As CEO of CollaborateUp and a member of SBAIC’s Board of Directors, Richard Crespin has spent his career helping governments, companies, and nonprofits work together more effectively to tackle some of the world’s most complex challenges.
Founded with the mission of accelerating collaboration across sectors, CollaborateUp operates at the intersection of public policy, private investment, and international development. The firm’s work spans two core areas: collaboration advisory — helping structure and manage large public-private partnerships — and blended finance advisory, which mobilizes public, private, and philanthropic capital to support sustainable investment in emerging markets.
“In international development, we spent decades equating sustainability with permanent philanthropy,” Crespin explains. “But true sustainability only comes from two places: functioning markets or domestic resource mobilization.”
That perspective has shaped how Crespin views the current moment. While uncertainty has slowed parts of the traditional government contracting market, he emphasizes that what small businesses need most right now is clarity.
He outlines three concrete steps the U.S. government can take to ensure small businesses remain competitive and engaged:
- Provide clear demand signals, most effectively through published business forecasts that allow companies to plan and invest with confidence.
- Adhere to statutory, regulatory, and rules-based set-aside programs, which encourage engagement by small businesses and preserve competition.
- Streamline the procurement process, reducing time and cost barriers so that more small businesses can realistically participate.
“These steps aren’t about preference,” Crespin notes. “They’re about maintaining a healthy, competitive market that delivers better outcomes for taxpayers.”
He is equally clear about why small businesses are essential to the international development and assistance ecosystem:
- Without small business participation, markets drift toward monopolies or oligopolies, driving up costs and reducing quality.
- The majority of innovation comes from small businesses; large contractors’ propensity to innovate can decline over time.
- A resilient industrial base requires multiple players, ensuring competition, adaptability, and risk mitigation.
“These dynamics aren’t theoretical,” Crespin says. “They’re well documented. We see them play out repeatedly in government markets.”
At CollaborateUp, this philosophy is reflected in the firm’s growing focus on blended finance and market-based solutions. The team is currently supporting public-private projects in emerging markets, including a transportation and logistics initiative in Southern Africa that aims to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and lower carbon emissions across the region.
As a member of SBAIC’s Board, Crespin sees the organization as a vital platform for collective action.
“Individually, each small business can only make a small dent,” he says. “But together, when we aggregate our voices, we can have a mighty roar.”
In a time of disruption and transition, Crespin’s message is clear: small businesses are not a secondary consideration, they are central to building competitive markets, sustainable solutions, and a stronger future.
