Cedar Staffing Group finds the prime that gets it into federal work
A staffing agency with no government past performance could not win on its own. Captivaq showed which primes in its field hire subcontractors, and the first teaming agreement became its first federal record.
Yusuf DemirManaging Partner, Cedar Staffing Group
Key results
Primes that subcontract staffing listed with their awards
First teaming agreement signed in six weeks
Sub work logged as past performance for the next bid
“We had no past performance, so we could not bid. Captivaq showed us the primes who were already hiring subs like us. One call did it.”
Yusuf DemirManaging Partner, Cedar Staffing GroupMeet Cedar Staffing Group
Cedar Staffing Group places clerical and technical staff with hospitals and universities in the Chicago area. Yusuf Demir runs it with two partners and had wanted federal work for years.
Federal staffing contracts are large and steady. They also ask for past performance, and Cedar had none.
“Every solicitation wanted three references from government work. We had zero. It is a locked door.”
The locked door
Yusuf bid on two federal staffing contracts anyway. Both scored poorly on past performance and lost to firms that had been in the market for a decade.
Subcontracting was the obvious way in, but finding a prime meant cold calls to companies he could not name. Nobody publishes who hires subs.
“I knew the answer was to be somebody's sub. I just could not find the somebody.”
The primes who hire subs
Captivaq reads the federal subcontract records as well as the notices. Matched against Cedar's profile, it listed the primes in staffing that had reported subcontractors, with their awards and the agencies they serve.
“It gave me a list of twelve companies that already pay subs to do what we do. That list did not exist anywhere else.”
Each prime came with its recent awards, so Yusuf could see which contracts were live and which were about to recompete before he picked up the phone.
One call, then a record
The third call turned into a teaming agreement on a hospital staffing contract. Cedar placed its first federal staff six weeks after setup, and logged the work in Captivaq as past performance.
“One call did it. Now we have a federal reference, and the next bid is ours to lose.”
The next solicitation Cedar bid on carried that reference. The company is still a sub on the first contract, and the prime on the second.
