Subcontracting Your Way to Prime: A Small Business Playbook

The fastest credible path to priming federal contracts runs through subcontracting: win sub work with strong primes, build CPARS-rated past performance, learn the customer's real requirements from inside, then bid the recompete or a related set-aside as prime. Two to three years of strategic subcontracting beats five years of losing prime bids. Who made the sub-to-prime jump — and what made it work?