Toolkit

Since 2022, Nava has formed partnerships with protégé companies to provide mentorship and thoughtful partnership. These enduring relationships have resulted in new and growing capabilities for Nava, contract opportunities with new government agencies, and access to specialized staff. As a mentor, Nava offers expertise in bidding and procurement, capabilities, business strategy, and more.  

Companies looking to invest in up-and-coming ventures while growing their own portfolio can use this toolkit to embark on similar mentor-protégé partnerships or joint ventures. 

Step 1: Know what you need in a protégé company

Regular contact with new ventures and startups can help you identify potential protégé companies. This will enable you to understand a company’s capabilities, current partnerships, business interests, and values. Then, you can assess whether the company aligns with your work and mission. At Nava, we look for companies that have specific government relationships, upcoming contract opportunities, specialized classifications and competencies, or complementary capabilities.

Pro tip: It’s crucial for any mentor-protégé partnership to be mutually beneficial and balanced. To ensure a positive relationship, find companies with similar business goals and values, and a set of capabilities that will help your company grow while you can help them mature.      

Step 2: Formalize partnership and expectations

Once you’ve identified a protégé company to partner with, you’ll need to set shared expectations with a partnership agreement, a charter, and a playbook.

• A partnership agreement defines how each company will support the other, specifying which capabilities, strategies, and resources they share, how they will divide contract awards, and which agencies the protégé will work with. 

• A charter outlines the partnership’s purpose, shared vision, core principles, and governance structure. The goal of a charter is to establish ground rules for addressing situations that the partnership agreement does not explicitly cover. It should set the tone for how both parties will engage, behave, make choices, and collaborate.

• A playbook is a set of tools to help the mentor-protégé partnership define workflows, make decisions, and evaluate outcomes.  

Together, these three artifacts are the foundation to your mentor-protégé partnership. They define and govern your partnership and provide legal protection and mutual accountability. Creating these artifacts also offers an opportunity for mentors and protégés to communicate their wants and needs from the partnership. 

Pro tip: For a higher level of investment, consider establishing a joint venture partnership with the Small Business Administration.

Step 3: Win work and grow together

Once you establish a mentor-protégé partnership, your companies can start to win work and grow your desired capabilities. Dedicate at least one person to manage the mentor-protégé partnership, communicate and meet regularly with each other, and identify potential contract opportunities for the partnership. Protégé companies can join projects as subcontractors to help them better understand the procurement process. Meanwhile, each company should involve the other in the business development and bid processes. This helps build business development capabilities and familiarity with collaborative bid development. 

Pro tip: When working with multiple protégé companies, determine which protégés will work with which of your government partners to avoid competition among companies.

Step 4: Evaluate

Constant assessment helps ensure mentor-protégé partnerships remain mutually beneficial. We recommend setting regular touch points with your protégé to share ongoing feedback, which helps get ahead of challenges. During these meetings, use your charter to guide discussions on what’s working well and what isn’t. You should also use this time to assess whether your company and its protégé are reaping benefits such as access to work, capable staff, resources, or new capabilities.

Pro tip: Challenging experiences can be great learning moments. When something isn’t working in a mentor-protégé partnership, evaluate to understand why. Then use that insight to improve your processes and communication.

Pro tip: Maintain a consistent cadence and set of expectations for evaluation meetings. Have a set of metrics for evaluation to avoid subjectivity. 

Conclusion

Mentor-protégé partnerships built on clear expectations and trust can lead to growth and business maturity for both parties. A strong foundation, transparent communication, and regular evaluation are key to developing an enduring and mutually beneficial partnership. This unique type of business partnership enables companies to share resources and collaborate on contract opportunities, ultimately providing better outcomes for the public.