Winning in GovCon: Inside Federal Contracting, Capture Strategy & Tech Transformation

Want to break into federal contracting or finally start winning more deals? This episode of FORUM Power is your insider playbook.

We’re diving deep into government contracting, business development strategy, capture management, and federal tech trends—from AI and cybersecurity to procurement reform. If you’re a millennial professional building a career in tech, consulting, or entrepreneurship, this is the real-world insight you’ve been looking for.

Our guest, Frederick Deese, CEO of Visual Connections, shares how he scaled a multi-million dollar IT contracting company to $215M in federal contracts—and what most companies still get wrong about competing in GovCon.

After serving on two Gulf tours in the U.S. Navy, Frederick went on to lead multiple businesses across industries. In this conversation, he breaks down how to build sustainable pipelines, winning partnerships, and scalable growth strategies in one of the most competitive markets out there.

In this episode, we cover:
• How to break into federal contracting and GovCon
• The evolution of business development & capture strategy
• What separates companies that win vs. those that stall
• How to stand out in crowded federal RFP competitions
• The shift toward AI, cloud, cybersecurity & data analytics in government
• Smart teaming strategies that actually work
• Where the biggest GovCon opportunities are heading into 2026
• Career advice for building success in federal technology & consulting

If you’re serious about scaling in GovCon, modernizing your tech strategy, or leveling up your career—this episode delivers.

🎧 Tap in now and start building smarter, winning faster.

#GovCon #FederalContracting #BusinessDevelopment #CaptureManagement #TechCareers #Cybersecurity #AI #CloudComputing #Entrepreneurship #MillennialProfessionals #Leadership #PodcastGrowth #FederalTech #VisualConnections #FORUMPowerPodcast

FORUM POWER Podcast delivers insider conversations on GovCon and federal IT leadership, hosted by Mary Ann Brown, President of FORUM.
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Transcript

Speaker 0:02

The choices leaders make the need to make how the government works tomorrow. Into a demanded conversation with believers that the forefront of federal innovation and government foreign power examines modernization, procurement, cybersecurity, AI, and more. This is Forum Power. And now, here is your host, Mary Ann Brown.

Speaker 1 0:24

I'm speaking today with Fred Deese, the CEO of Visual Connections. Thank you for joining me today, Fred.

Speaker 2 0:30

Thank you, Mary Ann I really appreciate it for being here.

Speaker 1 0:32

You've built an impressive career at the intersection of technology, business development, and federal contracting. Can you take us back to the beginning? What drew you into the government contracting space and what's kept you engaged over the years?

Speaker 2 0:46

So, as you know, I was a Navy cryptologist, um U.S. Navy veteran. I got out of the military in 2004. And during my transition, I, of course, continued to work with I see the intelligence community at the Pentagon, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, et cetera, as a contractor. Once I got out of the military, shortly after I understood this world of government contracting, did a consultant on the large firm. Didn't really give me a lot of insights into what federal contract is like. However, I did get a chance to dip my toe into the big water of federal contracting. And over the next couple of years, I did a lot of different consulting jobs as a 1099, and I started to clearly understand that there's more money to be made if you had your own business. So in 2007, I started to kick off my own venture, start converting my 1099 contracts to just me as a subcontractor. And I just grew from there. But what got me excited is, of course, you know, leaving the military and being able to quadruple my income for my family. And that gave me a little taste, and I wanted to take it even further.

Speaker 1 2:06

Before we go much further, what did you say you were a Navy cryptologist? What is that?

Speaker 2 2:10

In a lot of spaces, is operation support for the military forces. My particular role was a lot of encryption, decryption of signals that's going in and out of the field. Some roles can be considered a hacker, you know, blue and red team, but essentially it's all things IT and encryption for the Naval Intelligence Forces.

Speaker 1 2:36

You've held leadership roles across multiple organizations in the GovCon ecosystem. How has your approach to business development and growth evolved as you've progressed through different stages of career career?

Speaker 2 2:49

It has evolved. What haven't changed is business is still done in bars and happy hours and golf courses. So that part hasn't changed. It's still a relationship business, is who you know in this business. So business development from that standpoint has never changed. When I first got started, a consultant formed but with a company called Vips that later was purchased by General Dynamics. And a lot of my BD was really just sitting there in the cubicle, being at the right place at the right time and talking to the right people at GDIT to give me subcontracts. Over time, my vision developed to be more than just a subcontractor. I wanted to be a prime contractor. So I had to involve into understanding the federal contract and landscape from a standpoint of understanding what a contract officer, a CEO is, understanding what cores are, how to get to the program to introduce myself, understanding how the SBA can help me, obstables and et cetera. So I had to quickly involve into this quote-unquote business person because I always see myself as a technologist and behind the scene. So I had to adapt to be able to help grow my business over time and put myself out there in front of directly with the customers and other potential primes, not just GDIT.

