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April 7, 2026The Partner’s Guide: Top 1100 Things at ODSC East for Companies Looking to Scale into the Public Sector
If you caught that — yes, 1100 is binary for 12. If you’re at ODSC East, you probably did. That’s exactly the kind of audience we’re writing this for.
The Open Data Science Conference (ODSC) East is one of the most dynamic gatherings of AI and emerging technology companies in the country. If you’re exhibiting, speaking, or simply walking the floor in Boston this April 28–30, you’re likely surrounded by innovative companies doing remarkable things with data, machine learning, and AI.
But here’s a question worth sitting with between sessions: Are you leaving the public sector opportunity on the table?
Federal agencies, defense organizations, the Intelligence Community, higher education, and state and local governments are hungry for exactly what companies at ODSC East are building. The challenge isn’t the technology — it’s navigating the unique, complex, and often opaque world of government procurement, compliance, and contracting. That’s where FRC comes in.
We’ve spent over 20 years in the public sector technology market. We’ve crossed the $100M annual revenue mark. And we’ve helped companies just like the ones at ODSC East — innovative, fast-moving, and built for commercial success — find their footing and scale in government. We’ll be at the booth during ODSC East, and we’d love to meet you. But first, here are the 1100 things we think every company at this conference should be thinking about.
1 (0001) Understand That Government Is a Different Animal
The public sector is not a slower version of enterprise sales. It operates on different procurement cycles, different risk tolerances, different compliance frameworks, and deeply entrenched buying behaviors. A product that sells itself in the commercial world often needs a translator in government — someone who understands the buyer’s mission, budget cycles, and regulatory environment. The companies that win in government don’t just have great technology; they have great partners who know how to position it.
2 (0010) Contract Vehicles Are the Highways of Government Procurement
Government agencies can’t just buy software the way an enterprise company can. Purchases above certain thresholds require a contract vehicle — a pre-competed procurement mechanism that streamlines the buying process. Without access to the right vehicles, your product simply can’t be purchased, no matter how good it is.
Having a contract vehicle is table stakes. Plenty of resellers will tell you they hold a vehicle and can transact on your behalf — and stop there. FRC goes further. We hold prime positions on NASA SEWP V (pronounced “Soup”), one of the most widely used government-wide acquisition contracts in the federal market, as well as GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), which provides broad access across civilian and defense agencies. We are also continually adding state and local government contract vehicles as we grow that practice, ensuring our partners have a transactional path at every level of government.
But the vehicle is just the on-ramp. What matters is what FRC does once we’re on the highway with you.
3 (0011) Your Commercial Case Studies Need a Translation
You’ve got wins. Strong ones. But a CISO at a federal agency or a program manager at a combatant command doesn’t immediately connect with a case study from a Fortune 500 financial services firm.
FRC has successfully brought AI and technology companies into the public sector and positioned their capabilities in language and context that resonates with government buyers. We’ve helped companies like TrustCloud.ai land at the state agency level, brought LangChain’s capabilities into government conversations, and supported major cybersecurity vendors like Trellix — along with companies like Elastic, MongoDB, and AttackIQ — in establishing and growing their public sector presence. We know how to retell your story for a government audience without losing what makes it compelling.
4 (0100) Field Marketing in Government Is Its Own Ecosystem
Government buyers don’t attend the same conferences as your commercial customers. They gather at events with names like AFCEA TechNet, DHITTs, and Alamo ACE. These are the venues where program managers, contracting officers, and government IT leaders learn about new technology, meet vendors, and shape their acquisition roadmaps.
FRC actively participates in and supports field marketing at these government-focused events. As a partner, we can bring your brand and your capabilities into rooms you may not even know exist yet. If you’re investing in marketing to reach government buyers, these are the venues that matter — and we can help you show up there effectively.
