Talks and Podcasts

You can win every contract on your pipeline and still build a business that traps you. This session delivered the four operating systems every scalable GovCon firm must build - covering onboarding, delivery, cash management, and decision-making - so founders can step out of execution, protect margin, and create real enterprise value.

Many small business owners say they want scale or an exit, but they're still operating like senior employees inside their own company. In this session, Tom challenged founders to rethink their role, their decision-making, and their endgame. Attendees learned how disciplined financial systems, operational clarity, and intentional design allow founders to step out of day-to-day execution while increasing enterprise value. The talk focused on building optionality before urgency forces bad decisions.

Co-presented with Joshua Frank of RSM Federal.

The session delivered strategic insights on what is really happening in federal procurement. The first half laid out the policy picture: executive orders reshaping competition, FAR deviations moving faster than agencies can keep up, a shift in small business and socioeconomic programs, and an acquisition workforce under pressure. Decades-old market assumptions no longer apply.

The second half was the playbook for how a company actually gets through it: compete with discipline, operate like a prime, and win through fundamentals. It covered thinking like a commercial executive, branding for the buyer you want, building relationships before the solicitation, running a disciplined pipeline, and writing proposals around outcomes instead of services.

Battle-tested lessons from building, scaling and exiting a multi-million dollar federal contracting firm. Tom walked through the full business lifecycle, from startup challenges to growth, acquisitions, exit and crisis management during the pandemic, and shared the decision points and overlooked pitfalls that defined his company's path. Attendees left with candid, sometimes uncomfortable truths about entrepreneurship in the federal market, including when saying "no" is the most profitable decision you can make.