Speaker 1 4:10

Technology is constantly evolving, and federal agencies are under enormous pressure to modernize. From your perspective, what's the biggest shift you're seeing on how agencies are approaching technology procurement and the partnerships today?

Speaker 2 4:24

My answer is not going to be too unique from anyone else's answer here. The biggest piece is AI and the direction from this administration, ensuring that agencies are using it and using it appropriately. I was introduced to AI or machine learning slash AI at an early age in teenagers in the late 90s, early 2000s, being a cryptologist. Over time, it has, of course, changed, but um it's some of the similar root technologies are still in place. And, you know, I think right now this administration and their direction to agencies to use it as much as possible have really changed the landscape. At first, it was very hands-off from the agencies. You can't use this, you can't use ChatGPT, et cetera. Um, now it's more the agencies are adapting AI a lot. And our organizations are shifting to now starting to build agentic AI products to help the government as they transition from your traditional technology and COTS and GOTS products to more gentic AI software.

Speaker 1 5:34

So building pipelines and winning contracts in the federal space requires a unique blend of relationship building, technical credibility, and strategic positioning. What's your philosophy on developing sustainable business development strategies that actually will work?

Speaker 2 5:50

One contract at a time is, I think, my general philosophy. The reality is when it comes to ensuring that you have the type of sustainability that can be trusted by the type of employees that you want to attract within your organization. Because, you know, I think that's the core to building a sustainable company/slash infrastructure, is building that credibility that you sign this, say, five-year contract, which is one year, and each year is an option, and ensuring that you have the credibility of being able to execute those optional years and knowing how to ensure that you build a relationship with the customer, you have the trust of the core contract and the officer representative, and you can keep those contracts because if you start building a reputation that your contracts are getting canceled, not by you know Doge or something that you did or you're starting to see bad CPARs, that goes through the industry and people starting to recognize that. So, first and foremost, make sure that you be able to deliver, then that influence your pipeline to be able to deliver for more customers, which in turn creates a sustainable business in federal contracting.

Speaker 1 7:09

And you've worked with both large primes and smaller companies. How does the business development playbook differ depending on the company's size? And what advantage do mid-tier and small businesses have that they don't often leverage?

Speaker 2 7:23

Dealing with mid-sized firms, let's just say those firms that's under a, let's just say a half a billion dollars compared to dealing with the multi-billion dollar organizations like GDIT and others, can be uniquely different. As an example, the mid-sized businesses still growing. And again, you say you know half a billion dollars, you're still growing, but they're still growing that large system integration credibility with their clients. They are sometimes still growing. So they may need your relationship building with the particular clients. They may need your insights from a past performance perspective. However, these mega larges like the boozers and the GDITs of the world, it could just only be that they need your set-aside or disadvantaged status or your vehicle to work with. So depends on a deal, it can be different. One of the things that I found most mid-sized large businesses are interested in is a consistency when it comes to the type of work that you do as a small business, in my case, and B that credibility with the customer. Being able to walk into the agency and/or the customer, whether it's a lunch meeting or a happy hour, large businesses, don't matter how big they are, sometimes they need small businesses like my company to be able to help them grow. So it's a little bit different when dealing with mid-size versus large businesses. But at the end of the day, understanding first and foremost, as a small business that wants to be a partner to large business, is understanding their mission, understanding the type of agencies and contracts that they will need to be able to grow their portfolio is going to put you in a really good spot as a small business if you're constantly studying the type of companies that you want to do business with based off the goals and the missions of your organization.

Speaker 1 9:25

Let's talk about capture a little bit. What separates companies that consistently win from those that have great solutions, but they struggle to get that traction? And what do you think most companies miss on that capture approach?

