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An Assessment of the SBIR Program
FIGURE 4-1 Sales from Phase II projects.
SOURCE: NRC Phase II Survey.
There is variation among the agencies, but these data are consistent with program objectives.15
4.2.3.1 Distribution of Sales
Research on early-stage financing strongly suggests a pronounced skew to the results, and this turns out to be the case. Most projects that reach the market generate minimal revenues. A few awards generate substantial results, and a small number bring in large revenues.
Of the 790 SBIR Phase II projects reporting sales greater than $0, average sales per project were $2,403,255. Over half of the total sales dollars were due to 26 projects (1.4 percent of the total), each of which had $15,000,000 or more in sales. The highest cumulative sales figure reported was $129,000,000.
Almost three quarters of the projects reporting sales greater than zero had $1 million or less in sales; two projects reported sales greater than $100 million. The latter by themselves accounted for 16.5 percent of all the revenues reported; together, the 1.7 percent of respondents reporting sales greater than $20 million accounted for 43.7 percent of all revenues reported.
These distributions are similar to those reported from other SBIR data
15
See the section on venture capital in National Research Council, An Assessment of the SBIR Program at the National Institutes of Health, Charles W. Wessner, ed., Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2009.
