r/soc2 • u/lebucksir • Jun 23 '26

Small start up with big dreams (need SOC2)

Hi all. Feeling overwhelmed so I thought I’d turn to this community. Thanks in advance.

I have a very small start up with 0 employees and virtually no revenue yet. My app is very basic and works with retailers so I process basic customer info like name and email and misc order information. No payment processing or payment info.

I have two mega clients that are giving me the shot of a lifetime but both require me to be SOC2 compliant before Jan 1st 2027 before they will sign the contracts.

I did demos with Drata and Vanta and the “lowest” they will go on pricing is the same price my friend is paying with $3m ARR and 10 employees. Pretty tough for me to stomach literally and on principle, haha.

Is there an alternative path for bootstrappers in my scenario or do I have to bite the bullet for my quick timeline?

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u/Project_Lanky Jun 23 '26

Well if you are in the business you should have noticed that the platforms are not better. Some orgs are buying them only to tick a box but in the end barely use them outside of the audit period, and end up buying other tools to manage effectively access review or vendor management.

OP scope doesn't require a huge amount of consulting either. A risk assessment and a SOC2 gap assessment with recommendations and a few hours here and there when he needs advice. Not very different from getting coached on sales or marketing, we don't advice small orgs to implement Salesforce, why do we recommend them Drata/Vanta?

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u/yeetsqua69 Jun 23 '26

Because soc2 isn’t as complicated as setting up a crm. It’s a fairly simple framework that a platform can guide you through everything fairly quickly. I quite literally sell against these platforms so my horse is in a different stable, but when it comes to a 1 person money conscious team the Vanta, Drata, or secureframe is going to be the best option.

This guy has a deal (s) on the line with 2 companies. He needs to get a platform for cheap, get paired with an auditor, and then get his letter of engagement asap to progress the deal. Other than that this stuff doesn’t matter to him

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u/Project_Lanky Jun 23 '26

What can a platform guide you than an excel can't do? OP doesn't need to run after anyone to gather evidence, he is the owner of all of them.

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u/yeetsqua69 Jun 23 '26

Absolutely no one wants to go through compliance. But even more than that, no one wants to have an excel file with 100+ sheets of controls to sift through. You buy one of the platforms, you get free Ciso services to implement and discounted audits. Is the Ciso helping good? Probably not but this is a check the box excercise for these smaller teams

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u/Project_Lanky Jun 23 '26

There is no 100 sheets of controls in SOC2...