# Collaboration.Ai > Collaboration.Ai builds NetworkOS, a secure software platform for running innovation programs — open calls, prize challenges, SBIR/STTR funding programs, market research, and internal idea campaigns — and provides Mission Success, a services team that plans, runs, and supports those programs. Customers include U.S. defense offices, federal agencies, and commercial companies. Founded in 2017, headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, with more than 1 million active users. Collaboration.Ai began inside the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, so it has worked on both sides of government innovation: as a small business competing for awards, and now as the software and services provider for the program offices running them. Its products are built around one idea: everything a program learns (research, submissions, scores, award decisions, and the reasoning behind them) should stay on one record, so each new cycle or new staff member starts from what came before instead of from scratch. Key facts: - Company: Collaboration.Ai, St. Paul, MN. Founded 2017. 1 million+ active users. - Leadership: Brennan Townley (CEO), Brandon Klein (Founder). - Platform: NetworkOS, the shared technology, data, and security foundation. It is not sold on its own; programs buy one or more products and get the foundation with them. - Products: Intelligence (research before a solicitation opens), Source (open calls, challenges, and submission review), Acquire (SBIR/STTR and other funding programs, topic to award). - Services: Mission Success, organized into three stages: Plan, Run, Win. - Sectors: National Security, Government (civilian federal), Commercial. - Security: Source is hosted at Impact Level 2 and Impact Level 4; Acquire runs in a Department of War Impact Level 4 environment; Intelligence runs on isolated, per-customer U.S. infrastructure aligned to NIST 800-53 (IL2, with IL4 in progress). Customer data is not used to train models. - Contracting: SBIR Phase III (15 U.S.C. § 638(r)(4)) and the Department of the Air Force Digital Transformation Office Basic Ordering Agreement (DAF DTO BOA). ## Platform - [NetworkOS](https://collaboration.ai/networkos/): The shared foundation every Collaboration.Ai product runs on. One record for every vendor researched, submission scored, and award made, with one security posture and full audit logging. Products can be added one at a time without migrating data. - [Intelligence](https://collaboration.ai/intelligence/): Secure AI research workspace for the work before a solicitation opens: who is already working on a problem, what has been funded, and who could team up. Preloaded with SAM.gov, SBIR/STTR awards and topics, USAspending, Grants.gov, the federal hierarchy, and DTIC technical reports. Answers cite their sources; repeatable research runs as reviewable workflows. - [Source](https://collaboration.ai/source/): Runs open calls, prize challenges, market research, and an innovation hub. Calls can be opened to industry, academia, the public, or an organization's own people, on a site in the program's own branding. Reviewers score in place against shared criteria. Companies can apply without a government credential. - [Acquire](https://collaboration.ai/acquire/): Runs funding programs such as SBIR/STTR end to end, from topic intake and solicitation through proposals, award, and phase management, on one timestamped record. Applicants register once, and each cycle carries forward the last one's setup. Being deployed by the Department of War Office for Small Business Innovation (OSBI) for all SBIR/STTR innovation awards. ## Services - [Mission Success](https://collaboration.ai/mission-success/): An experienced team that works alongside a program office, from the first problem statement to the award. Can join at any stage. - [Plan](https://collaboration.ai/plan/): Work before the call opens: program and solicitation design, scouting and vendor discovery, workflow and experience design, and forward deployed engineers. - [Run](https://collaboration.ai/run/): Work while the program is live: configuration and onboarding, data migration, program management, AI-enabled facilitation of workshops and pitch days, strategic communications, and community management. - [Win](https://collaboration.ai/win/): Work after the awards: cohort enablement (onboarding, midpoint check-ins, demo days), forward deployed engineers, and customer success across cycles. ## Who we serve - [National Security](https://collaboration.ai/national-security/): Defense innovation program offices turning a requirement into fielded capability, including SBIR/STTR offices, AFWERX, SpaceWERX, and SOCOM-related efforts. - [Government](https://collaboration.ai/government/): Federal agencies running open calls, prize challenges, funding programs, and internal innovation, with a record that holds up to inspector general, congressional, records-request, or protest review. - [Commercial](https://collaboration.ai/commercial/): Companies running idea campaigns, open innovation, and scouting with employees, customers, partners, or startups. ## Results and case studies - AFWERX Challenge: Has run on Collaboration.Ai software since FY18. 57 Challenges launched, 8,000+ solutions received (as of June 2026), and 200 contract awards reported by the program. - STRIKEWERX: Market research went from 12.5 hours per report to about one, and vendors qualified per run went from 5 to 30. - SO/LIC Accelerator Event: 700+ submissions, with performers pitching to SOCOM and CENTCOM leadership in a single day and seed funding awarded on the spot. - Sky High Relief: $1.5M in design prizes to 11 companies from 50+ solutions. One awardee's prototype later flew to the International Space Station as a NASA technology demonstration. - NASA Spark: NASA's internal innovation program, with 47,000+ registered users. - Deutsche Telekom: The Telekom Ideenschmiede brought 18,000 customers into shaping products and services. - Munich Airport: LabCampus has run on Collaboration.Ai software since 2016. ## Common questions - What does Collaboration.Ai do? It provides software (NetworkOS: Intelligence, Source, Acquire) and services (Mission Success) for organizations that run innovation programs, from defining the problem through making and supporting awards. - Is NetworkOS something you buy? Not on its own. A program buys a product and gets the NetworkOS foundation with it. - Can a program start with one product? Yes. A program can start with Intelligence, Source, or Acquire and add the others later without moving its data. - Who can submit to a call run on Source? Whoever the program opens it to: a closed group, a whole organization, or the open market. Public calls use account sign-in, so companies don't need a government credential. - How can a government office buy it? Through SBIR Phase III, which allows an award without further competition, or through the DAF DTO Basic Ordering Agreement. - Is customer data used to train AI models? No. ## Optional - [About](https://collaboration.ai/about/): Company story, vision, and mission. - [Data Security and Compliance](https://collaboration.ai/security/): Where customer data runs, who can reach it, and the security posture of each product. - [Our Team](https://collaboration.ai/team/): The people behind the programs. - [Careers](https://collaboration.ai/careers/): Working at Collaboration.Ai. - [Blog](https://collaboration.ai/blog/): Articles on innovation programs, challenges, AI enablement and the innovation function. - [Contracting Vehicles](https://collaboration.ai/contracting-vehicles/): How offices buy: SBIR Phase III and other pathways. - [Privacy Policy](https://collaboration.ai/privacy-policy/): How personal information is handled. - [Master License Agreement](https://collaboration.ai/master-license-agreement/): The terms for using Collaboration.Ai products. - [Contact](https://collaboration.ai/contact/): Talk to the team.