Glossary / Business
Joint ventureJV
A joint venture is a legal entity formed by two or more companies to pursue and perform contracts jointly. Under SBA's rules a joint venture may qualify for a set-aside when each member is small for the size standard, or when it is an SBA-approved mentor-protege joint venture in which the protege is small and the mentor may be large. The agreement must meet SBA's content rules: the small or protege member is the managing venturer, performs at least 40 percent of the JV's work and takes profits in proportion to its work share. A JV's past performance includes its members' records.
Why it matters to your pipeline
A joint venture lets a small firm bid on contracts far larger than its own size while keeping the set-aside eligibility, and it lets the partners share the risk and the past performance. Buyers see many of them on large vehicles. The structure carries SBA paperwork and reporting, so it is worth it for a vehicle or a program, not a single small order.
When this term shows up in an opening GovSmith finds for you, your vCM explains what it means for that pursuit and does whatever it calls for. You decide; we do the work.
Example
A small engineering firm and its large mentor form an SBA-approved mentor-protege JV and win a seat on a $900M multiple-award construction contract reserved for small businesses, which neither could have held alone.
Find out what applies to you
Some terms will matter to your business right away and some won’t for years. A vCM can tell you which are which.