Become a FINNDER
Your network is the FINND’s
discovery engine
FINNDERs bring value to the FINND by recommending companies and capabilities out of their own networks. In return, the FINND brings FINNDERs into the Discovery Summit process and gives them insight into what government sponsors actually need.
Free to join
Recommend a company. Earn a seat at the Summit.
How the FINNDER network works
From an agency’s interest list to a seat at the Summit
The FINND sits between government sponsors and the people who know where innovation is happening. Every Discovery Summit runs through the same five steps.
- 01
The agency
The agency shares its interests
A sponsoring agency gives the FINND its interests list: the technologies and capabilities it is looking for.
- 02
The FINND
The FINND passes it to FINNDERs
The interests list goes out to the FINNDER network, so you know exactly what a sponsor wants to see.
- 03
You
You recommend
Recommend companies and capabilities from your own network through the FINND Discovery Engine.
- 04
The FINND + agency
The Summit selects
Recommended companies are screened, and the ones chosen present directly to the agency at a Discovery Summit.
- 05
You
You get the invitation
If your recommendation is chosen, you are invited to the Summit and receive the details of every screened and presenting company.
Why FINNDERs matter
Innovation happens in unlikely places
On the back of a napkin in a busy restaurant. In the basement or garage of an inventor. In the back room of a government facility, or on a plane ride at 30,000 feet.
Dozens of industry partners, professional associations and individuals have been trying to help the U.S. Government find innovation, and some good outlets for doing so have emerged. Yet the limiting factor for every one of them comes down to a single question: how inclusive and effective is your network?
FINNDERs are the links between users and providers, innovators and implementers. Most FINNDERs are confined to the area they know best, whether a technology like cyber security or a community like academia.
The FINND provides the forum and the incentive for finders to share in a larger network and work together across technology areas and communities, to the benefit of our national security enterprise.
The benefits of becoming a FINNDER
No cost
- Targeted lists of each sponsoring agency’s current technology interests
- Direct input to the government sponsor on capabilities to consider
- An invitation to the Discovery Summit when a company or capability you recommended presents
- The list of every company chosen to present at the Summit
- Your own account on the FINND online Discovery Engine
For government employees
What is a GOV FINNDER?
A GOV FINNDER is any government employee who wants to join a network of innovators connecting government resources to government needs, with the goal of saving the government duplicative costs.
Government employees already in the GOV FINNDER network come from
ArmyNavyAir ForceMarine CorpsOSDUSD(I)SOCOMSTRATCOMCIADNIDIANSANGANROFBIDHSDepartment of StateDepartment of EnergyOPMFCCU.S. SenateU.S. House
The benefits of becoming a GOV FINNDER
No cost
- Expand your government network outside your usual lanes
- Collaborate with other government innovators
- Find existing government needs for your capabilities
- Find existing government capabilities for your needs
- Help the government find efficiencies
Ready to start finding? Both FINNDER and GOV FINNDER accounts are created in the FINND Discovery Engine.
Questions first? Email info@finnd.org or call 703-574-0215.