# Strategic Marketing Innovations The **#20 lobbying firm in DC by 2025 revenue ($23.0M)** and the most specialized shop in the top 20: SMI is a **federal R&D appropriations and procurement firm**, founded 1993, whose business is securing directed federal funding — defense, cybersecurity, clean energy, life sciences, advanced manufacturing — for technology companies, universities, and public entities. Effectively nonpartisan: its access runs through the Appropriations and Armed Services committees and Pentagon/DHS program offices rather than any political network, making it the quietest large firm in the census. ## Model and trajectory Revenue ran from ~$17.2M (2024) to ~$23M (2025), a rise consistent with the post-moratorium earmark revival ("Community Project Funding") and surging defense/R&D directed-spending demand (see [[Earmarks]]) — SMI occupies the same structural niche [[Cassidy & Associates]] invented, updated for the tech era. The client roster is characteristically long-tail: many small R&D companies and universities (verified example: Stealth Software Technologies, federal cybersecurity R&D) rather than Fortune-100 names. ## People President & CEO Bill McCann spent about a decade as chief of staff, legislative director, and military legislative assistant for a senior House Armed Services Committee member before joining SMI in 2005. The firm keeps a low profile — roughly 65 employees, ~24 registered lobbyists, no notable controversies surfaced 2024–2026, and no FARA registration found. Founder identity is not well documented in public sources. ## See also [[Lobbying Hub]] · [[Lobbying]] · [[Earmarks]] · [[Cassidy & Associates]] · [[2025 Record Lobbying Year]]