SOC 2 for Startups: The Complete Guide [2025]
Don't let SOC 2 slow your velocity. Get the complete playbook for startups on how to achieve SOC 2 and unlock enterprise revenue.
Let’s be honest, when you first launch your startup security isn’t often the #1 priority. Instead of compliance requirements, you’re focused on growth and finding product market fit. But at a certain point compliance becomes incredibly important to your growth, especially if you’re onboarding enterprise customers.
If you’re working with (or hoping to work with) enterprise or even mid-market clients, System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2) will be a phrase you’ll hear a lot. For fast-growing startups, SOC 2 isn’t a nice to have, it’s often the price of doing business as you scale.
Without SOC 2, you risk severe delays in your sales cycle and even losing out on prospects — not because of your product, but because you can’t promise the compliance they need.
At Workstreet, we’ve helped thousands of businesses with compliance and SOC 2 including plenty of market leading technology companies like Clay, Granola, Cursor, and Beehiiv.
Here’s what you need to know about SOC 2 for your startup.
What is SOC 2?
Soc 2 is a compliance framework introduced by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). It validates how an organization protects customer data based on five principles called Trust Services Criteria (TSC) — more on these later.
If you’re working with customers in the North American market SOC 2 is the gold standard for compliance and something almost every enterprise customer will expect. (If you work with organizations outside of North American you may need to explore ISO 27001.)
After a SOC 2 audit, your organization will receive an attestation report which details how your security controls were implemented at a single moment in time (SOC 2 Type 1) or the operational effectiveness of your controls over a period of time (SOC 2 Type 2).
Why SOC 2 is a Sales Asset, Not a Cost Center
You didn’t get into startups to spend your nights worrying about compliance and risk assessments. But the moment you try to sell to an enterprise customer you won't just be demoing to the product manager. Their InfoSec, Legal, and Procurement teams will get involved. They will send you a 200-item security questionnaire, and at the top of that list will be one question: "Do you have a current SOC 2 Type 2 report?"
If the answer is "no," the conversation may well be over.
Enterprise procurement teams won’t sign contracts with vendors that present a risk to their business and its sensitive data. A SOC 2 report is a signal of trust and a universal signal that your company has a robust security posture.
This is the moment compliance stops being a distraction and becomes a growth blocker.
That is why we built Workstreet. We automate the entire audit process to unblock those deals and get you back to what actually matters: building and selling.
It's a problem we solve every day. For example, when Clementine Markman joined Granola as its founding ops lead, achieving SOC 2 certification was a top priority specifically to reassure enterprise customers about their privacy and security posture.
We work with companies like Granola to build their compliance programs, and one of the biggest value-adds isn't just the audit attestation, it's enabling their Go-To-Market team to accelerate the sales pipeline.
When Does a Startup Actually Need SOC 2?
If you’re building your MVP, you don’t need to stress about SOC 2 on Day One. It starts to become an issue when you decide to sell into enterprise and even some mid-market organizations.
The need for SOC 2 is usually triggered by three things:
- A Big Deal: A big-name logo enters your sales cycle and their procurement team explicitly requests SOC 2. This is often the #1 reason businesses start scrambling to achieve SOC 2.
- Series A Fundraising: As part of the diligence process many VCs will ask about your security posture especially for B2B SaaS. Having a SOC 2 (or a clear plan for one) helps to show them you’re serious about both growth and compliance.
- Handling Sensitive Data: If your product touches Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), or financial data, SOC 2 is needed sooner rather than later.
The worst time to start thinking about SOC 2 is when you have a large, enterprise deal on the line. If you’re starting from scratch you’re at least 3-5 months away from closing that deal if you want a SOC 2 Type 2 report.
The Trust Services Criteria (TSC): What You Need to Know
A SOC 2 audit is based on five principles called Trust Services Criteria (TSC). It’s important to understand that you’re not required to be audited against all of them and for 95% of early-stage startups, you probably don’t want to include all five in your assessment.
Here are the five TSC:
- Security (Mandatory): This is the foundation of every SOC 2 report and is non-negotiable. It's also known as the "Common Criteria” and covers the systems and controls you have in place to protect against unauthorized access, both logical and physical.
- Availability: This verifies your system is available for operation and use as committed or agreed. Are you a critical infrastructure tool with a 99.99% uptime SLA? You should probably add Availability.
- Confidentiality: This verifies you protect "confidential" information. Is your product's core value proposition handling your customer's sensitive IP, M&A data, or secret algorithms? Then you’ll need Confidentiality.
- Processing Integrity: This verifies that system processing is complete, valid, accurate, timely, and authorized. Think financial processing or e-commerce transaction systems.
- Privacy: This is distinct from Confidentiality. It applies specifically to the protection of personal information (PII).
If it’s your first time working towards SOC 2, I’d recommend working with an external expert or consultancy to help you figure out exactly which of the TSCs your business needs to be audited against. Correctly scoping your SOC 2 work can save you a lot of time, money, and stress. Plus, you know you won’t miss out on any critical requirements.
"It only takes one thing to fail the certification," Granola’s Clementine Markman notes. "There's a lot of pressure from the whole company because you can't screw this up. Having Workstreet took that pressure off."
Type 1 vs. Type 2: A Decision Framework for Speed vs. Longevity
As we briefly mentioned earlier, there are two types of SOC 2 report: Type 1 and Type 2. Both require an audit from a qualified auditor or CPA and which you need will often depend on two things: Urgency and budget.
- SOC 2 Type 1: SOC 2 Type 1 is much faster to achieve but also far less detailed. A Type 1 report verifies that your security controls are designed correctly and implemented at a single point in time.
- SOC 2 Type 2: On the other hand, a SOC 2 Type 2 report verifies the operating effectiveness of your controls over a period of time (often 3-6 months).
In most cases, we advise going directly for a SOC 2 Type 2 report. It’s more expensive upfront and takes longer to achieve but many organizations see Type 1 is often seen as a short-term fix as your work towards Type 2. Generally, you should only pursue Type 1 if it’s needed to unlock immediate revenue.
How to Get SOC 2 Compliant: Step-by-Step
1: Gap Analysis & Scoping
This is where your internal team or your compliance partner/vCISO) draw the map and define the audit scope. This means reviewing the SOC 2 TSCs and the needed controls and comparing them to your current system (AKA a gap analysis) to figure out which compliance holes you need to fill.
The gap analysis and scoping can be time consuming, especially if you’ve not been through an audit before, that’s why many organizations choose to work with a compliance partner like Workstreet to help ensure everything is adequately covered.
2: Remediation
Now, once you’ve mapped all the gaps your system has, you need to put together a remediation plan to fix those issues. The gaps related to the TSC that matter most to your organization should be fixed as a priority.
A big part of the remediation process is also aligning your internal teams to make sure anyone who needs to work on the fixes has the necessary bandwidth within your required timeline.
3: Evidence Collection
Evidence is a huge part of any SOC 2 audit. Your auditor will expect to see substantial records that your controls are working and aligned with SOC 2 requirements.
Alongside evidence of your controls working, you should also ensure you have documented security policies and SLAs.Many organizations will use compliance automation software (like Vanta) to keep logs and screenshots — these products will also often provide policy templates you can customize to fit your organization.
4: Schedule Your Audit
You made it! It’s time for the final exam. A SOC 2 auditor will validate the operational effectiveness of your SOC 2 controls and review the evidence you collected. Ideally, you should look to schedule your suit as early as possible to ensure you: 1) Have enough time to complete remediation and collect evidence, and 2) You’re not held up waiting for an audit slot.
At the end of the compliance audit, you’ll either receive an unqualified SOC 2 report which means the auditor found your controls were effectively designed and implemented or a qualified report which means there are some issues for you to address.
Achieve SOC 2 Compliance With Workstreet
SOC 2 is not a one-and-done event, it is a commitment to a standard of operation that assures your enterprise customers (and prospects) that they can trust your cybersecurity posture. But it doesn’t end after the audit. Any new features you ship will need to continue to comply with SOC 2 standards.
Compliance isn’t a project to cross off your list, it's a function of the business - just like marketing or sales. Treat it that way, and you'll build trust a company that enterprise customers are willing to work with. If you want to get this done right without burning founder or key engineering time, ourSOC 2 compliance services are built to get startups like yours audit-ready fast.
