Question 1

What is BIDS?

Accepted Answer

BIDS (Business Intelligence and Discovery System) is a free government opportunity discovery platform for small businesses. It aggregates federal contract solicitations, grants, and award data from 13+ sources — SAM.gov, SBIR.gov, Grants.gov, Federal Register, USASpending, NIH, NSF, and more — and matches them to your business profile automatically.

Question 2

What is Award Intelligence?

Accepted Answer

Award Intelligence is a BIDS feature that tracks recently awarded federal contracts and grants — not just open solicitations. By monitoring USASpending, NIH RePORTER, NSF, and SBIR award databases, BIDS can surface expiring contracts and grants matched to your capabilities. When a contract ends, the agency almost always re-solicits the work — knowing the incumbent, award amount, and end date gives you a 3–6 month head start on the recompete.

Question 3

Is BIDS really free?

Accepted Answer

The core platform is free — sign up, build your profile, receive matched federal opportunity notifications, and use the full dashboard with no credit card required. Two paid tiers are available: Intelligence ($10/month) adds Award Intelligence recompete data and state & local procurement matches. Agent ($35/month) includes everything in Intelligence plus AI Proposal Brief generation, TPOC Outreach drafts, and Past Performance tracking. The free tier will always include federal solicitation matching.

Question 4

What is the Agent tier?

Accepted Answer

The Agent tier ($35/month) is the full BIDS experience for businesses that are actively submitting proposals. It includes: AI Proposal Brief — Claude generates a tailored go/no-go brief and narrative strategy for any opportunity based on your profile, capabilities, and past performance. TPOC Outreach — AI drafts a pre-populated email to the Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) listed on an opportunity, helping you build rapport and get questions answered before they become part of the public record. Past Performance — track your awarded contracts and grants directly in BIDS so the AI can reference them when generating proposal content. All Intelligence tier features are included.

Question 5

How does opportunity matching work?

Accepted Answer

When you set up your profile (or scan your website), BIDS extracts business descriptor keywords and NAICS codes. Every 6 hours, newly ingested opportunities are scored against your profile using keyword and NAICS overlap. Opportunities scoring above 40% are added to your notification queue and surfaced in your dashboard with a match score.

Question 6

How do I build or update my profile?

Accepted Answer

Go to Profile → Business Details. Enter your website URL and click "Scan" to let the AI extract keywords automatically, or add tags manually. The more specific your tags and NAICS codes, the better your matches. You can update your profile at any time.

Question 7

How often does BIDS update its data?

Accepted Answer

All federal sources are refreshed every 6 hours. The match cron runs every hour, so new matches are queued within 30–90 minutes of a new opportunity being ingested. Free accounts receive a weekly email digest; Intelligence and Agent plans add real-time and daily alerts.

Question 8

What notification frequencies are available?

Accepted Answer

The free plan includes a weekly digest (one email per week). The Intelligence and Agent plans unlock real-time (email as soon as a match is found) and daily (one digest per day). Change your preference anytime in Profile → Preferences.

Question 9

What is the "intelligence" notification source toggle?

Accepted Answer

The Award Intelligence toggle is available on the Intelligence ($10/month) tier. When enabled, you receive notifications for award and recompete data — USASpending, NIH RePORTER, NSF, and SBIR awarded projects — in addition to open solicitations. You can turn it off in Profile → Preferences at any time without affecting your other notification sources.

Question 10

What is SAM.gov registration and do I need it?

Accepted Answer

SAM.gov (System for Award Management) registration is required to bid on most federal contracts. It's separate from BIDS — BIDS helps you find opportunities, but you'll need an active SAM.gov registration to be eligible to respond to many of them. Enter your SAM.gov active status and expiration date in your Profile so BIDS can filter and remind you appropriately.

Question 11

What are OTA and CSO notices?

Accepted Answer

Other Transaction Authority (OTA) and Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) are specialized DoD contracting mechanisms. They operate outside the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), allowing faster and more flexible awards — especially for technology and R&D. BIDS specifically monitors SAM.gov for these notices and tags them with the OTA badge so they're easy to filter for.

Question 12

I'm not getting matches. What should I check?

Accepted Answer

A few things to check: (1) Your profile tags should be specific — "cybersecurity" matches better than "technology". (2) Make sure your NAICS codes are set — NAICS matches score 100% automatically. (3) Check Profile → Preferences to confirm your notification sources are enabled. (4) New opportunities are ingested every 6 hours, so if you just signed up, check back in a few hours.

Question 13

How do I save or track an opportunity?

Accepted Answer

Click "Save" on any opportunity card in your dashboard to add it to your Saved list. Saved opportunities are available under the Saved tab in the navigation.

Question 14

Does BIDS cover state and local opportunities?

Accepted Answer

Yes — 44 state procurement portals are live now: Alaska, Virginia, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Indiana, Connecticut, South Carolina, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Delaware, New Hampshire, Arizona, New Jersey, Oregon, Arkansas, Tennessee, Washington, California, Iowa, Utah, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Hawaii, Ohio, Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maine, Colorado, Alabama, Missouri, Rhode Island, and Kansas. State and local matches are included in the Intelligence ($10/month) tier. More states are added continuously — if your state isn’t listed, email support@freedomproject.ai and it moves to the front of the queue.

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