I’ve spent the past 25 years working in the GovCon space across delivery, capture, and proposal management. For the last two years, I’ve served as the VP of Industry Solutions at GovDash, where I focus on helping federal contractors turn their past performance into a strategic advantage.

About four years into my career, I was offered my first capture role.

Up until then, I’d been working as a program manager for a small business, managing CDC contracts in Colorado. My company was based in California, but I was our only employee in Colorado, supporting teams on-site. Then, leadership asked me to join the capture team to help expand our public health business beyond CDC into other agencies.

On paper, I wasn’t an obvious choice.

I didn’t have capture experience.

I didn’t have a big rolodex of contractor contacts.

I didn’t have a reputation or a history of big wins.

What I did have was about a year and a half of first-hand experience getting to know our employees on-site at CDC. I was visiting them regularly, taking them to lunch, and asking questions about their research. I learned the lifecycle of a tick from the scientists leading Lyme disease studies. I met their families at company events. I built relationships with their CDC supervisors and connected with the passion they had for the work.

What I lacked in capture experience, I made up for in understanding and respect for the mission. At the time, I didn’t realize how valuable that was. Looking back, it’s the most important thing I brought to the table, and it’s shaped how I approach capture and business development ever since.

The Contract That Seemed Out of Reach

In my first weeks as a capture manager, I came across an article about a huge NIH opportunity -  at the time, one of the largest contracts on the books.

On paper, we had no chance.

• We couldn’t prime it.

• We didn’t know the incumbent.

• We didn’t even know where to start.

But I knew the scope. I recognized the work. It was the same kind of life sciences and public health support we were already delivering at CDC. I knew we had a real story to tell, because I had connected to the outcome and to the humanity of the work. And I believed in it.

That belief gave me the confidence to try. I built a list of 150 people at the incumbent contractor and started cold-calling. One by one, I worked my way through, until eventually I reached the right person.

It turned out they were looking for small business partners.

When they asked about our work at CDC, I didn’t give them a polished pitch - I didn’t have one. What I did have was honesty. I told them about the people I’d spent time with, the problems we helped solve, and the missions we contributed to. I described it the way I’d experienced it. And it was enough.

They gave us a shot.

That was the start of a long-term relationship. The contract became a significant source of revenue for my company. My boss at the time eventually started his own firm and became a supplier through that program, and I later went to work for him. The ripple effects from that one pursuit stretched far beyond the win itself.

The Lesson I Learned

What won us that partnership wasn’t a polished pitch. It wasn’t deep relationships. It wasn’t me having decades of capture experience.

It was about humanizing our past performance. To make it tangible. To connect to the outcome and the mission, and to articulate it with confidence.

That’s what past performance really is. It’s not just a list of contracts. It’s the proof of how your work makes a difference.

And it’s the one thing that doesn’t change.

• People leave.

• Relationships shift.

• Even the best AI can only generate content; it can’t fabricate impact.

But past performance is permanent. It’s verifiable. It’s the one differentiator that nobody can take away from you.

That’s why it’s so critical to build teams and systems that don’t just file it away, but actually live it. When your capture and proposal teams understand your past performance at the human level, you create a culture that aims to do more than submit proposals. The goal becomes winning contracts because the mission is meaningful and your company is equipped to support it. 

How We Bring This to Life at GovDash

That philosophy is what I’ve carried into my role at GovDash. One of the first things I pushed for when I joined was Contract Cloud: a place where past performance isn’t static, but alive.

We built it to capture the whole story, not just PWS documents:

• Monthly status reports

• Deliverables

• CPARS

• Kudos from customers

• Notes from the employees doing the work

Then, we designed GovDash to layer in AI and proprietary processes that surface connections, identify relevance, and map your past performance directly to new opportunities.

It means your team doesn’t have to dig through file cabinets or disconnected systems to understand your history. Instead, they can interact with it. They can ask questions of it. They can see how today’s missions connect to tomorrow’s opportunities.

The impact is powerful:

• New hires can get “read in” fast.

• Capture managers can confidently identify where you have the strongest story to tell.

• Proposal teams can create solutions and write approaches rooted in mission impact, not just compliance.

The Takeaway

We didn't get a seat at the table because I had the deepest network or the most experience. It was because I knew our past performance and could speak to the humanity of it.

That mindset has guided me ever since.

• Past performance is your edge.

• AI can enhance it, but it can’t replace it.

• And when you bring it to life, you don’t just submit proposals, you win contracts.