TechFW SmartStart member Galaxy Unmanned Systems L.L.C. (GUS) knows how to win. Since 2020, it has earned four SBIR/STTR grants totaling $2.4 million. GUS is a pioneer in unmanned airship flight operations that has worked its way up through the commercial side of the UAS industry and then the Department of Defense side. The co-founders are brothers Jason and Tony White.
Jason, the Managing Partner, explains the company's path to grant success: "My strategy for responding to solicitations is to read carefully the requested objectives and ensure I reflect back what it is they are requesting and state as clearly as possible how I am providing whatever that is. Beyond that, I make sure to explain how I will commercialize the resultant capabilities derived from the outcome of the effort and indicate how the government will benefit from wide adoption of the solutions." "The focus is on dual-use capability for a commercial solution back into the DoD “battle-type” solution, such that their “investment” in the capability will yield more stakeholders that will also iterate the capability. This “de-risks” the investment and allows for the government to benefit from later evolutions of the technology without having to fund every iteration."