5 (0101) Cloud Is Expected — But Disconnected Environments Are Where Deals Are Won
Most technology companies entering the public sector assume the conversation starts and ends with cloud. Get into AWS GovCloud or Azure Government, pursue your FedRAMP authorization, and you’re in business. That’s true — but it’s only part of the picture, particularly if your ambitions include the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community.
Many of the most mission-critical DoD and IC environments are air-gapped, classified, or otherwise disconnected from the public internet. These customers can’t run your SaaS product through a browser. They need software that can be deployed on-premise, run in a containerized environment, or operate in a fully disconnected network. If your product architecture only supports cloud delivery, you are effectively locked out of a significant portion of the defense and intelligence market.
The companies that win in these environments plan for this early. They invest in containerized packaging — think Kubernetes-based deployments, Helm charts, and compatibility with platforms like the DoD’s Platform One or the Intelligence Community’s on-premise infrastructure. They think about offline licensing, local model hosting for AI workloads, and air-gap-compatible update mechanisms. It’s a different engineering conversation, but it’s one worth having — because the customers on the other side of it are some of the most loyal and high-value buyers in the public sector.
6 (0110) FedRAMP and Impact Levels: You Need a Guide, Not Just a Checklist
FedRAMP authorization and DoD Impact Levels — IL4 for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and IL5 for National Security Systems — are two of the most significant compliance milestones a technology company will face on its path into the public sector. They are also two of the most commonly misunderstood.
Here’s the reality: most innovative companies entering the government market are somewhere in the middle of this journey. You may not be FedRAMP authorized yet. You may not fully understand where your product sits on the IL spectrum or what it would take to get there. That in-between period — when you know government is an opportunity but you’re not yet fully credentialed — is precisely when having the right partner matters most.
FRC doesn’t just explain these frameworks; we help champion your technology with government customers while you’re in transition. We understand how to have honest conversations with agency buyers about a company’s compliance roadmap, how to position products that are pursuing authorization rather than holding it, and how to build credibility in the market during the time it takes to get there. FedRAMP and IL authorization are finish lines worth crossing — but the race begins long before you get there, and you don’t have to run it alone.
7 (0111) Zero Trust Isn’t Just a Buzzword — It’s a Buying Criterion
The federal government has mandated a Zero Trust architecture strategy, driven by executive orders and DoD policy. Agencies are actively evaluating vendors through a Zero Trust lens. If your product contributes to identity, access management, micro-segmentation, visibility, analytics, or automation — you may already align to Zero Trust pillars without knowing it.
FRC helps companies map their existing capabilities to the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model and the DoD Zero Trust Reference Architecture. This mapping exercise isn’t just a compliance exercise — it becomes a powerful sales tool when talking to government buyers. Knowing how to tell your Zero Trust story fluently can be the difference between being on a shortlist and being overlooked.
8 (1000) State and Local Is an Underrated On-Ramp
Many commercial tech companies overlook state and local government because the deal sizes seem smaller or the landscape seems fragmented. That’s a mistake. State and local agencies are often faster-moving buyers, less encumbered by federal procurement complexity, and increasingly well-funded through programs like SLFRF (State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds).
More importantly, a win at the state or local level can serve as a government reference that opens doors federally. FRC is actively growing its state and local practice and sees it as a strategic on-ramp for technology companies that want to build a public sector track record before tackling the full complexity of federal procurement.
9 (1001) The Power of Teaming: Your Product Is Stronger as Part of a Solution
Government buyers — especially in DoD and the IC — rarely buy point solutions. They buy outcomes. They fund programs. And programs require integrated capabilities, not a collection of individual products sitting side by side on a shelf.
This is one of the most overlooked advantages of working with a VAR like FRC. Because we maintain a focused portfolio across cybersecurity and big data, we are uniquely positioned to aggregate complementary technologies and assemble them into a cohesive solution stack tailored to a specific government mission. Your AI platform becomes more compelling when it’s integrated with a data pipeline tool, a cybersecurity layer, and a deployment framework that a government customer already trusts.
