The Story of Govly: Building the Future of Government Procurement

Sometimes the most transformative companies start by solving their own problems. For Govly, what began as an internal tool to manage government contracts has evolved into a platform that’s reshaping how billions in government spending flows through the economy.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, founder Mike Weiland shared how an unexpected career path led to building a company that’s modernizing government contracting. Though he initially dreamed of becoming an Air Force pilot like his father, Mike’s path took a different turn when he “ended up sabotaging my own application to the Air Force academy, to my dad’s chagrin.”

Instead, he found himself at a defense contractor, where the connection to his childhood dreams became clear. “I walked in the doors, the security doors, and there was bastard. On the wall were the schematics of all the air force planes that have ever been made. And I literally walked in and kind of just had that overwhelming feeling of, oh, my God, these are my people.”

This unexpected entry into government contracting revealed a world of opportunity hidden beneath layers of bureaucracy. “There’s always answer. You might not like the answer, but there’s always a process,” Mike explained. “There’s not really a motion like it’s governed by so many rules and regulations. But once you find the rules and regulations and you learn how to navigate that, it’s very powerful.”

The genesis of Govly came from a practical need. After starting his own government contracting company in 2016, Mike and his team found themselves managing an increasingly complex web of opportunities. “What we realized was, you know what, there’s all of these primes and a prime is just someone who has direct access to one of those contract vehicles,” he explained.

The breakthrough came when they built software to manage their own operations. “Govly grew out of that company because we needed software to help manage our own internal operations,” Mike shared. “And it turned out that software created was valuable to somebody else and turns out to industry as a whole.”

What makes Govly unique is its focus on private government contracting opportunities – the ones you won’t find on public platforms like SAM.gov. As Mike explains, “tens of billions of dollars a year gets sold just in the IT space to the federal government through these contract vehicles.”

The company’s growth has been remarkable. From $360,000 in ARR at the end of 2022 to $1.3M in 2023, with projections of $4M for 2024. But more impressive than the numbers is how essential they’ve become to their customers. “We’ve become not necessarily a nice to have product, we’ve become a business critical product. People depend on us every day,” Mike emphasized.

Looking ahead, Govly’s vision extends far beyond their current success. “Gov will be the dominant market intel platform that serves as a foundation and maybe even an open source framework for government procurement that spans from government to all aspects of industry,” Mike shared. “We want to make government contracting accessible to everyone in a meaningful, transparent and secure way.”

In a sector often criticized for its complexity and opacity, Govly is building something revolutionary: a platform that makes government contracting more accessible, efficient, and transparent for everyone involved. It’s a vision that could reshape how billions in government spending flows through the economy, making the process better for both government agencies and the companies that serve them.