The importance of size/experience when dealing with NGO’s

One of the peculiar aspects of doing business in DC is how bureaucratic the contracting processes can be.  In addition to the Feds, there are so many semi- and quasi- governmental organizations around town that wrap themselves up in red-tape cocoons that it’s often hard to get anything done, especially as a new company.  One such example, is the last month I’ve spent wrestling with The World Bank contracting apparatus.

Almost a month ago, we submitted a proposal to do a series of animated videos and have since heard back that ours was both the cheapest and highest-quality (their words, not mine) but without a valid vendor ID number, they couldn’t hire us.  Since then, we’ve been running around like crazy trying to get approved as a vendor but it just didn’t look like it was going to happen because of our relatively small size.  Luckily there is more than one way to win a contract, and this one involves my new hero and role model, Dan McKee.

I happened to meet Dan of Insomniac Design at the TECH Cocktail a few weeks before all of this went down and he mentioned that he does a lot of business with The Bank.  I asked if he’d be willing to project manage this operation and he agreed!  So with our team and experience and his all-important vendor number, we got the business!  I have since spent a lot of time at their offices and met the people that make up Insomniac, and I have to say that if I thought Dan was cool, these guys are even cooler.  If we can build the Duke & the Duck up to be anything like Insomniac in 5-10 years I know that we will have succeeded.