Tn Consulting

What Tn Consulting does

Tn Consulting is a boutique federal research grant consulting firm founded in 2012 by Alix Norris, PhD and headquartered in Lebanon, United States. The firm provides specialized services including primary grant writing and coaching, grantsmanship reviews, professional editing and formatting, strategic consulting, and institutional training programs for academic researchers and small businesses seeking competitive federal research funding from agencies such as NIH, NSF, DoD, PCORI, and VA. As of May 2026, Tn reports having secured over $371 million in cumulative federal funding for its clients, including a stated >85% success rate for clients whose prior applications had been rejected.

The service model is entirely human-expert driven. There is no proprietary technology platform; value is delivered through a hand-picked network of PhD-level grant writers, editors, and scientific reviewers with postdoctoral training. The firm emphasizes a boutique, individualized engagement model that contrasts with what it characterizes as the "grant mill" model, with services customized per project and priced accordingly. Go-to-market is primarily relationship-driven, relying on word-of-mouth referrals, professional association memberships (Grant Professionals Association, American Medical Writers Association, National Association of Science Writers), an ongoing partnership with McAllister & Quinn, and direct email inquiries. The named client base spans 30+ institutions including Harvard, Stanford, NYU, Ohio State, Dartmouth, Cedars-Sinai, Dana-Farber, and Battelle, alongside a long tail of SBIR/STTR-seeking startups.

Tn is structured as TN Consulting, LLC, a privately held single-entity firm with no disclosed institutional investors, parent company, or funding rounds. The firm operates with 1-10 employees and has been founder-led since inception. Revenue is generated through customized project-based professional services engagements, with multi-year contracts in place for institutional cohort development programs (notably NSF Early CAREER training at three large state research universities) representing the most likely material revenue anchors within the diversified client book.

Name

Tn Consulting

Legal name

TN Consulting, LLC

Website

https://t-n-consulting.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Tn Consulting is a boutique federal research grant consulting firm founded in 2012 that helps academic researchers, universities, and small businesses win NIH, NSF, DoD, PCORI, and VA funding through expert grant writing, review, editing, and institutional training services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Research Grant Consulting Services

NAICS

Other Management Consulting Services (541618), Management Consulting Services (54161)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Innovation, Product & R&D Consulting (BPAHACAM)

Keywords

• Grant writing services
• Research grant consulting
• Federal funding advisory
• Grantsmanship review
• Proposal development consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Lebanon

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Coaching or Primary Writing Services: Customized consulting services tailored to each client's unique needs. Services may include leading the bulk of writing effort with project management, regular calls, de novo creation of proposal sections, and hands-on submission support. Alternatively, one-on-one coaching provides project management, continual feedback on iterative drafts, and strategic guidance. Pricing is customized per project, with clients paying only for support needed at that time.
2. Grantsmanship Review: One-time comprehensive review service providing external feedback and strategic insight on near-final grant proposals. Reviewers identify gaps, non-compliance issues, and suggest enhancements to strengthen narratives in alignment with major and program-specific review criteria.
3. Professional Editing, Formatting & Polishing: Professional editing services ensuring grant proposals are well-formatted, error-free, and aligned with grant submission guidelines. Editors trained in AMA style with PhD-level scientific backgrounds.
4. Strategic Consulting Services: Add-on consulting services including identifying new funding opportunities, exploring new federal agencies or programs, maximizing submission timing, and one-on-one deep-dive consultations to brainstorm evolving research concepts.
5. Trainings & Development: Virtual training and cohort development services for institutional or higher-education clients. Includes customized webinars, writing workshops, and one-on-one consulting for cohort members to raise competitiveness of faculty groups.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Tn Consulting is a boutique federal research grant consulting firm that helps academic researchers, faculty, and for-profit small businesses prepare competitive funding proposals for agencies such as NIH, NSF, DoD, PCORI, and VA. The firm delivers customized services spanning primary proposal writing or one-on-one coaching, comprehensive grantsmanship reviews of near-final drafts, AMA-style professional editing and formatting, strategic funding-opportunity consulting, and virtual cohort training programs for institutional clients.

