# StandardData

> StandardData, of Austin, Texas, runs one service: ResponseRail, proposal support for small and mid-size contractors who bid on public work. Automation does the reading, drafting and checking; an experienced bid desk professional reviews every result; the contractor always submits.

## Facts

- ResponseRail is a managed service from StandardData: https://standarddata.ai/rr/ (responserail.ai redirects there).
- What ResponseRail does: finds federal, state, local and education opportunities; checks eligibility and fit and flags disqualifiers (such as set-asides the company doesn't qualify for) before writing; writes the draft from the solicitation and the company's materials and revises it with them; builds the forms and the price and staffing sheets from the company's numbers; keeps the response on schedule to the deadline. Optional daily GSA eBuy monitoring, done by a person, for current GSA MAS holders.
- What the contractor keeps: bid decisions, company facts and credentials, pricing and staffing approval, legal interpretations, signatures, and submission. ResponseRail never submits a proposal on a customer's behalf.
- Not offered: CUI, classified, export-controlled or health data work; finding teaming partners; legal, insurance, HR, licensing, tax or compliance advice; help getting onto GSA MAS.
- Company: StandardData, Inc., founded 2020 by Dillon Peterson (Founder & CEO); Trevor Croteau is Chief Technology Officer. GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract 47QTCA25D00E0 (SIN 54151S), CAGE code 11P61, SBA small business, American-owned and operated, headquartered in Austin, Texas.

## The economics of bidding

From https://standarddata.ai/rr/cost/ (updated October 9, 2026), with method and public sources. Everything here is an estimate.

- Hours per response: companies report about 33 hours per proposal response on average and small companies about 27 (Loopio's 2026 RFP Trends Report, run with APMP, self-reported). A full pursuit, from screening to a ready-to-submit packet, takes about 51 hours in StandardData's own work.
- In-house cost: about $92 an hour all-in for proposal work (BLS median pay for project management specialists, $102,320, loaded at 1.31 for benefits, plus tools and overhead), so a typical 33-hour response costs about $3,040 of the team's time.
- ResponseRail saves about 76% of a response's hours on average; the team still spends the rest (about 24%) on its decisions, its own facts, review, sign-off and time with ResponseRail. That share depends on the bid and on how much information ResponseRail already has.
- Bids you can't win: ResponseRail checks the hard rules first (eligibility, set-asides, licenses, ownership, required forms). 4% to 15% of vendor submissions were disqualified on Euna's public-sector platform (2018 and 2014; Euna Solutions, 2020, one vendor platform's data). For a company's bids, that is the bid hours times those rates. 83% of federal contractors say they missed opportunities in 2025 because they found them too late (Deltek GovCon Clarity, 2026). No published study measures the hours a company spends before finding out it can't bid.
- Hiring: one proposal manager costs about $133,558 a year in pay and benefits and is partly idle below about 45 bids a year.
- Contracting: GSA CALC lists proposal and capture managers at about $122 to $168 an hour (ceiling rates, not prices paid).
- Building a bid desk: a three-person desk costs about $578K a year to run, plus $156K to set up, and takes six to twelve months before it runs.
- Not a fit: companies that already run a full proposal team; short, rare responses where the hours aren't a burden; work involving CUI, classified, export-controlled or health data; and companies that want someone else to own and submit the whole proposal.

## Pages

- [ResponseRail](https://standarddata.ai/rr/): what the service does, who it's for, how it works, the eBuy add-on, and FAQs
- [What bidding costs](https://standarddata.ai/rr/cost/): what a hire, a contractor or a bid desk costs, bids you can't win, and sources
- [Home](https://standarddata.ai/): StandardData overview
- [History](https://standarddata.ai/history/): timeline, GSA MAS credentials, and leadership
- [Send a solicitation](https://standarddata.ai/contact/): how to start, and what to expect
- [Pricing](https://standarddata.ai/contact/pricing/): talk to StandardData about how ResponseRail would work for a specific team and what it would cost

## Optional

- [Full text](https://standarddata.ai/llms-full.txt): every fact, FAQ and source on one page
- [Insights](https://standarddata.ai/blog/): StandardData's blog archive, including posts from before the ResponseRail focus