Government Contracts Aren’t Just for Big Companies: Why Maurice Harary Built Bid Banana

What we talked about.

Maurice Harari, co-founder of The Bid Lab and Bid Banana, joins Sunny Ray to explain why government contracts are within reach of small businesses. Drawing on his years running RFP responses at IHS Market, he describes how a rushed overnight rewrite of a car dealership proposal for a Fortune 500 procurement head convinced him and his wife and co-founder, Jordan, to launch The Bid Lab. He shares a lesson from losing a bid for his own company, then winning it the following year, and explains why finding the right opportunity proved harder than writing the proposal. That insight led to Bid Banana, a search engine for government and commercial contracts priced at 50 dollars a month. Maurice discusses the psychology of winning bids, the costly mistake of not getting subject matter experts on board early, and how to use AI as a starting point while adding authentic, agency-specific detail. He also explains why software now takes priority over consulting, how content outperforms paid ads, and where listeners can follow his work.

Maurice Harari explains how a late-night proposal rescue became Bid Banana, a 50 dollar a month search engine opening government contracts to small businesses.

The questions, and the answers.

What is Bid Banana and what problem does it solve?

Bid Banana is a search engine that makes it easy to find government and commercial contracts across the United States, from local and state to federal. It gives you all the data you need to bid. It has thousands of opportunities matched to your business, uses AI to be smarter, and includes built-in help for newcomers.

What happened with the car dealership proposal that led you to start The Bid Lab?

My wife and co-founder Jordan had a dealership group that paid a consultant about $10,000 for a bad proposal due the next morning. I refused to submit it, and we redid it overnight. A Fortune 500 procurement head called asking who wrote it, calling it the best in the pile. We knew we could compete and help others.

When did you realize finding the opportunity was harder than writing the proposal?

In our second or third year, a client called in a panic two days before a New Jersey school district bid was due. We won it, but their content was ready and they only found out late because their third-party tool's data was unreliable. That tool cost $500 a month. We built Bid Banana at $50 a month.

What do winning bidders have that losers lack?

It's largely psychological. Clients new to government contracting can be scared and quietly self-sabotage with caveats and exceptions to the terms. I try to surface what's really worrying them and address it early. Procurement people want confidence that you can deliver, without protests, headaches, or a rebid in three months.

What is the most expensive mistake a small company makes in the week before a bid is due?

Being afraid to bother key teammates, like the head of IT or security, for answers. If they respond after the deadline, it's worthless, and right before it, you can't compile it properly. I tell clients to get subject matter experts bought in from the start and explain why the contract matters.

How should companies use AI when writing proposals?

AI is a great starting point but not the end point. Agencies may now get hundreds of proposals instead of a dozen. After generating a draft, read and edit it, make it sound human and in your voice, and add details about your company and the specific agency, such as why your work matters to New York City.

Why did you shift from consulting to building software?

A big client eventually loved the software and said she might need our consulting less. That was exactly the point. With consulting we could handle about 50 RFP projects at once, but the software can help a thousand people at once and empower users to do it themselves, so I want to scale it.

What is working for growth now?

Paid ads have become nearly impossible with AI changing how people search, including AEO versus SEO. Our best results come from free content and sharing our expertise and data, so people get to know us without being hounded. After using the free material, paying feels natural. We are also doing more podcasts.