Product overview

Tn Consulting is a boutique federal research grant consulting firm offering a spectrum of individualized services to help clients secure federal funding. The core service offerings include Coaching or Primary Writing Services (for complete proposal development or one-on-one coaching), Grantsmanship Review (external feedback on near-final drafts), and Professional Editing, Formatting & Polishing. Add-on services include Grant Strategic Consulting (identifying funding opportunities and shaping research concepts) and Trainings & Development (virtual cohort training for institutional clients). Services are customized to each client and span all major federal funders including NIH, NSF, DoD, PCORI, and VA.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Coaching or Primary Writing Services
• Grantsmanship Review
• Professional Editing, Formatting & Polishing
• Add-on Grant Strategic Consulting Services
• Trainings & Development

Quantifiable outcome

• Over $371 million in federal funding won for Tn clients as of 05/2026
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers34 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• McAllister & QuinnminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2011Alix Norris, Founder of Tn Consulting, was one of the first consultants in the McAllister & Quinn network and assists McAllister & Quinn clients to this day. This relationship provides access to McAllister & Quinn's client base for grant consulting services while McAllister & Quinn benefits from additional consultant capacity.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Candid (formerly Foundation Center): Nonprofit information services organization providing data, research, and training on the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, including grantmaker directories and funding research tools. Comparable to Tn in the broader funding-discovery and grantsmanship training space, but Candid is a nonprofit resource rather than a consulting firm.
• Northern Light Group: Research technology and competitive intelligence platform that includes grant and funding opportunity discovery tools used by life sciences and broader enterprise R&D teams. Broadly comparable to Tn's strategic consulting on funding opportunity identification, though Northern Light is a tech platform rather than a bespoke consulting firm.

Direct peers

• McAllister & Quinn: Federal grants and research funding consulting firm headquartered in Washington, DC. McAllister & Quinn is directly comparable to Tn Consulting — it is named in Tn's own GTM materials as a referral partner, and Alix Norris was one of the first consultants in the McAllister & Quinn network. Both firms help academic and nonprofit clients secure federal research funding across NIH, NSF, DoD, and other agencies.
• BRT Strategies: Health and science-focused consulting firm providing strategic advisory, policy analysis, and grant writing support to research institutions and advocacy organizations. Directly comparable to Tn because it serves academic and nonprofit clients pursuing federal research funding (NIH, BARDA, etc.) with proposal development and strategic positioning.
• Hanover Research: Subscription-based research and analytics firm that provides grant research, proposal development support, and strategic advisory to universities, hospitals, and K-12 institutions. Directly comparable to Tn because it serves the same higher education and research institution buyer with grant prospecting and proposal support services, although at a larger scale and more productized model.
• Foundation Strategy Group: Consulting firm that helps nonprofits, universities, and startups identify and win grant funding from federal, state, and private sources. Directly comparable to Tn because it serves the same nonprofit and small business buyer with grant strategy and proposal support, including SBIR/STTR assistance.
• Lewis-Burke Associates: Federal research funding consulting and advocacy firm focused on higher education and research institutions. Lewis-Burke is comparable to Tn because both help universities and academic medical centers navigate federal R&D funding opportunities (NIH, NSF, DoD, etc.) and develop competitive proposal strategies, though Lewis-Burke is larger and more focused on policy/advocacy in addition to proposal support.
• Customized Grant Solutions: Boutique NIH and NSF grant consulting firm offering editing, coaching, and proposal development to academic researchers. Directly comparable to Tn because it operates in the same niche — individualized grant writing support for academic PIs — with a similar boutique, consultant-network model.
• SBIR Coach / BBCetc: Consulting firm specializing in SBIR/STTR proposal development and commercialization strategy for small businesses seeking federal research funding. Directly comparable to Tn's small business segment because it serves the same SBIR/STTR buyer (e.g., CeresNano, GT Molecular-type clients) with Phase I, Phase II, and commercialization plan support.

Emerging players

• Academic Research Funding Strategies: Independent grant consulting practice offering proposal development support to academic researchers, particularly early-career faculty. Comparable to Tn's academic PI segment with overlapping services (coaching, editing, reviews), but smaller-scale and emerging rather than established.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tn-consulting

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tn Consulting