What the letters mean
SDVOSB stands for Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business. To qualify, a firm has to be at least 51 percent owned by one or more veterans with a service connected disability, and those veterans have to control the management and daily operations of the company. It also has to meet the size standard for the work it is bidding on.
How it works at the VA
The VA runs a program called Veterans First. Under it, veteran owned small businesses get the first look on VA contracts, with service disabled veteran owned firms considered ahead of other veteran owned firms.
The rule of two
The mechanism is simple. If a contracting officer has a reasonable expectation that at least two qualified veteran owned firms will submit offers at a fair and reasonable price, the contract is set aside for them. In 2016, in Kingdomware Technologies v. United States, the Supreme Court confirmed that the VA has to apply this rule rather than treat it as optional.
Who verifies it
Since January 2023, SDVOSB certification has been handled by the Small Business Administration through its VetCert program. The SBA reviews ownership and control before a firm is listed as certified, which is what lets a contracting officer rely on the designation.
Why it matters when you plan an acquisition
A set-aside changes who bids, and it changes how you write the scope. When you know the pool of qualified firms up front, you can write a task order that gets comparable proposals instead of a scatter of interpretations. That is easier to do in the first quarter, before the year's work starts competing for the same calendar.
About Alares
Alares is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, founded in 2007 by Don Maggioli, a West Point graduate and former Green Beret officer. Nearly all of our work is for the VA and other federal owners: architecture, MEP and structural engineering, commissioning, owner's representation and environmental work.