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Acquint / 8(a) Transition Intelligence

You’re graduating from 8(a).
Here’s what happens to your revenue.

60% of 8(a) graduates lose their federal contract base within 10 years. Acquint identifies exactly which contracts expire when and who you’re competing against — while you still have time to act.

Instant analysis

Enter your UEI to see your cliff analysis (from FPDS award data)

The numbers

~300firms graduate from 8(a) annually
60%lose prime contracts within 10 years
9 years →1-day cliff. No warning light.
$2,500full diagnostic report

The cliff

What your revenue looks like on graduation day

The companies that survive did one thing differently: they started competing in full-and-open 3+ years before graduation. By the time they crossed the cliff, competitive revenue already covered the gap.

8(a) set-aside revenueFull-and-open revenue
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Year 7
Year 8
GRAD
Grad
+1
+2
+3
+5

Illustrative composite based on FPDS graduation cohort analysis. Individual trajectories vary by NAICS, agency concentration, and competitive pursuit activity.

What you get

Three ways to work with Acquint

One-time

Graduation Risk Diagnostic

$2,500one-time report

Your cliff date. Every expiring set-aside contract. Full-and-open competitor map. Which agencies you could realistically win without a set-aside. Delivered as a 20-page PDF within 5 business days.

  • Cliff date calculation from your SAM.gov entry date
  • Contract-by-contract expiration timeline
  • Competitor map — who wins your NAICS in full-and-open
  • Survival score: 0–100 benchmark vs. graduates in your NAICS
  • Top 5 recompete opportunities to pursue before graduation
  • 20-page PDF + data export
Order the diagnostic
Most popular

Annual

Transition Intelligence Subscription

$18,000per year

Continuous monitoring through your transition window. SAM.gov recompete alerts, teaming partner discovery, capture timelines, and a monthly intelligence brief on your competitive landscape.

  • Everything in the Diagnostic, updated monthly
  • SAM.gov new-solicitation alerts for your NAICS + incumbents
  • Expiring IDV radar — 90/60/30-day warnings
  • Teaming partner recommendations ranked by NAICS fit + past performance
  • Monthly competitive intelligence brief
  • Capture timeline builder for top 10 targets
  • Unlimited analyst Q&A (email + Slack)
Start subscription

Success fee

Mentor-Protégé Matchmaking

$35,000success fee on agreement

We match you to large primes actively hunting mentor-protégé agreements in your NAICS. We score every candidate by capability fit, agency footprint overlap, and program history, then broker the introduction.

  • Ranked shortlist of 5–10 prime candidates
  • Capability fit scoring vs. your FPDS history
  • Agency footprint overlap analysis
  • Introduction and relationship facilitation
  • Agreement term benchmarking from public MP agreements
  • No fee until agreement is signed
Inquire about matchmaking

Why now

The window is shorter than you think

Recompetes take 18–24 months from initial pursuit to contract award. If you start the day you graduate, your first full-and-open win lands 2 years after you lose set-aside eligibility.

The firms that survive graduation start competing 3–4 years before their cliff date. By the time the program ends, they have at least one competitive vehicle, at least one new agency relationship, and institutional knowledge of how to win without a preference.

Today — 4 years out

Full-and-open pursuit runway. Time to lose once and learn.

Today — 2 years out

Narrow window. Need to already have a target vehicle and teaming partner.

Graduation day

Set-aside eligibility ends. Competitive revenue gap opens.

+1 year post-graduation

Agency contracting officers treat you as a large business. Incumbency advantage gone.

Sample output

What your Diagnostic looks like

Below is a sample report for a mid-sized 8(a) IT services firm with 28 months until graduation. Every report is generated from your actual FPDS award history.

Graduation Cliff DiagnosticUEI: ABCDEF123456

Pinnacle Federal Solutions LLC

Graduation date: June 15, 202824 months until graduation

Risk meter

Survival Score38/100
High cliff riskvs. NAICS cohort avg: 52

Cliff exposure

Set-aside ceiling at risk$34.5Mcontracts expiring within 24 mo of graduation
Set-aside revenue share78%of current revenue from 8(a) vehicles
Runway24 mountil set-aside eligibility ends

Concentration risk: 78% of your revenue comes from 8(a) set-aside vehicles. When graduation occurs, this revenue base loses its protected status and must compete in full-and-open — often against firms 5–20× your size.

Competitive exposure by expiring contract

W15QKN-24-D-0012Enterprise IT Managed Services IDIQ
$18.2M8 mo left
N00178-23-D-7710Cybersecurity Operations Support
$9.8M14 mo left
FA8721-23-D-0044Cloud Migration Advisory Services
$6.5M22 mo left

Competitors entering when set-asides end

  • 1Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.
  • 2SAIC (Science Applications International)
  • 3Leidos Holdings Inc.
  • 4CACI International Inc.
  • 5Peraton Inc.

Full Diagnostic Report

Get your full 20-page Diagnostic Report

Contract-by-contract expiration timeline, full competitor map for each of your NAICS codes, survival score benchmarked against 20212026 graduate cohort, and top 5 recompete opportunities to pursue before graduation. Delivered as a 20-page PDF within 5 business days.

Order the Diagnostic — $2,5005 business day delivery · PDF + data export

Free cliff assessment

Get your free cliff assessment

Enter your email and UEI (if known). We’ll run your FPDS history, identify your expiring set-aside contracts, and send you a one-page cliff summary within 24 hours — no obligation, no sales call unless you want one.

No sales calls. No spam. One email with your cliff assessment. We’ll follow up only if you reply.