# Speaker Kit · Olufela "Lu" Fagbure _For conference organizers, summit programmers, and podcast bookers._ _Positioning: the operator helping small and minority-owned businesses win government contracts._ _Audit-aware: no em-dash, no banned vocabulary, no fabricated proof._ **IMPORTANT framing:** This kit lists **available topics**. It makes **no claim of prior stages, prior keynotes, or past speaking engagements.** Every item below is offered, not back-referenced. Do not add a "featured at" or "as seen on" line until a real, verifiable engagement exists. **Booking contact:** lu@itcustomsolution.com · (646) 671-3399 · New York, NY **Web:** felafagbure.com --- ## 1. Speaker positioning paragraph Olufela "Lu" Fagbure is the Founder and Director of IT Custom Solution LLC and the operator helping small and minority-owned businesses win government contracts. He speaks from inside the work: he has written, won, and delivered against SAM.gov, and he builds the Winrove software suite that small firms use to compete. His sessions are practical and specific, built for owners who can do the work but cannot yet crack public procurement. Audiences leave with steps they can act on the same week, not theory. He is direct, honest about what he has and has not proven, and allergic to hype. --- ## 2. Intro one-liner for emcees > Please welcome Lu Fagbure, founder of IT Custom Solution and the operator who helps small and minority-owned businesses win government contracts. --- ## 3. Signature keynote **Title:** _Built To Be Left Out: How Small And Minority-Owned Firms Actually Win Government Contracts_ **Description (200 words):** Most small businesses never bid on government work. The standard explanation is that they are not ready, not big enough, or not connected enough. Lu Fagbure argues the real reason is simpler and more fixable: public procurement was built for firms that already have a full-time proposal team, and most small and minority-owned firms do not. The system is not rigged so much as it was never designed with them in mind. In this keynote, Lu walks an audience of small-business owners through what actually separates the firms that win from the firms that never bid. He draws on founding IT Custom Solution, earning NYC MBE certification, registering on SAM.gov, and winning competitively awarded contracts, then building the software that closes the gap for other firms. He is specific about what certifications get you, how to read a solicitation for the points that matter, and where bids quietly lose. He is equally honest about what is still pending and what he has not yet proven. The session reframes government contracting from a closed door into a method, and sends every owner home with a short, concrete list of moves they can make this week. **Three takeaways:** 1. Why "we are not ready yet" is usually the wrong diagnosis, and what the real gap is. 2. What an MBE certification, a SAM.gov registration, and one well-read solicitation actually unlock. 3. The handful of places bids lose points, and how a small team avoids each one. --- ## 4. Workshop topics ### Workshop A: _Your First Government Bid: SAM.gov, Certifications, And One Solicitation_ A hands-on working session for owners who have never bid, or who tried once and stalled. Lu takes the room through the concrete entry path: setting up and getting right on SAM.gov, choosing which certifications are worth pursuing and what each one gets you (with an honest distinction between certified, like NYC MBE, and pending, like 8(a) and NMSDC under review), and reading a real solicitation end to end to find the requirements that decide the award. Participants leave with a personalized first-bid checklist and a clear next action. Format: 90 to 120 minutes, capped for working interaction. ### Workshop B: _The Lean Firm's Operating Method: Practical, Agent-Assisted Work In A Small Shop_ A working session on how a small firm does more without adding headcount, using structured, agent-assisted tools the right way. Lu shows where agent-assisted software genuinely removes repetitive, document-heavy load from a lean team, and, just as important, where human judgment must stay in the loop. He is candid about the limits and the failure modes, and frames the tools as leverage for the operator's judgment, never a replacement for it. Participants leave with a practical sense of which parts of their own work are safe to delegate to tooling and which are not. Format: 90 minutes. --- ## 5. Podcast-ready topics ### Topic 1: "The door that was never built for you" **Angle:** The structural reason small and minority-owned firms stay out of government work, told through Lu's own path from a leather goods startup to enterprise IT to a SAM.gov-registered firm. Good for founder-journey and small-business shows. ### Topic 2: "What certifications actually get you" **Angle:** A myth-busting conversation on MBE, 8(a), and NMSDC: what each one really unlocks, what it does not, and why honesty about pending versus certified matters. Good for procurement, supplier-diversity, and minority-business audiences. ### Topic 3: "Building software from inside the contract" **Angle:** What changes when you build a product from inside a live government engagement instead of from a whiteboard, and where Lu draws the line on agent-assisted tooling versus human judgment. Good for product, founder, and tech shows. ### Topic 4: "Ownership as a generational act" **Angle:** A more personal conversation on what Lu learned from his mother, who ran her own business for more than twenty-five years, and how that frames why he builds for small and minority-owned owners. Good for legacy, family-business, and values-driven shows. --- ## 6. Session descriptions (program-ready blurbs) **Keynote, program blurb:** > Most small businesses never bid on government work, and the reason is structural, not a lack of ability. Lu Fagbure, founder of IT Custom Solution, breaks down how small and minority-owned firms actually win public contracts: what certifications get you, how to read a solicitation, and where bids quietly lose. Practical, honest, and built to be acted on the same week. **Workshop A, program blurb:** > A hands-on first-bid working session: SAM.gov, the right certifications, and reading one real solicitation. Owners leave with a personalized checklist and a clear next move. **Workshop B, program blurb:** > How a lean firm does more without adding headcount, using agent-assisted tools the right way, with an honest map of where human judgment must stay in the loop. --- ## 7. A/V and logistics **Format options:** keynote (30 to 45 min), keynote plus Q&A (60 min), workshop (90 to 120 min), fireside or panel, remote or in person. **A/V needs:** - Wireless lavalier or headset microphone (handheld acceptable for panels). - Confidence monitor preferred for keynote; not required. - HDMI or USB-C to the house system; Lu presents from his own laptop. Backup PDF of slides provided in advance. - 16:9 projection or screen. Clicker or advancer if available. - For remote sessions: a stable link, screen-share enabled, and a tech check 15 minutes prior. **What Lu brings:** his own laptop, clicker, and a backup of slides. A short bio, headshot, and session description are available in this kit and in the press kit. **What the host provides:** the A/V above, a run-of-show with timing, and the names and titles for the intro.