Your Shortcut to Government Contracting: A Look into Nevada APEX Accelerator
Written by: Joan C. Rueben, Director of Nevada APEX Accelerator
At no charge or fee to its business clients, the Nevada APEX Accelerator team assists for-profit companies in the state with their public sector contracting journeys at the local, state, and federal government level. The government contracting pursuits do not even have to be geographically limited to Nevada, as businesses look to sell their goods and services regionally or nationally. Contracts and subcontracts won either on a competitive or non-competitive basis have helped businesses to increase revenue and be profitable, enabling job retention and creation. Nevada’s economy continues to diversify because of Nevada companies, especially the small businesses. The statewide APEX is funded, in part, through a formal, cost-sharing cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense/War. The same goes for other APEX organizations across the nation and in some U.S. territories.
The Nevada APEX Accelerator team, composed of many former federal government contracting professionals, helps to provide procurement technical assistance via one-on-one counseling, APEX bid-matching services, e-news regarding important topics such as cybersecurity as well as concerns regarding foreign ownership, control, or influence of a Nevada business, in-person educational workshops, virtual educational webinars, networking events, matchmaker events, capability statement reviews, certification walkthroughs, pre-solicitation review assistance, solicitation review help, proposal review assistance, and help for contract issues. Additionally, APEX is part of the wider business resource partner network and can refer Nevada businesses to other organizations in the state that provide help in non-procurement technical assistance areas.
At the time of publication, the U.S. Department of Defense/War has 21 critical and emerging technology areas as follows:
The U.S. Department of Defense/War is especially interested in developing and enhancing the dual use of the 21 critical and emerging technologies. This would be products, software, research and development, and so on that have potential applications for both military and civilian purposes, which leverages American intellectual property, innovations, inventions, ingenuity, and know-how of the private sector to address defense and non-defense challenges. These 21 technologies, such as advanced manufacturing or robotics and autonomous systems, benefit both the public and private sectors, enabling the federal government to develop new capabilities more effectively and efficiently, streamline prototyping efforts, and cut costs where taxpayer funding is involved.
Like its sister APEX Accelerators across the U.S., the Nevada APEX Accelerator is to provide procurement technical assistance to companies not only in the 21 areas, but to other areas such as architect-engineering and other professional services, cybersecurity-related products and services, consulting services, electrical work and other trade services, manufactured or commercial-off-the-shelf items, machinery or tools, construction services, signage, logistics, security, elevator services, landscaping services, remediation services, office equipment and supplies, janitorial products and services, safety items, medical-healthcare products and services, and vehicles.
The national network of APEX Accelerators is to help the U.S. Department of Defense/War cultivate and sustain the defense industrial base as well as the general government industrial base that is non-U.S. Department of Defense/War-related. There is an emphasis to ensure that new entrants to government contracting and subcontracting are part of each state’s respective industrial base and the overall one for the country. The network is to also help increase small business participation and even make the small businesses aware of programs to include each of the formal Mentor-Protégé Programs under the U.S. Department of Defense/War and separately the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The same national network is to also help increase awareness of and compliance with foreign ownership, control, or influence of businesses and its implications on those companies, especially to their American intellectual property, trade secrets, innovations, and inventions. The same goes for the topic of cybersecurity and enhancing one’s cyber posture through resources such as the U.S. Department of Defense/War’s Project Spectrum website portal. The same applies to government-led innovation programs such as the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the separate Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program at the federal level. Overall, the national APEX network is to help strengthen the supply chain in the above areas and in other ones such as sharing what are Defense Production Act Title III activities as well as those related to Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment.
The Nevada APEX Accelerator reported performance data under the formal Cooperative Agreement between the U.S. Department of Defense/War and GOED from April 16, 2024, to the June 30, 2025. A subset of Nevada APEX clients in socioeconomic categories received about $186,211,012 in government contracts. The Nevada APEX team met or exceeded 21 different KPIs. Other data points are that 242 Nevada businesses became formal Nevada APEX clients, and Nevada APEX team members led or participated in 64 in-person, virtual, or radio events. The APEX team is currently operating under its Cooperative Agreement spanning from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. APEX wants to sincerely thank the business resource partner network for continually referring Nevada companies to the APEX team.
If your business is headquartered in Nevada, and is interested in selling your goods and/or services in the public sector, please see the “Becoming a Client” section of APEX’s webpage on the GOED website:
NEVADA APEX ACCELERATOR .
Note: Regarding the public sector, and as posted in part on the Internet, by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a federal government agency, in federal ‘Fiscal Year 2024, the federal government committed about $755 billion on contracts.’