Phase 0: Adding Opportunities to the Pipeline

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Last Updated: 2025-12-09
Purpose: Quick reference for evaluating and favoriting government contract opportunities in HigherGov
Target Audience: Data Gatherers (Reuben and team)

1) Overview

This document guides you through Phase 0 of Nerevu's pipeline. In Phase 0 we quickly scan opportunities on HigherGov and decide whether they are worth adding to our data enrichment pipeline based on summary and title. Detailed evaluation (timeline, budget, team composition) happens in Phase 3.

Process Overview:

  • Favorite opportunities with good fit in HigherGov. (Focus of this post)
  • Pipeline automatically pulls them into Airtable every 30minutes.
  • Enrich opportunity entries with more data until they reach Phase 3. They should all reach Phase 3 within 48 hours.

Goal of Pipeline: The goal is to bring opportunities with potential to a Phase 3 where Reuben can evaluate in a standardized format whether or not it is worth pursuing the opportunity.

Pipeline Phases Reference

Phase Description
Phase 0 Favorite/Add, Skip, or Click 'No Bid' on opportunities from HigherGov
Phase 1 Add dates, pre-bid details, contacts, budget, and refine main documents
Phase 2 Add Capture plan, set-asides, skills, billing type, place of performance
Phase 3 Team details, potential partners, subcontracting viability
Phase 4 Evaluate potential, create outreach email, contact partners

2) Evaluating Opportunities Flow

When scanning through opportunities on HigherGov you can Favorite, Skip, or click 'No Bid'.

  • Favoriting: indicates that there is a greater than 30% chance Reuben thinks it is a good opportunity to favorite. Favoriting adds the opportunity to our data enrichment pipeline so that Nerevu can consider the value of pursuing the opportunity.
  • Skipping: there is a 1-30% chance Reuben thinks it is a good opportunity to favorite. Skipping neither removes the opportunity from the search results, nor adds it to our pipeline. Skipping effectively postpones judging if a opportunity is a good or bad fit for Nerevu, but does mean that the opportunity will likely be reviewed repeatedly and potentially waste more evaluation resources.
  • Clicking 'No Bid': there is a less than a 1% chance Reuben thinks it is a good opportunity to favorite. Clicking 'No Bid' removes the opportunity from our search results so that we don't waste evaluation resources on the opportunity.

The Evaluation Process

Goal: Quickly determine if an opportunity should enter Nerevu's pipeline (30 seconds - 2 minutes per opportunity).

  1. Quick Elimination/Match (<15 seconds):
    1. Scan title/first line for red flags → already awarded, sole source, or skill set is primarily construction, janitorial, medical, legal → NO BID
    2. Scan summary for green flags → database, API, integration, ETL, Python, automation, data migration, custom software, website → FAVORITE
  2. Click Opportunity and Read Summary (<1 minute):
    1. Read summary if needed → evaluate core service, technical components, subcontracting potential, reseller angle
    1. FAVORITE or NO BID
  3. If still unclear... (<2 minutes):
    1. If the opportunity has incomplete documentation → request documents and SKIP
    2. If it seems like it will continue to be unclear after scanning a couple documents or the webpage of the opportunity → SKIP
    3. Otherwise, Click opportunity link, read documents associated with opportunity, or Ask HigherGov AI for more information and quickly → FAVORITE, NO BID, or SKIP
  4. When in doubt: SKIP
    1. Leave unmarked for Reuben's review or later evaluation → SKIP

Quick Classification Hints

Be generous with favorites, extremely conservative with no-bids, and skip if unsure.

Red Flags → Quick NO BID

  • Keywords: construction, janitorial, medical, legal
  • Summary describes physical services or building projects
  • Already says "awarded to [Company Name]" or "Sole Source" or "Emergency Notice"
  • Requires certifications/licenses Nerevu doesn't have

Green Flags → Quick FAVORITE

  • Keywords: database, API, integration, ETL, Python, automation, data migration
  • Custom software development
  • Technical subcontractor support needed
  • Modernizing legacy systems

3) The Three Classifications in depth

✅ FAVORITE

When to favorite:

  • Explicitly mentions Nerevu's core capabilities: data engineering, Python, ETL pipelines, automation, integrations, database work, API development
  • Clear subcontracting potential for technical services on larger projects
  • Software reseller or cloud services procurement opportunity

Example - FAVORITE:

Title: "Data Modernization and Integration Services"

Summary: "State agency seeks contractor to modernize legacy databases, 
build ETL pipelines from multiple sources, develop APIs for data access, 
and create automated reporting dashboards. Must have Python expertise 
and experience with PostgreSQL and cloud platforms."