FRC actively identifies teaming opportunities across our partner ecosystem, pairing companies whose capabilities are additive and building joint offerings that address mission requirements holistically. For a company new to government, this is a significant accelerant — instead of walking into an agency alone with a single product, you’re walking in as part of a vetted, integrated solution with a partner who has existing relationships and credibility in that space.
If your product is strong on its own, imagine what it becomes as the centerpiece of a purpose-built government solution stack.
10 (1010) You Need a VAR Who Puts the ‘V’ Back in Value
Not all Value Added Resellers are created equal. Many in this market will tell you they sell everything, that they have the contract vehicle, and that they can get you a quote. That’s table stakes. It’s paper pushing. And it won’t move the needle for an AI or emerging technology company trying to establish a meaningful government presence.
FRC leads with technical depth — specifically in cybersecurity and big data, the two domains most relevant to the government customers you want to reach. We don’t chase high-volume, low-margin transactions. We maintain a narrow, focused portfolio so that every partner we take on gets real attention, real expertise, and a real commitment to their success in the federal space.
We put the ‘V’ — Value — back into the VAR relationship through three principles we call Focus, Funding, and Follow-up:
Focus: We maintain a deliberate, narrow portfolio targeting cybersecurity, data, and AI. This isn’t a limitation — it’s a signal to government buyers that we know what we’re talking about, and it means your product lands in a context of genuine expertise rather than a catalog of thousands.
Funding: We invest in your success by creating joint marketing materials, publications, and webinars that amplify your specific message to government audiences. We are not waiting for you to generate demand and then processing the order. We are out front with you, building the market.
Follow-up: We stay close to the government customer and proactively drive toward shared growth milestones. We are an extension of your sales team in the federal space — not a passive channel that activates when a purchase order appears.
If you are looking for a partner who is an integral part of your public sector sales motion rather than just another vehicle holder, FRC is built for exactly that.
11 (1011) Build a Joint Business Plan, Not Just a Reseller Agreement
Signing a reseller agreement is easy. Dozens of VARs will sign one with you this week. What separates a productive government channel partnership from a dormant one is what happens after the ink dries.
FRC approaches every new partner relationship with a joint business plan — a structured, proactive roadmap that defines shared targets, identifies the right government accounts to pursue, maps the compliance and certification milestones that will expand your addressable market, and establishes a rhythm of outreach and follow-up that keeps the partnership moving forward. We don’t wait for you to call us with an opportunity. We bring opportunities to you.
This model is especially important for companies new to government, where the sales cycle is long, the buyer relationships take time to build, and the temptation to deprioritize the channel in favor of faster-moving commercial business is real. A joint business plan creates accountability on both sides and ensures that your government go-to-market has a champion inside FRC who is actively working it — not just waiting for inbound interest to materialize.
The question to ask any VAR you’re considering isn’t “do you have the contract vehicle?” It’s “what does your plan look like for my product in the first 90, 180, and 365 days?” FRC has an answer to that question.
12 (1100). Let’s Meet at ODSC East
The best conversations at conferences don’t happen on the main stage. They happen at the booth, over coffee, in the hallway between sessions. If you’re at ODSC East in Boston this April 28–30, we want to have that conversation with you.
Whether you’re trying to understand your FedRAMP path, figure out if your product fits a DoD use case, map your capabilities to Zero Trust, explore teaming opportunities, or simply learn what government go-to-market realistically looks like — we’re ready to talk.
Come find us at the booth. Or reach out before the conference to schedule a dedicated time to meet:
📧 Chris Zeiders, VP Technology & Innovation | czeiders@fedresources.com
Reference ODSC East and let’s carve out time to explore what scaling into the public sector could look like for your company.
FRC is a value added reseller with over 20 years of experience and $100M+ in annual revenue. We help innovative technology companies navigate, enter, and scale in the federal, defense, and state and local government markets
