Read Time: 5 minutes
Tech Topics In This Article: RFPs, online marketplaces, Chattanooga startups
Request For Proposal.
Those three words are the lifeblood for those who rely on federal government contracts to do business. Government agencies looking to work with consultants and contractors will often send out a Request For Proposal (RFP) to get bids on an upcoming project. But the RFP process often leans toward known entities, leaving new or diverse vendors without access to key opportunities.
Alfredo Ramirez, Nyle Malik, and Nicholas López (seen in the cartoon featured photo) saw first-hand just how difficult it was for agencies to find the right RFPs to apply for and win new business.
“There was a lack of new connections happening,” Ramirez told Hypepotamus.
Ramirez, Malik, and Lopez joined forces in 2022 as co-founders of Prosal to help government contractors of all sizes to discover good RFPs that will help them scale. After relocating to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to join the popular startup “insulator” Brickyard, the team is in growth mode and helping federal governments contractors target and win opportunities using AI.
What’s In A Prosal?
Prosal works as an open marketplace where any organization can freely upload their RFPs. The platform then summarizes the complex details of that RFP into an easy-to-read card. Qualified consultants and agencies can then easily search, filter, and save those RFPs.
The goal is to help take the headaches away from both the project creation and the project management portion of putting out RFPs. But crucially, the platform is designed to level the playing field. By making RFPs more accessible, Prosal helps a diverse range of agencies gain visibility and bid on projects they might not have seen otherwise.
In the startup’s early years, Ramirez said they saw a particularly large opportunity to help streamline the federal contracting space.
“Uncle Sam will buy everything from pen and paper to aircraft carriers and jets,” Ramirez told Hypepotamus. “The US government transacts billions of dollars every year….a large number of that goes to contractors and to agencies.” That means a lot of opportunities for agencies looking to grow using Prosal’s platform.
Get To Know The Prosal Team
The founding team brings a mix of tech and public sector experience. Ramirez, who serves as COO, came to the United States with his parents at a very young age from Venezuela and ultimately started his career in politics and political campaigns, working as a congressional intern and graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in political science. During COVID he launched the digital strategy agency ALRAS Digital to help groups with advocacy, issue awareness, thought leadership, and equitable communications. At the same time, he went back to school to pursue his masters in Law and Diplomacy at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Lopez, Prosal’s CEO and Ramirez’s childhood friend, met CTO Malik while studying at Georgia Tech. Lopez previously worked at Lockheed Martin and Malik was a software engineer at Qualcomm before launching their entrepreneurial journeys with Prosal.
Funding Prosal’s Growth
Late last year the team raised a $1.18 million seed round led by Atlanta-based Fusen Fund.
Chattanooga-based Brickyard Fund, New Hampshire-based Alumni Ventures, San Francisco-based Mana Ventures, Boston-based Raiz Capital, and a “group of seasoned angel investors” also joined the round.
Prosal also pitched in 2023 at Venture Atlanta. It was there that they were introduced to the team behind Brickyard, the unique VC firm that brings founders to Chattanooga to grow in their “insulator” program.
Ramirez said the decision to join Brickyard has helped the team focus on growth as an early-stage company.
“Brickyard was the first time that [the co-founders] have been together for multiple weeks and months consecutively. And the speed at which we’re able to get on the same page, make decisions and execute on those decisions is ten times faster than if we were doing it over zoom or a phone call,” Ramirez added.
Moving into 2025, Ramirez said the Prosal team is focused on growing the federal contracting side of the startup in order to help bring more agencies and businesses onto the platform.