Speaker 2 9:38

One of the things that we consistently miss is that blocking and tackling. I see capture in business development similar to the game of football. Now, granted, a lot of people know me, they know I'm not into sports, but I've been to enough games and my kids' practice to understand that it doesn't matter how good you are in an organization and how much you practice as an organization, it's all about blocking and tackling. If you're not doing the things that you need to do to protect your quarterback or open up a hole for a running back, none of it matters. So, similar in federal contracting, sometimes we forget that blocking and tackling. So, in this case, blocking and tackling is doing your research early in the process. Um, let me ask you to take a step back. Before you do your research, year over year, you need to make sure that your organization has a strategic plan, that your organization understands the type of agencies that you want to go after for that particular year. Sometimes you could do it for the next three years, but the type of organization, whether it's Fed CIB or DOD, and specifically, is it healthcare, is it Department of Transportation, et cetera? That's first and foremost. Then you need to align your capabilities with those agencies' missions. Once you do that, then you are now starting to shape your strategic plan and your opportunities for your pipeline should be developed from that initial start. Now your pipeline is influenced by strategy and not by just, you know, you're putting your finger up in the air and see where the win is going. So that's first and foremost. Now that gets into the capture, ensuring that you're looking at the exhibit 300s, you're getting them ahead of your customer, you understand where their money comes from, who you're competing with, etc. So capture is extremely important. And what we all sometimes forget is that blocking, tackling, and making sure that we are protecting our work, you know, when it comes to incumbency and that we're growing and we're following a strategic plan. So I want to remind my team and everyone else, especially small businesses, that continue to focus on blocking and tackling, and you can be consistent on winning in the federal space.

Speaker 1 12:00

I like that comparison to football. The federal marketplace, they've become increasingly competitive with more companies chasing the same opportunities, especially with the latest administration. So, how do organizations differentiate themselves and stand out in these crowded competitions?

Speaker 2 12:15

I'm sure others have said it, but I know I've heard Alexa at Forum say it before. Stop chasing, start shaping. So back to the capture and having a strategic plan. If you're one of the small businesses or businesses that's shaping and you understand months out, in some cases years out, that an agency is tasked with a particular need to do something that's mandated by Congress and you know how the funding is being structured, and you're getting in front of those agencies ahead of time, and you're aligning your capabilities to how you can help the agencies achieve, and you're writing your white papers even before an RFI, that's when you end up in a situation where you're shaping. And so while everyone else, say a year later when the actual RFP drop, while everybody else is chasing, you've already shaped it. Now that doesn't mean that you're gonna win the work, but it means that the customer understands who you are, the customer understands that you understand their mission, and you didn't have time to work with your team from a solutioning perspective to ensure that what you're proposing to the government is actually something that they're familiar with and that they are open to hearing from you. So, you know, that's where is it really important that you start a year, 18 months, some cases two years out to be able to start shaping opportunities? That's why strategic plans are very important when it comes to going at the opportunities so you can have that consistency of winning it over and over.

Speaker 1 13:55

Okay, and teaming and partnerships, they're critical on GovCon, but not all of them actually work out when it's time to execute. What's your framework for building teaming relationships that create genuine value rather than just checking the boxes on proposals?

Speaker 2 14:11

Research, research, research. You don't always get it right and they don't always work out. You know, there could be a shift in where the direction the government would like to go or the customer would like to go. There could be a shift in the type of vehicle they decide to use. So my framework or methodology is centered around research. As an example, if I am working at the VA and I'm looking to bid on, let's say, a contract that has to do with modernization for EHRM. One of the things I want to first do is a understand the requirement, B, research the landscape, what companies are doing what in that space. And then trying to get some insights into how well they're doing. So that's first and foremost. Sort of the second layer is to understand the entire portfolio of that competitorslash partner to understand is the VA their focus, or is just one of many things that they do. The last thing is to try to get a sense by way of knowing your customer of the appetite of bringing a partner and what that partner should look like. They may have a preference that you look for a partner only to satisfy a disadvantaged status, or they may be looking for you to bring a partner where they think that you may have a gap. Let's say they may feel you have a gap in cybersecurity within this particular modernization. They will give you an indication that that's something that you all don't do natively. You may want to go to a partner. And then, you know, I and then with all of that, you listen to your customer on their thoughts on what you think a partner will look like, and then you can go from there. And I think from that experience and using that methodology, you lessen the chance that you get into bed with the wrong partner.

Speaker 1 16:06

Okay. And you've had experience across different agencies and mission areas. How do you approach understanding diverse agency missions and tailoring your business development and strategical strategies accordingly?

