Joint ventures and the SBA Mentor-Protégé Program
How small businesses team up for bigger federal contracts: joint ventures, the SBA Mentor-Protégé Program, and teaming as prime and subcontractor.
Three ways to team
- Prime and subcontractor: one company holds the contract and subcontracts part of the work. The simplest arrangement; on a set-aside, the small prime must still do the required share of the work itself (the limitations on subcontracting).
- Joint venture: two or more companies form a venture for a contract. A joint venture of small businesses can compete as small when it meets SBA's rules.
- Mentor-protégé joint venture: a joint venture between a protégé and its approved mentor, which can be large, can compete for set-asides the protégé qualifies for.
The SBA Mentor-Protégé Program
In SBA's Mentor-Protégé Program, an established company (the mentor, which can be a large business) helps a small business (the protégé) with management, technical help, contracting experience or financing, under an agreement SBA approves. The main benefit for both is the joint venture: it can bid on set-aside work as small, combining the mentor's capacity and past performance with the protégé's status.
SBA's rules set how the work is split: the small partner of a joint venture must perform a minimum share of the venture's work (at least 40% of it under SBA's rules) and the joint venture agreement has to meet SBA's requirements.
Finding partners
Subcontracting records show which primes subcontract the work you do, and which small businesses a prime already uses. Award records show who wins at the offices you target. Teaming works best between companies that bring different things: past performance, a certification, a location, a capability.
On SpendQuery
Official sources
Questions people ask
Can a large business win a small-business set-aside?
Not on its own. Through an SBA-approved mentor-protégé joint venture with a small protégé, the joint venture can compete as small for set-asides the protégé qualifies for, under SBA's rules on work share and control.
What is the limitation on subcontracting?
On a set-aside contract, the small business prime must perform a minimum share of the work itself, or through similarly situated small subcontractors; for services, it may not pay more than 50% of the contract amount to firms that aren't similarly situated.
More guides
- How to find government contracts
- What is a small business set-aside?
- How to read a SAM.gov contract notice
- How to register in SAM.gov
- NAICS codes and small-business size standards
- Federal contract types, explained
- How to market your business to government buyers
- Sole-source contracts for small businesses
- Size protests and certificates of competency
- How to decide whether to bid on a government contract
- How to find federal grants
- The federal fiscal year-end spending rush
- What are the easiest government contracts to get?
- FY2026 federal contract spending: which agencies grew and shrank
- Government contract lists: open bids, awards and small business
- Who buys janitorial services from the federal government
- How government contractors get paid: timing, invoices and factoring
- How to respond to RFIs and sources-sought notices
- How to start a government contracting business from scratch
- Subcontracting on federal contracts: finding and vetting subs
- Who won federal IT support contracts in your state
- A free tool to ask government spending questions in plain English
- How to find federal bids your small business qualifies for
- How to find which federal agencies buy your product or service
- Free tools to search state and local government contracts
- How to understand the FAR without reading all of it
Updated 2026-10-06. General information, not legal advice; the solicitation and the FAR govern each purchase.