SOQStack

Idea

An AI copilot that turns a small architecture or engineering firm's staff resumes and project history into a fully formatted, RFQ-matched SF330 or Statement of Qualifications package in minutes instead of days. Small AEC firms that pursue publicly funded work must hand-assemble a customized qualifications package for every solicitation: matched staff resumes, project data sheets, and past-performance narratives, each tailored to that RFQ's specific evaluation criteria. SOQStack lets a firm build one structured library of staff and project data once, then generates a formatted, criteria-matched SF330 or SOQ draft for any new pursuit, ready for a final human polish.

Market gap

Firms under about 15 people can't justify a dedicated proposal coordinator, a real job category that pays $55,000 to $92,000 a year according to current postings. So principals assemble SF330s themselves on nights and weekends, or buy InDesign template packs and manually re-key content into every new pursuit. The software that exists is built for bigger BD teams: Unanet (Cosential) and QorusDocs are enterprise CRM-plus-proposal suites, and the closest AI-native competitor, RFPM.ai, states its own market as "AEC firms with 15-200 staff," explicitly self-selecting out of the smallest firms. That leaves roughly 9,000 to 10,000 small US AEC firms still doing this by hand. Timing: elevated public infrastructure spending is pushing more small firms into qualifications-based-selection pursuits, and AI drafting is now good enough at structured, criteria-matched writing to make this workflow buildable by a small team.

Total Addressable Market (TAM)

Bottom-up:

• Small engineering firms: ACEC (American Council of Engineering Companies) represents 5,500+ independent firms nationally, and industry data cited by ACEC Massachusetts and ENR states three out of four firms employ fewer than 25 people. That puts small engineering firms at roughly 4,100.
• Small architecture firms: NAICS 541310 (Architectural Services) has 21,972 active US establishments per NAICS.com. Assumption (not externally sourced): roughly 20 to 25 percent of these pursue public-sector qualifications-based work such as schools and municipal buildings, putting small architecture firms at roughly 5,000.
• Combined addressable base: roughly 9,000 to 10,000 small US AEC firms that pursue publicly funded QBS work.
• ACV assumption (not externally sourced): $2,000 a year, priced below Unanet's multi-seat CRM cost and above a one-time template purchase, justified by displacing even a fraction of a $55,000 to $92,000 coordinator's time.
• TAM: 9,500 firms x $2,000 = approximately $19 million ARR.
• SAM (firms bidding 3+ QBS opportunities a year, an assumed 50 percent of the base): approximately 4,750 firms x $2,000 = approximately $9.5 million ARR.
• SOM (realistic year 1-2 capture): 150 to 300 customers, approximately $300,000 to $600,000 ARR.

Monetization strategy

Subscription SaaS billed per firm. The firm principal or office manager pays because every pursuit they win off a faster, better-matched SOQ is worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in contract value, and every pursuit they lose to a formatting or matching mistake costs the hours already sunk into it. They keep paying because the staff and project library compounds in value: each new project sheet and staff update makes the next SOQ faster to generate, so switching costs rise every quarter.

Pricing strategy

• Starter: $99/month. Up to 5 staff profiles, 1 user, unlimited SOQ generations. The entry point for solo principals and 2-3 person firms.
• Team (anchor): $249/month. Up to 20 staff profiles, 3 users, priority support. Sized for the 5-15 person firms that are the core target.
• Growth: $499/month. Unlimited staff profiles, 6 users. For firms approaching 15-25 employees who are outgrowing the tool but not yet ready for Unanet or RFPM.ai's price point.

Lead magnet

A free, no-signup "SF330 Instant Grader": upload a past SF330 or SOQ PDF, or paste an RFQ's stated evaluation criteria, and get back an instant scored critique flagging missing past-performance matches, weak project relevance, and formatting gaps against the solicitation's own criteria.

Social proof that the problem exists

• Federal Proposal Coordinator SF330 job listings, ZipRecruiter: shows a standing $55,000-92,000/year job category that exists specifically because SF330 assembly is manual, recurring work small firms have to staff for.
• SMPS Career Center, Proposal Coordinator listings: the Society for Marketing Professional Services, the AEC industry's own marketing trade association, actively lists these openings, credible industry-body evidence rather than vendor content.
• Stone Group Architects, AEC Proposal Coordinator job posting: a real small architecture firm's own listing describing the tight-deadline, high-attention-to-detail SF330 grind it needs a hire for.
• Creative Cresco, $279 SF330 InDesign/Word template pack: firms without proposal staff already pay real money for a manual template workaround, direct evidence of unmet need at the low end of the market.
• Govology, "Peak Proposal Prowess" SF330 production training course: a paid course teaching firms how to produce SF330s by hand, further evidence of a real capability gap smaller firms pay to close.

Competitors

• RFPM.ai: early-stage AI-native proposal workspace (staff profiles, project sheets, an "Ask RFPM" AI agent). States its market as AEC firms with 15-200 staff.
• Unanet CRM by Cosential: the dominant AEC CRM-plus-proposal-automation incumbent, built for larger architecture, engineering, and construction firms, with entry pricing around $24/user/month before multi-user CRM implementation costs.
• QorusDocs: generic enterprise AI proposal and RFP software with an AEC-specific landing page, Microsoft 365-integrated, positioned for larger business-development teams.
• Flowcase: international CV and portfolio management SaaS that has started marketing toward SF330 automation, not AEC-native.
• Creative Cresco (templates) and "It's A Go Pursuits" (a human done-for-you SF330 service): manual and services alternatives, evidence the market still leans on paid labor and templates because software has not reached the small-firm price point.

What competitors offer now

Unanet and QorusDocs sell full CRM and business-development suites: pipeline tracking, contact management, proposal automation, and reporting, sized and priced for firms with a dedicated BD team and multiple seats. RFPM.ai is closest in spirit (structured staff and project data feeding an AI proposal agent) but is explicitly built and priced for 15-200 staff firms. None of them offer a lightweight, single-purpose tool priced for a 3 to 10 person firm that just needs a fast, well-matched SF330 or SOQ draft a few times a month. The manual-workaround products (InDesign templates, production training courses) confirm the gap: firms are paying for partial solutions because no software fits their size.

What can be done differently to attract customers

Undercut every competitor on both price and scope: no CRM, no pipeline, no multi-seat licensing, just the qualifications package itself, priced for firms Unanet, QorusDocs, and RFPM.ai all price out of. Lead with the free Instant Grader instead of a sales demo, so a principal can get a useful critique of a pursuit they already lost before ever talking to anyone, then convert them once they see the tool understands SF330 structure and evaluation criteria.