Speaker 2 16:20

Yeah, that is a difficult one. A lot of what you're talking about should be happening at the strategic planning part of your organization, and you should do them annually, even if the strategic plan is for the next three years. And it's it's really about what do you want to do as an organization? Some organizations um feel that it's best for them to not have a diverse portfolio of agencies, and that it's smart for them as an organization to only focus on, say, a portfolio like a health portfolio that would include HHS, the VA, and DHA. And some just say it really has to do with the agency, and they want to build an organization that's just about that agency. So it really depends. Specific to my organization, I'd like a lot of diversity when it comes to diversity in civilian agencies and also to diversity in the portfolio of the capabilities where we are talking about medical coding, but also to talking about modernization. So doing our strategic planning internal to our executive leadership, we have a mix of capabilities that we would like to be implemented for that year. Say we are 20% of our contracts that we win in FY 2026 needs to be cybersecurity rated related. Then the other 80% something. So we have that sort of view. And then we also too have our top five agencies that we would like to get into rather is three of them are currently agencies that we're doing today, and then the other two are new entry. But a lot of that needs to be decided doing your strategic planning. So when you start thinking about how to do that best, is to ensure that your executives, you know, from a CEO perspective, in my case, understand what type of diversity that you would like in your organization, whether it's portfolio diversity or agency diversity or capabilities diversity. So your team can now powwow together to be able to provide you a direction that you should take for your organization.

Speaker 1 18:37

All right. And the transition from traditional IT services to those emerging technologies, AI, cloud, cybersecurity, what has that's really reshaped what agencies need? How have you navigated helping organizations pivot their offerings while still maintaining credibility?

Speaker 2 18:56

I'm gonna sound like a broke record here, but know your customer. Each customer is gonna be different. And each customer, because they're different, gonna have different views on new technology these days is generative AI and agentic AI. So know your customer first and foremost, because some customers are gonna want to jump in on the deep end, and you're gonna know you need to bring only enterprise offerings because something that ChatGPT can do and they can do themselves and/or do it through Copilot, that's not a service andor product that they're interested in. But then there's some organizations that are want to keep things fairly basic. They have ChatGPT, they have Copilot. However, they prefer to pay an organization to do it. So you need to know your customer. And then once you know your customer, now you can find ways to be able to lean in. But before you do all of that, there needs to be part of your organization that's constantly abreast to all the new technologies and understand the direction of the organization to be able to figure out where to put those new technologies and recommendations to your customer within the strategic plan itself. That way you can move as a cohesive unit as your organization to be able to address the needs and wants of your customers.

Speaker 1 20:19

So federal procurement continues to evolve from traditional contracting to OTAs, commercial solutions, and various acquisition reform efforts. What changes have you seen that are actually making a difference and what still needs improvement?

Speaker 2 20:35

Some of the big things that I've noticed making improvement with the government is ensuring and being a little bit more prescribed about what things are inheritmental of government type tasks. So when you think about what happened with Doge, is a lot of what happened with Doge from my perspective, outside of some of the decisions like around USAID and others, is that they felt that some of the administrative tasks should be inheritmentally done by the government itself. For instance, project scheduling or project coordination, different things like that. So I think that was a good thing for the organization to go back to basics of these are certain things that you should be doing as an organization. So I definitely like that part of what came out over the last, say, 12 to 12 or so months with this new administration. One of the other things that I'm not particularly a big fan of is the undecided thoughts around using GSA to procure certain types of contracts and no longer using IDIQs, agency IDIQs, I think that is gonna become challenging. And we can already see that being challenging right now with certain agencies. They already have BPAs. Blanket purchase agreements and IDIQs that's already in place. And now the government is saying, use this GSA schedule. In a lot of cases, their type of vendors may not be available on a GSA schedule. So now they're creating potential risk of going into a pool of contractors that don't know the organization. Or they could be in a situation where it's just the procurement lifecycle is different than what they're used to, like the VA using GSA mask versus using their own IDIQ like T4NG. So those are at least, you know, one thing that I encourage the administration and the agencies to keep doing when it comes to sniffing out things that the government should be doing themselves. And then on the other side, things that just need to be a little bit more cognizant of which agencies you tell to use a GSA schedule versus what they already have access to when it comes to their own internal BPAs and IDIQs.

Speaker 1 23:01

Okay, so now looking at the current federal landscape, what their budget pressures, the modernization priorities, the workforce challenges, where do you see the biggest opportunities for contractors in 2026 and beyond?