Evaluation:
✓ Step 1a (Quick Elimination): No red flags
✓ Step 1b (Quick Match): STOPPED HERE - Multiple green flags spotted
  - "ETL pipelines," "APIs," "Python," "databases"
  - Data engineering explicitly mentioned - Nerevu's core competency
  - Automation and reporting - Nerevu specialty

Decision: FAVORITE - Stopped at Step 2, clearly in Nerevu's wheelhouse

⏸️ SKIP

When to skip:

  • Skills are adjacent to Nerevu's work, but focus on tasks not usually undertaken by Nerevu
  • Main requirements do not match our skills, and subcontracting potential exists but role/scope is uncertain
  • Main RFP document not yet posted, insufficient information to decide (Request Documents and Skip)
  • After minor investigation, you think it is less than two coin flips on heads chance that Reuben would pursue this

Example - SKIP:

Title: "IDNR Outdoor Connect RFP"
Original: This solicitation is issued by the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) on behalf of Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) in cooperation and agreement with the Chief Procurement Officer for General Services. The purpose of this solicitation is to establish a contract that enables IDNR to contract with a qualified Vendor for the replacement of the current Hunting, Fishing, Boating, and Camping digital licensing/permitting systems.

Background
This solicitation is issued by the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) on behalf of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) in cooperation with the Chief Procurement Officer for General Services.
The purpose of this solicitation is to establish a contract that enables IDNR to contract with a qualified Vendor for the replacement of the current Hunting, Fishing, Boating, and Camping digital licensing/permitting systems.

Work Details
The contract involves replacing existing digital licensing and permitting systems for hunting, fishing, boating, and camping.
The selected vendor will be responsible for providing a comprehensive solution that meets IDNR's requirements for these outdoor activities.
Specific tasks may include system design, development, implementation, testing, training, and ongoing support.
...
Bidder Requirements
Bidders must comply with the Business Enterprise Program (BEP) and Veterans Business Program (VBP) participation goals.
This includes submitting a Utilization Plan (U-Plan) that outlines how they will engage BEP/VBP certified vendors.
Bidders must also demonstrate Good Faith Efforts if they cannot meet the participation goals.

Evaluation:
✓ Step 1a (Quick Elimination): No clear red flags
  - Issuing Hunting, Fishing, Boating, and Camping digital licensing/permitting systems is not our expertise
✗ Step 1b (Quick Match): No obvious green flags
  - "System design" could be something we could vaguely contribute to
? Step 2 (Read Summary): Mixed signals
  - BEP is a certificate we have and could assist with as a subcontractor

Decision: SKIP - Primary service is outside our domain. 
Technical components mentioned but unclear if we are a good fit as a subcontractor. Less than 25% chance Reuben would pursue. Let him evaluate.

❌ NO BID

When to no-bid:

  • Already awarded or sole-source (contract explicitly names vendor)
  • Physical services: construction, janitorial, landscaping, building maintenance, medical, legal
  • Zero overlap with Nerevu's capabilities and no subcontracting potential
  • Enterprise software vendor RFPs seeking a full platform/product provider (unless clear subcontracting role)
  • Platform-specific maintenance for systems Nerevu doesn't support (e.g., "Salesforce admin," "Oracle DBA")

Don't no-bid just because:

  • Budget seems small → Let Reuben evaluate
  • Timeline is tight → Let Reuben evaluate
  • Location is in person → Let Reuben evaluate

Example - NO BID:

Title: "Village Hall Construction Project Management"

Summary: "Village seeks owner's representative for construction of new 
administrative building. Services include: site visits, coordinating with 
architects and engineers, value engineering, obtaining building permits, 
monitoring contractor performance, processing construction close-out 
documents. Must have experience managing municipal capital projects."

Evaluation:
✗ Step 1a (Quick Elimination): STOPPED HERE - Red flag in title
  - "Construction Project Management" = automatic disqualifier
  - Summary describes physical building construction oversight
  - Construction = wrong domain

Decision: NO BID - Ruled out at Step 1, completely outside Nerevu's capabilities

4) Using HigherGov Saved Searches

Access these saved searches once a week(?) in your HigherGov account to find new opportunities to add to the pipeline:

Primary Searches (Use These):

Currently we are only focused on opportunities and forecasts in Illinois and Massachusetts. Federal contracts are not a priority at the moment.

Evaluation Approach: Go through the list sorted by posting date, then evaluate all the opportunities above the most recent favorited opportunity (aka more recently posted). The saved searches have overlapping results, so you might have to go through all of the old unmarked opportunities occasionally to make sure one wasn't missed.

5) Adding opportunities from Airtable to HigherGov data enrichment pipeline

When opportunities have been added to the Airtable from Outside of the HigherGov pipeline (usually from outside source like direct agency websites, email alerts, etc...), there is an chance you could enrich their data by finding their complement on the HigherGov website.

  1. Search and find the opportunity in HigherGov
    1. Search its name, opportunity ID, location, description, or date on the HigherGov search
  2. Click the record of interest
    1. Fill Finder Link with HigherGov URL
    2. Fill Name with opportunity title on HigherGov
    3. Save the data entries
  3. Finally, favorite the opportunity in HigherGov
    1. Make sure to favorite the opportunities in HigherGov last or else it could create a duplicate in Airtable. If a duplicate is made, you can use the deduplicate Airtable tool to resolve this. Merge on Finder Link and Name.

6) Adding Opportunities Outside of Highergov to the Airtable

When you are adding opportunities from outside of Highergov to the Airtable, use the correct Entry views in the Opportunities table. Follow the cases below to use the correct table for new entries: