November 29, 2023

How to Get Your Team on Board with Your Compliance Journey

Devon Lane
Content writer
at Flowbase

As an early-stage startup founder, you’ve built a team that’s hyperfocused on getting a successful product out the door. They are agile and efficient, and they want to make an impact — and as they put their efforts into moving your business forward, compliance can feel like more than a hindrance than an enabler. 

You know that compliance (particularly when it comes to cybersecurity) will be an important part of your journey. Abiding by standards like SOC 2 can be key for building trust in the market and attracting enterprise customers.

So, how do you connect the dots for your team so that they buy into the need for compliance and become partners in this journey?  

Align Compliance to Your Broader Business Goals

As a business, you and your team have likely spent time establishing a core set of goals around product development, revenue, and/or number of customers. These are all important objectives for your startup, and performing against them is what drives your team members to succeed. 

One way to show your team how important compliance is is to demonstrate the impact it can have in helping them achieve these goals. 

Let’s use SOC 2 compliance as an example. As a widely recognized security standard, as SOC 2 report can immediately generate trust from prospective customers — and that’s invaluable in enterprise sales processes that are getting longer and longer. If sales processes are faster and more likely to succeed, then you have a higher chance of generating more revenue. 

Your SOC 2 report will also immediately increase the number of potential customers you have, as many enterprises refuse to work with vendors that don’t have a report. Understanding this is likely to get your sales leads on board with prioritizing compliance.

Focus on the Risks You’re Mitigating

While your team of agile and driven team members may not be highly risk aware or conservative, there is a story to be told around how security and financial risks could get in the way of their goals. 

Prioritizing compliance with SOC 2 and other important standards can set you up for success by reducing your cybersecurity exposure, minimizing the chance of costly non-compliance fines, and save you from the reputational damage of a breach (not to mention the cost of any downtime). 

By creating and upholding a culture of compliance, your team can then be better positioned to focus on their strategic priorities and move the business forward, rather than fire fighting potential security and non-compliance issues as they arise. 

Keep Your Team Engaged

Your team has gotten your startup to where it is today, and they will play an important role in keeping your business compliant. Give them an opportunity to contribute to the compliance journey. This could include asking them for feedback as you roll out new compliance measures, requesting anecdotes from their compliance experiences at other companies, and asking for creative ideas for keeping everyone engaged. 

Being open and transparent will also be important here. Be proactive in setting expectations, sharing compliance roadmaps, and informing the team on any changes they will need to navigate. 

Don’t Be Afraid to Have Fun

Compliance has a bad reputation for being boring and a slog, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Consider gamifying some of the security changes you’re making and building a competitive spirit around adoption.  

For example, if you’re rolling out multi-factor authentication across the organization, consider giving out a prize to the first person who adds all their factors. If you do this with enough initiatives, you can have a Compliance Leaderboard with a Champion that’s announced at the end of every quarter. 

Another option could be to host a lunch-hour quiz event after you’ve rolled out some informational sessions and policies. See who on your team can get the most answers right about your compliance journey. (Perhaps tell your compliance lead they can’t help anyone.)

Don’t forget to add fun into your communications, as well. I once had a security change manager who added memes and puns into each of her security updates. This was impactful because it made talking about security less intimidating and allowed for fun exchanges over Slack and other channels.

The Path to Compliance Is a Necessary One

Running a startup is an exciting endeavor, one that’s filled with complex challenges and learning experiences. In our many years of working with startup leaders, we’ve learned that the most successful early-stage companies are the ones that take the time to set strong foundations — whether that’s building a scalable back-office ecosystem or being proactive with their compliance efforts. 

Getting your team on board will be step one. Once they’re aligned, embedding compliance into the way you operate will be much easier — and you won’t look back.

‍At Marana, we take a comprehensive approach to helping companies achieve SOC 2 compliance. Keen to learn more about how we do it? Let’s chat.

We’re here to help.

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Frequently Asked
Questions

What type of compliance standard can you help with?

We help our clients based on their needs. The majority of our contracts involve SOC-2, HIPAA, and most recently GDPR. Feel free to ask us if we can help with your particular case. If we aren't able to, we can most likely recommend you to someone who can.

How long does a SOC 2 engagement usually take?

We move as fast as our clients are able to make progress. Our fastest client to date got their SOC-2 Type I four months after signing our engagement letter. That record is up for grab if you are up for it.

In our experience however, it takes 6-9 months to achieve a SOC-2 Type I,  and 3-6 additional months to obtain a SOC-2 Type II report.

Which standard do you follow for your security policies?

All of our security policies follow the ISO-27001 standard. The Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability standards cover the range of standards we like to work with for SOC 2.

Why do we have to become SOC 2 compliant if we are relying on AWS which is already compliant?

SOC 2 stands for Service Organization Control, meaning your clients are interested in understanding your controls, not your hosting provider’s control. As part of your vendor assessment we recommend reviewing AWS’ SOC 2 report, but relying on their report is not enough to become SOC 2 compliant.

Who is behind SOC 2?

The American Institute of CPAs. The AICPA is an established and respected organization that provides two forms of audits to companies that demonstrate evidence of a secure data-protection infrastructure. A Type I is a point in time audit that addresses the company’s description of its system, the suitability of the system’s design, and the effectiveness of its internal data controls. A Type II report happens over a period of time and emphasizes design and also focuses on the validity of the company’s controls.

Are SOC 2 reports a legal obligation?

No, but most enterprise level organizations that engage with sensitive data (again, almost all of them) have an obligation to their stakeholders to prove due diligence regarding data security, which means they’ll want to vet their service providers using this tool. SOC 2 can help these prospective service providers set themselves apart from the competition. Just as important, a SOC 2 report represents a meaningful and respected signifier of trust.

What can happen to a company without a SOC 2 report?

A lack of a SOC 2 report won’t result in legal problems, but it can and will limit outside assessments of the company’s commitment to data security. When large-scale clients look for providers, or large-scale backers look for a likely return on their investment, they don’t want concerns about security to stand in the way. Trust is a chain made of links that have each been put the test and have proven their ability to withstand pressure and scrutiny. Company leaders are wise to let SOC 2 auditors apply this pressure so their clients and backers don’t have to.

When is it too late for a SOC 2 audit?

Never. Even companies that have been in business for years but have never obtained a SOC 2 report can—and should—take steps in this direction now. Being compliant with SOC 2 can open the door to a broader base of more significant clients and larger contract opportunities. That being said, startups in the threshold of the marketplace, and new business owners who hope for an eventual public offering, should obtain a SOC 2 report during the development and financing process. By the time the company approaches Series B and C fundraising rounds, a report should be in hand.

How complicated is the auditing process?

The auditing process can be easy, or complicated depending on your level of preparation.

Preparing for the audit can take some time, attention, and the guidance of reliable data security experts. Don’t leave any part of this process to chance. Approach SOC 2 compliance one step at a time, and start by contacting a consulting firm with track record of experience in your area of the marketplace.

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