Free, practical guides for science-based founders. Each guide is open-access — read it, share it, or download the source material to adapt. New guides are announced first in the Slack Community.
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A practical, low-cost setup guide for first-time founders. Walks through forming a Delaware C-Corp, getting an EIN, picking the right launch documents and accounting stack, and avoiding the common mistakes — with a real $500 budget breakdown (Bizee + Cloudflare + TurboTax + business email) and notes on free hosting via Cloudflare Pages.
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A primer on the SBIR/STTR process for climate-tech focused founders. Built from a deck given in talks and workshops across the startup ecosystem. Evan Taylor draws on a track record of $30M+ awarded across EERE / BETO / ARPA-E / SBIR programs at DOE, DOT, and USDA over the last 8 years — including 11+ awarded SBIR proposals and a 75%+ DOE success rate as a co-investigator and commercialization-development cofounder.
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A curated directory of where to find open SBIR/STTR funding opportunity announcements across the major U.S. federal research agencies — DOE, DOD, NSF, NIH, NASA, EPA, USDA, NOAA, DOT and the military service branches. Includes the SAM.gov registration prerequisite and supporting references on Manufacturing and Technology Readiness Levels.
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A best-practices setup guide for the accounts, identifiers, and team workflows you need before your first SBIR, STTR, or research-grant submission. Covers the shared grants@ inbox, SAM.gov / UEI / CAGE, Login.gov, ORCID, NIH SciENcv (auto-generating BioSketches and Current & Pending Support), Grants.gov AOR designation, DOE PAMS' brutal lockout behavior, and the Adobe-Acrobat-required PDF forms that quietly corrupt in macOS Preview.
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Redacted copies of successfully awarded Department of Energy Phase I and Phase II/IIB proposals — narratives, market opportunity sections, and commercialization plans. Includes Letter of Commitment templates, Letter of Support examples, and Letter of Intent examples to help founders structure their own proposals. All personally identifying information and proprietary IP has been removed.
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Worker classification (W-2 exempt vs non-exempt vs 1099), the narrow lane for contractors in a lab environment, and the OSHA / SDS / hazard-communication compliance that comes with running an R&D facility. Includes load-bearing rules already (lab techs are almost always non-exempt, 1099 rarely fits sample-prep work); fuller hiring & management material is in progress for later this summer.
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The follow-on to The $500 Founder Guide. Picks up where formation ends — state and federal registrations beyond grants, D&O / GL / Product Liability / R&D Lab insurance, OSHA applicability thresholds, hiring, IP assignments, and federal-contracting basics.
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