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The Real Go-To-Market Playbook for Selling to Government: Lessons from Atlas Space

Google AdWords won’t help you win government contracts. Neither will traditional SaaS marketing playbooks. If you’re building for the government, you need an entirely different go-to-market motion.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Brad Bode, Founder CTO & CIO of Atlas Space Operations, a ground software as a service platform that’s raised over $37 million, explained the hard-earned lessons from nine years of winning government contracts. His insights challenge nearly everything conventional B2B wisdom teaches.

The Two-Year Rule

Most SaaS founders think in quarters. Government contractors need to think in years. “I think one of the most important things is what I just mentioned. You have to have a commercial plan and a government plan,” Brad says. “And I think the critical thing in targeting the government is that you must anticipate that it will take longer than you think.”

How much longer? Brad is specific: “You need a two year Runway with solely focusing on government work, unless you have a really robust commercial pipeline.”

A six-month runway won’t cut it. Even when contracts appear imminent, they can disappear for a year before resurfacing. Atlas Space recently experienced this with a NASA contract they assumed was dead. “We thought it was dead and then it for a year and then it came back just recently and we don’t know why it went quiet, but that’s the name of the game,” Brad explains.

The unpredictability extends to contract values. That $100 million opportunity you’re forecasting? It might become $50 million right before award. “And while those are large numbers, it’s usually a group or a team effort and everybody needs their take. So you know that money can go away quickly,” Brad notes.

The SBIR Entry Strategy

If traditional marketing doesn’t work with government customers, how do you get your foot in the door? Brad’s answer: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs.

“The best way to start accessing government money and making the government aware of who you are as a company is probably through these small business initiatives. They’re called sivers,” Brad explains. These contracts typically range from $200,000 to $15 million, though most fall between $1-2 million.

The beauty of SBIRs is their accessibility. They’re publicly broadcast. Anyone can bid. You don’t need a massive team to respond. “You just have to know where to go to look. They’re public. You look for a topic that you think you could apply your skills to and you attempt to win it,” Brad says.

Even better, you can leverage commercial work and research papers to demonstrate capability. You don’t need prior government contracts to win your first government contract. “You can cite your past performance on commercial work that you might have done or even research papers that might back up your claims,” Brad notes.

The strategic value of SBIRs goes beyond revenue. They provide past performance credentials, which unlock larger opportunities. “That’s one of the things they really look for is past performance on any program, really,” Brad explains.

Why Each Agency Is Completely Different

Here’s where government sales gets complicated: the federal government isn’t one customer. It’s dozens of completely different customers with unique procurement processes.

“I would say it’s completely different. Some of them might use some of the same terms, but the expectations and the massaging and the meetings you have to take are always very different,” Brad says.

Atlas Space has worked with NASA, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), Space Force, and the Space Development Agency. Each operates distinctly. DIU, for example, was created specifically to speed up procurement using Silicon Valley-style approaches. Other agencies have their own innovation units trying to streamline access for smaller companies.

This matters because the government has recognized a problem: requiring extensive paperwork and compliance prevented innovative companies from bidding. “You had to have, you know, a staff of six just to deal with government contracts. And that was preventing some really smart companies from being able to bid on these government programs,” Brad explains.

The result was that only large aerospace companies with armies of lawyers and contracts specialists could participate. “And the government did see that isn’t doing them any favors. And they wanted to get to the smaller companies, the more innovative companies,” Brad says.

Each agency has been making procurement easier in its own way. Your job as a founder is learning the subtleties of each.

Contact Sport, Not Digital Marketing

When asked about go-to-market strategy for government sales, Brad is blunt: “You can’t really market to the government.”

What works instead is presence. “There’s no amount of Google Adwords you could do to help you with the government, it is getting to know the people in the government, getting to know their procurement process, and being willing to bid on some of these smaller contracts so you can scale upwards to win some of the bigger contracts,” Brad says.

His chief growth officer calls it a “contact sport.” You take it to the road. You attend what they call “grip and grins” where you shake hands and make people aware of who you are.

Your marketing is actually winning small contracts and putting yourself in front of government stakeholders as often as possible. You build recognition through the quality of work you deliver, not through advertising campaigns or content marketing.

The Partnership Strategy for Scaling

Small companies face a specific challenge with larger government programs: clearance requirements. “Depending on the government program, you might need a facility clearance, which is the ability to hold classified clearances for your employees. It’s not likely that smaller companies have that,” Brad explains.

The solution is partnering with larger companies to bid on contracts together. This lets you continue building reputation while working toward your own facility clearance. “You might partner with a larger company so you can go in on these contracts together to continue to make a name for yourself within the government,” Brad says.

Eventually, you get recognition for quality work and can prime larger contracts yourself. But in the early years, partnerships provide the necessary infrastructure and past performance credentials.

The 50-50 Split Strategy

Atlas Space’s current revenue split reflects Brad’s core philosophy: you need both commercial and government success. Right now, they’re roughly 50-50, though that’s about to shift.

The company operates in two sections. Their network services provide ground software as a service to commercial satellite operators and some government programs. Their subsidiary, Freedom Space Technologies, serves exclusively the US government with 100% US ownership and all US employees, enabling work in secure areas.

“We anticipate that the Freedom Space technologies will be 80% of the company in the next six months,” Brad says. The government side isn’t just selling antenna access anymore. “It is offering our software capabilities, our software itself and our engineering talent to government programs.”

This evolution represents the real opportunity in government sales: moving from services to software to engineering talent, building deeper relationships that compound over time.

What Silicon Valley Is Finally Learning

Brad has watched investor attitudes toward government work transform over the past five years. In 2016 and 2017, government work “just doesn’t appear to be sexy to the Silicon Valley nerds.” Even though Brad knew from experience how interesting government problems could be, VCs weren’t convinced.

“It’s only since about 2022 where there’s this pivot. And I think a lot of that is the result of capital flows and having to pivot because they realize that these commercial companies are not what’s going to pay the bills,” Brad explains.

The lesson is broader than space: “You have to have both commercial and government success.”

The Real Timeline

Two years of bootstrapping before your first contract. Another year of proving your software works and refining it. Another few years building past performance to compete for larger contracts. Multiple years learning the subtleties of different agency procurement processes.

This is not a move-fast-and-break-things market. “You have to plan for the unknowns,” Brad says.

But for founders willing to commit to the timeline, the opportunity is massive. The government budget is enormous. The problems are genuinely interesting. And as Brad’s nine-year journey shows, patient capital and consistent execution create sustainable competitive advantages that pure commercial players can’t replicate.

Just remember: no amount of Google AdWords will help you get there.