The $4.2 Trillion Secret: Why the RFP Economy is 4x Bigger Than E-Commerce
Jan 22, 2026

There is a $4.2 trillion ATM in this country, and the people standing in line pray you never find the PIN.
Most believe the backbone of the US economy is the stock market or consumer spending. They're wrong. The real machinery of this country, the agreements that build our roads, run our hospitals, and power our government, runs on the Request for Proposal (RFP).
They want you to think it’s just red tape. They want you to think it’s a hassle. Because as long as you think it’s too painful to bother with, the biggest corporations in the world get to split a $4.25 trillion dollar pie without any real competition.
This is the economy no one talks about.
$755 Billion in Federal spending.
$1.5 Trillion in State & Local contracts.
$2.0 Trillion+ in private B2B commerce.
So why haven't you heard about it? That isn’t an accident. It’s a design feature.
The process is designed to be so tedious, so confusing, and so riddled with jargon that only the biggest corporations with armies of proposal writers can afford to play. It’s a feature, not a bug. They want you to quit so they can keep the contracts for themselves.
Think of an RFP like a high-stakes Escape Room.
Let’s compare this to an escape room. You’re locked in. You have a ticking clock (the deadline). You have to hunt for clues (requirements), solve complex puzzles (compliance matrices), and unlock the door before time runs out.
But here is the difference: In a normal escape room, it’s just you and your friends having fun. However, in the RFP escape room, there are 30 other companies in the room with you, elbowing you in the ribs, trying to solve the puzzle first. If you fail, you don't just lose the game; you lose a multimillion-dollar contract that could have changed the trajectory of your business.
The government and the Fortune 500 incumbents love this escape room. They know the average business owner takes one look at the complexity, gets scared, and walks away.
The game is rigged. So we built a skeleton key.
At Settle, we got tired of watching capable companies lose because they couldn't navigate the maze. We are redefining the backbone of this economy by building the operations layer that this $4 trillion market is missing.
Settle isn't just a tool; it's your unfair advantage.
We find the room: We surface relevant opportunities instantly. No more digging through government dungeon portals.
We solve the puzzle: Our AI automatically drafts the response, cutting through the jargon and confusion.
The government and the Fortune 500 love an escape room designed to scare you away from the prize.
Book a demo with us. We’ll hand you the key, and you can walk right out with the revenue everyone else left on the table.
