Recent finds from the field.

The cyber-insurance clause on page 41

The tender summary promised a friendly, low-barrier standing offer. Our Monday digest flagged it, and the brief went deeper: Appendix D quietly required $5M in cyber-liability cover, enforced at the time of award, not at renewal.

Our client already carried a $5M policy. Two of the four competitors we could see in the bidder chatter did not.

What we caughtA mandatory insurance threshold buried 41 pages deep. Verdict sent 9 days before close, with a checklist.

The perfect-looking RFP that wasn't

Scope, budget and timing all lined up for a mid-size recruiting SaaS. On the third read we found it: every staff member touching the system needed Secret-level clearance, and the evaluation gave 40% of points to a past federal contract of at least $5M.

The client had neither. The brief said Skip, in plain words, with both clauses highlighted.

What we savedAn estimated 60 hours of proposal work that would never have scored. Skip is a feature.

Client lead · $95

A research office that needs a recruiting tool

A university research office posted a funding call for a platform to match graduate researchers with industry placements. That is staffing and recruiting tooling in everything but name. This one is a client lead, labelled as such, with a named contact at the research office.

It is a Maybe: the call requires Canadian data residency and a university co-applicant. Both are solvable, but only with a plan.

What we caughtA funding call that never used the word “recruiting”, plus the two conditions that decide who can apply.