Strong service/career background helps. So does the disabled veteran business certification. Most importantly, choose your business partners carefully, people you can work with and trust. The big integrators are called “Beltway Bandits” for a reason. Smalls get taken for a ride all the time. Parallels our experience, significant project opportunity with DoD, we walked away from it, problematic requests, excessive litigiousness, writing on the wall. IMHO, there’s a problem with prevailing business culture and also organization of the industry.