What is the SBA Mentor-Protégé program?

The SBA Mentor-Protégé program was consolidated in 2020 (previously there were separate 8(a) and All Small mentor-protégé programs). One mentor-protégé agreement now covers all small business set-aside categories including 8(a), HUBZone, WOSB, and SDVOSB.

How it works: an established federal contractor (mentor) and a small business (protégé) file a joint application with SBA. SBA reviews the mentor's ability to provide meaningful developmental assistance and the protégé's suitability to receive it. Once approved, the mentor and protégé can form joint ventures on federal contracts, and those joint ventures qualify as small businesses (or the protégé's specific set-aside category) even when the mentor itself is large.

Benefits for the protégé: access to bonding capacity, past-performance history, technical capabilities, and financial resources that a small business alone typically lacks. Mentors provide direct technical assistance, subcontracting relationships, and often equity investment.

Benefits for the mentor: eligibility to form joint ventures for small-business set-aside contracts they couldn't otherwise pursue as a large business. Access to the protégé's specialized capabilities. Also counts toward the mentor's own subcontracting-plan small-business utilization goals on other federal contracts.

Requirements: (1) protégé must be a small business at the time of joint venture formation; (2) mentor cannot own more than 40% of the protégé; (3) mentor-protégé agreement must specify concrete developmental assistance; (4) joint ventures under the agreement have their own registration and past-performance history distinct from the parent companies; (5) protégé must submit annual reports to SBA on the developmental value received.

Common structures: (a) mentor provides technical assistance and past-performance letters, protégé pursues 8(a) sole-source awards on its own; (b) mentor and protégé jointly pursue small-business set-aside contracts as a joint venture; (c) mentor invests equity in the protégé to help scale capacity. The agreement duration is up to 6 years (three years + one three-year extension).