We have sat on the other side of the table.
Set-Aside Consulting is the brand of Cornerstone SAC LLC, founded by a career contracting professional who spent 28+ years in federal contracting, including leading a Regional Contracting Office.
Capable businesses lose contracts for reasons that have nothing to do with the work.
Over 28+ years in federal contracting as a Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist, and as the Director of a Regional Contracting Office, our founder watched the same thing happen again and again. Capable businesses, ready to perform the work, lost on the proposal: a missed instruction, a weak price volume, a compliance slip the evaluators could not score past.
Just as often, the failure came after the award. A business that could do the work well fell behind on deliverables, missed a modification, or let the schedule slip, and lost the follow-on. Not for want of skill at the actual job, but for want of someone minding the contract.
Set-Aside Consulting exists to close both gaps. We write the proposal that wins the work, and we keep the contract on track once you have it, so capable firms are not beaten by the paperwork on either end.
We know how a contracting officer thinks, because we have been one.
Federal contracting is not commercial sales with more forms. It runs on its own rules, its own evaluation logic, and its own idea of what a compliant, competitive offer looks like. We spent our careers inside that world, on the government's side of the table, deciding which proposals won and which were non-responsive or missed the mark.
Every consultant we engage is a former Contracting Officer with 15 or more years of experience. That is a standard we hold, not a target we hope to reach. When we prepare your proposal, we build it the way the government will read it, because that is the seat we came from.
Agencies and environments we have worked from the inside
- NASA Kennedy Space Center
- Department of Defense (now Department of War), overseas and stateside
- U.S. Department of State
- Department of Labor, Headquarters
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of the Army | Contracting Command
- U.S. Army Health Contracting Activity
- Department of the Air Force | Air Force District of Washington Contracting Directorate
- Director of a Regional Contracting Office, federal government
- Director of Contracts, private industry
Contract types and vehicles
A representative sample, not an exhaustive list. If your pursuit involves a vehicle not listed here, ask us. The odds are good we have worked with it.
- Firm-fixed-price (FFP), time-and-materials (T&M), and labor hours
- Supplies and services, including non-personal services
- GSA schedules, BPAs, IDIQs, and MATOCs
- NASA SEWP and task orders
- Construction, design-build, and architect-engineer (A/E) services under FAR Part 36
- Qualifications-based A/E selection under the Brooks Act, 40 U.S.C. 1101
- Two-phase design-build selection procedures
- Maintenance and facilities
- Federal regional medical centers, stateside and overseas
- WAWF and IPP invoicing and payment systems
A consultant to your firm, not a subcontractor.
We work for and with you. Nothing we do flows down clauses to you, requires consent to subcontract, counts against your limitations on subcontracting, or raises an affiliation question with SBA. Your authorized representative stays the government's only point of contact. We give you the contract administration bench for a fraction of what building one in-house would cost.
Why we are called Cornerstone.
A cornerstone is the first stone set in a foundation. It is the reference point every other stone is laid against, the piece that keeps the whole structure true.
Our name reflects that idea, and the faith that grounds how we work: with integrity, honesty, and a commitment to doing right by the people who trust us. We aim to be that steady reference point for the businesses we serve, the firm foundation they can build on.
