SBA’s Associate General Counsel Confirms All Small Mentor-Protégé Agreements Processed Quickly

February 14, 2017

SBA Processing “All Small” Mentor-Proteges In Eight Days

Source: SmallGovCon, Steven Koprince, February 7, 2017

The SBA is processing the typical “All Small” Mentor-Protege Program application in a lightning-fast eight days.

Speaking at the National 8(a) Association 2017 Small Business Conference, John Klein, the SBA’s Associate General  Counsel for Procurement Law, confirmed that All Small mentor-protege agreements are being processed very quickly.  I was in the audience this morning for Mr. Klein’s comments, which also included many other interesting nuggets on the SBA’s new All Small Mentor-Protege Program.

Mr. Klein’s comments included the following:

  • Specificity of Mentor-Protege Agreements. When it comes to processing All Small mentor-protege agreements, the SBA is looking for specificity in terms of the assistance that the mentor will provide the protege.  The SBA wants to see the sort of detail that can be tracked and evaluated to determine whether it was actually provided (and, if so, whether it was successful).  Mr. Klein provided an example: a mentor committing to perform a certain type of training for a specific number of hours.
  • Focus on Protege.  The mentor-protege agreement should focus on the benefits that the arrangement will provide to the protege.  The SBA knows that joint venturing is an important reason why mentors and proteges alike pursue mentor-protege arrangements (and joint venturing should be mentioned in the agreement if the parties will pursue it), but joint venturing can’t be the primary focus of a successful mentor-protege agreement. READ MORE….

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