Like many other tech companies, BAO Systems has faced a number of frustrations in trying to work with the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to its CEO, Steffen Tengesdal.
As a subcontractor on USAID projects, his company found itself spending much of its limited time and resources helping prime contractors win bids — with little reward for BAO Systems, which often got little or no work, let alone financial benefit, from the deal.
“We were simply used as ‘window dressing’ for the proposal as a small business and one that can deliver on the technical portions of a contract that USAID knows the ‘big dev’ prime contractors have often struggled with,” Tengesdal told Devex in an email.