Knight Aerospace employees work on a medical module designed to fit in military cargo planes in November 2020 at its headquarters at Port San Antonio. The company is among Boerne-based SBIR Advisors Inc.’s local clients.While he was a contracting officer for the U.S. military, including Air Force cyber teams in San Antonio, Sam Rein learned that his acquisition team was falling behind its competition in adopting new weapons technology.
In late 2020, nearly a year after leaving that position, Rein leaned on such experiences in launchingThe Boerne-based consulting firm focuses on streamlining connections between tech startups and the Defense Department, and is named after the federal Small Business Innovation Research program that many of its clients tap into to obtain government contracts. In 2021, the company, with 35 employees across Texas, helped private sector clients across the U.S.
“Probably the same percentage of work will go toward San Antonio clients,” he said, noting that the company has garnered about $5 million in contracts for local companies this year.Typically, the Defense Department forecast budgets 12 to 18 months ahead, Rein said.
“The DoD is thinking about what they want to buy in 2026 right now. If you’re a startup founded in 2026, it’s two years late because they came up with the funding requirements two years ago,” he said. “So SBIRs and STTRs provide this pot of money that government customers can tap into and leverage to get access to technology that wasn’t on their radar two years ago and is on their radar now.”