Modern government-oriented startups need an easier way to get their foot in the door than when tech entreprenruship saw its first boom in the1970s in government contracting, according to a veteran entrepreneur.

Ed Bersoff helps new contracting businesses get their start working with federal government through investment,and created a business model based on the problems he encountered early in his career.

“When I had my own company in the government contracting space, I was very much a borrower of funds to keep my business going,” said Bersoff, noting that getting that funding wasn’t always easy.

Upon selling his company, Bersoff noticed he wasn’t the only one. “It became very clear that [other businesses] were having difficulty. The largest difficulty they had was in getting financing to get the businesses growing,” he said.

While banks were around, reliably getting funds from them required specific conditions that many companies couldn’t make.

“Having been there myself in the past, it became clear that starting a company that provided that kind of financing could possibly work,” he said.

In the four years since founding PFF, LLC, the company has grown explosively, filling a niche that was once woefully under served.

“We now have over 40 clients, and we have commitments of over $35 million dollars to our clients… there’s huge demand, a demand not being satisfied by the traditional banking community,” Bersoff told What’s Working in Washington.

Bersoff rejects the idea that D.C.’s talent was risk-averse and not suited to entrepreneurship. “What’s the definition of entrepreneur? It’s someone who’s willing to take a risk to meet an objective… you don’t have to be making the best mousetrap in the world to be an entrepreneur, you have to start something that fulfills a need,” he said.

Despite PFF’s success, federal contracting is not seeing its best years. “There’s a sense of malaise, for sure… [during the Cold War] we were concerned about the world threat, but today, it’s more like a throbbing sore,” he said.

“It’s chaotic, it’s not as efficient as it used to be,” said Bersoff. He says he will continue to help new companies approach the government contracting sector, which in turn will spur innovation and change in the industry.

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