com bubble, Stars & Stripes Omnimedia was divested and Rich and Chris picked-up the pieces of their former company and started a new company called Viqtory - a military media and marketing company.Viqtory was bootstrapped from day one, and profitable within two months of formation and commercialization.  From inception until 2017, Rich has served as President and COO and was responsible for product development and commercialization, where he oversaw the operations of the many media products: 5 publications, 4 websites, ratings, events, and the technology and data platform that underpinned the operation. Viqtory established itself as the go-to resource for military transitioning to civilian employment. Since then, Viqtory has built itself into a trusted leader in military and veteran recruitment, with unprecedented data-based insight into veteran interests, skills and job-seeking behaviors. Viqtory's rich data set, incorporating survey results, publicly available data, predictive models built by their in-house data scientists, and more, helps their clients reach millions of potentially interested U.S. veterans and military spouses.Born out of Viqtory’s R&D, Rich started Redcell in 2017, an AI and blockchain company which proved concept for new use cases in creating competency based workforce recruitment matching software for transitioning workforces, like veterans and students. Redcell was sold in 2019.In 2020, Rich started Assured LogIQ, a Risk Management company focused on the Federal contract industry. Assured LogIQ has distinguished itself with its 9001, 27001 and 31000 ISO certifications and SDVOSB and HUBZone supplier classifications. It’s currently teamed with several large Primes, going after large IT Service contracts.Contact Information:Rich McCormack [email protected] www.assuredlogiq.com [email protected]://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-mccormack-ceo-aa26854a/