In federal contracting, your network is your net worth, and most small businesses are working with one far too small to win what they are capable of winning.

On this Special Episode of GovCon Unscripted, host Chelsea Roberts continues the #RoadtoHUBZone series with Tim Hagerty, founder and CEO of TeamingPro and a board member of the HUBZone Contractors National Council.

Tim started TeamingPro after a lesson every small business learns the hard way: capability is rarely what holds you back, your network is. He breaks down what actually makes a strong teaming partner (past performance with the specific buyer, not just a matching capability), why teaming wins a larger slice of a bigger contract rather than a smaller slice of the same one, and how technology can take the friction out of finding and reaching the right partners. The conversation widens into the fragility of the domestic manufacturing supply chain and the reshoring opportunity, then lands on the 2026 National HUBZone Conference, where TeamingPro is powering the matchmaking so attendees arrive already knowing who they should meet.

2026 National HUBZone Conference, July 21 and 22 (golf outing July 20) at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia.

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome and who Tim is

01:00 What TeamingPro is and why he built it

02:00 The convention problem: 4,000 people, no blinking arrows

06:00 What makes a strong teaming partner

10:00 The network is the bottleneck, not capability

14:00 The bigger pie: small businesses winning together

17:00 TeamingPro’s role in the HUBZone Conference matchmaking

25:00 Manufacturing supply chain risk and reshoring

33:00 SBA momentum and opening up competition

36:00 How to reach Tim and TeamingPro

Resources:

Tim Hagerty's LinkedIn Profile

Chelsea's LinkedIn Profile

Other resources:

TeamingPro Website

HUBZone Contractors National Council

2026 National HUBZone Conference (register)

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A federal workforce leader recently told a room of executives they would be the last generation to manage an all-human team. Paul Serotkin has spent 40 years watching this industry change, and he thinks that one line explains most of what is coming next.

On today's episode of GovCon Unscripted, Paul Serotkin, CEO and founder of the Serotkin Group, joins Chelsea Roberts for a wide-ranging conversation on adapting your federal business while the ground keeps moving. Paul began his career fighting for what became the Small Business Innovation Research Act and was in the Rose Garden when it was signed in 1982. Since then he has run a mergers and acquisitions practice, founded the boutique investment bank Minuteman Ventures, operated small and socio-economic government contractors, and mentored founders through SCORE and Boston Business Mentors.

In this episode, Paul and Chelsea get into the difference between change that lasts and change that is just the pendulum swinging back, why a business plan is now a quarterly discipline rather than an annual ritual, when a subcontractor should stop being afraid to prime, how to build business development into every role in the company, and why the leaders managing teams today may be the last to manage an all-human workforce.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and Paul's 40-year GovCon arc

02:00 Excitement or dread: what is really changing

03:00 Pendulum swing versus permanent change: commerciality, AI, SBIR

05:00 Contracting-officer discretion, fixed-price default, a roughly $1 trillion DoD request

08:00 Write it down: a business plan that survives the quarter

11:00 Focus versus shiny-object syndrome

13:00 The subcontracting pathway, and when to stop being afraid to prime

18:00 BD as a team sport: aligning the front office and the back office

21:00 Everyone is a salesperson

26:00 Aligning incentives with what the company wants

27:30 The last all-human workforce

30:00 The proposal that bans AI: a double-edged sword

30:30 SCORE and Boston Business Mentors: free expertise most never use

34:30 How to reach Paul

Resources:

Paul Serotkin's LinkedIn profile

Chelsea Robert's LinkedIn profile

Serotkin Group's Website

Other resources:

Boston Business Mentors' Website

SCORE Organization's website

🎧 Listen now on:

🔹 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482

🔹 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHy

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Most people file HUBZone under “niche set-aside.” It was designed as an economic development engine for the communities America left behind, and it is sitting at an inflection point right now.

On this Special Episode of GovCon Unscripted, host Chelsea Roberts opens the #RoadtoHUBZone series with Michelle Burnett, Vice Chair of the HUBZone Contractors National Council, ahead of the 2026 National HUBZone Conference.

Michelle has worked with the HUBZone program since she was 20. She walks through its original intent as a place-based economic development tool, the multiplier effect it was built to create, and why its biggest challenges today are problems of execution and acquisition alignment rather than flaws in the program itself. The conversation covers the 2019 regulatory overhaul and the changes the Council fought for, what aligning the program with domestic manufacturing and reshoring could unlock, and why teaming has become a survival strategy for small firms that feel like the rug is being pulled out from under them.

It closes with a direct call: show up, advocate, and be at the table. The 2026 National HUBZone Conference runs July 21 and 22 (with a golf outing July 20) at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia.

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome and who Michelle is

01:00 The 2026 National HUBZone Conference and what is new this year

03:00 Who should come, and why large business turnout is so high

04:00 Where the program’s execution falls short

06:00 Advocacy, the FAR overhaul, and why your voice matters

09:00 The program is not broken, the execution is

10:00 The multiplier effect, a hand up rather than a handout

13:00 HUBZone On The Rise and the manufacturing consortium

17:00 How to get involved and where to find the conference

Resources:

Michelle Burnett's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-burnett-21737771/

Chelsea's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseadroberts/

Other resources:

HUBZone Contractors National Council: https://www.hubzonecouncil.org/

2026 National HUBZone Conference (register): https://www.hubzonecouncil.org/2026-National-HUBZone-Conference

HUBZone Council LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2992361/

🎧 Listen now on:

🔹 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482

🔹 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHy

Like and follow us:

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🔹 Join our #govcon community: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/