Speaker 2 23:15

From my perspective, I'm an IT guy. Anytime I hear modernization, I get excited. I'm a big fan of watching like medieval and Viking type shows. Saying modernization is like telling me there's a new Viking show out. I get excited. I get prepared. I get thinking about what my weekend will look like. When I'm gonna watch it, make sure that nobody bothers me during that time frame. That's how I get excited with modernization because what it does for us is visual connections. We like to focus on advanced technologies and helping our customers not only move things from point A to point B, but actually taking that point A and moving it to a whole different type of scale, where now you're thinking about AA and AB instead of A to B. So that's one of the things that I get excited is all the new modernization efforts, especially when it has to do with things that I really care about, like healthcare and in particular, you know, Medicare and Medicaid. I have a lot of family members that's on Medicare and Medicaid. And I want to make sure that VC works to keep those types of healthcare reforms intact. So I get excited also when it's healthcare modernization, but anything modernization definitely helps me get out of bed in the morning time.

Speaker 1 24:37

That's awesome. So now, professionals looking to build a successful career in federal technology and business development like you have, what advice would you give them about what it really takes to succeed in this industry?

Speaker 2 24:50

Uh perseverance is what it takes. That's the advice I would take. As we all know, people that's listening to this podcast, the federal government life cycle of trying to procure work is extremely long. It could take from identifying an opportunity to winning the opportunity can take two to three years. And so you have to have you know that patience and perseverance to just stick at it, even when you lose. One of the things I would always encourage, um, if anyone ever asks me, having patience and perseverance in this industry is going to take you a long way. Things go really fast when you're having fun, but it goes really slow when you're not having fun. So if you want to ensure that you have longevity in this industry and you are delivering products and services that really helps move the needle for your agencies, my best advice is to have that patience to sustain and perseverance to just stay on track and continue to stick at trying to deliver the solutions that you think will help the agencies that you would like to work with.

Speaker 1 26:06

Okay. All right. Well, now we're gonna wrap up the interview with some fun, rapid fire questions. Just the first thing that comes to your mind, okay?

Speaker 2 26:15

Okay.

Speaker 1 26:16

All right. So what's one word to describe successful business development in GovCon?

Speaker 2 26:21

Execution.

Speaker 1 26:22

Most underrated skill for federal technology professionals.

Speaker 2 26:27

Listening.

Speaker 1 26:28

Coffee or tea to feel those long capture strategy sessions.

Speaker 2 26:32

Uncaffeinated tea. Decaf or whatever the decaf tea. That's two words, but decaf tea.

Speaker 1 26:39

Best career advice you ever received. Doesn't have to be one word.

Speaker 2 26:43

Best career advice. It was from someone that I don't particularly like, but I could also too. I mean, I'm not gonna say the name, so podcasters, you know, you don't get the chance to be like, oh, Fred, talking sh*t about somebody. Um, so I would say the best advice that I was given, don't try to be all things to everybody.

Speaker 1 27:04

That's some good advice because it's very hard to not try to be exactly. If you could change one thing about federal procurement, what would it be?

Speaker 2 27:14

One thing that's a big stickler for me is how they go by sending out source assault notices to be able to meet certain disadvantaged goals. And I'll probably give you more than you actually wanted for this one, but this is kind of a pet peeve for me. Is that say an agency is lacking service disabled veteran owned small business, say the goal is 5%, and they know a quarter through the fiscal year, they're only at like a half a percent. Typically, what they would do is they will send out a source of salt notice that's specific outside of the VA that is not specific to one particular disadvantaged category. So they'll say, Oh, small businesses, women on Hub Zone, 8A, SDBSB, et cetera, respond to this. And what tends to happen is say, for instance, there's an organization or agency that leans very heavy to 8A. What tends to happen is the SDVSBs don't even respond because they already know it's gonna go 8.8. So in this case, where you already know you're felling behind a particular disadvantaged category, in this case, SDBSB, I would rather the government to just send a source of salt notice only for SDVSBs to respond. That way they can be able to get a lot of SDVSBs that respond, and they're not thinking that this is gonna go A, so I'm not even interested in responding. And then that can help them meet their goals quicker by getting that contract set aside for SDVSBs to be able to meet that 5% goal.

Speaker 1 28:51

Well, Fred, thank you for popping out and speaking with us today.

Speaker 2 28:55

Definitely thank you, Marianne. I really appreciate it for having me.

Speaker 28:58

You've been listening to Forum Power. Stay connected by following Forum on LinkedIn or visit govforum.io. Thank you for listening. Be sure to join us again for a new episode and a deeper look at leadership and action.