How Granola handles SOC 2 and security questionnaires 10x faster with Workstreet

Company: Granola is an AI notepad for meetings, designed to help you stay focused.
Founded: 2023
HQ: London, UK

Workstreet’s impact:

• Granola achieved SOC 2 certification in three months, without slowing down its engineering and product teams 
• Accelerated security questionnaire response speed 10x, saving 100+ engineering hours
• Eliminated security as a deal blocker, speeding up enterprise sales cycles 

When Clementine Markman joined Granola as its founding ops lead, achieving SOC 2 certification was a priority to reassure customers about how much they value privacy and security.

"We had big pressure to get SOC 2," Clementine explains. "We had a three-month observation period and couldn't afford to miss anything."

Added to the challenge of achieving SOC 2 certification, Granola's sales team was fielding an increasing volume of security questionnaires from enterprise prospects—each taking days to complete and pulling Granola’s founding team and engineers away from product development at a time when its userbase was growing rapidly.

That's when Granola partnered with Workstreet.

Use Case 01: Achieving SOC 2 Certification

To get started, Granola implemented Vanta for SOC 2 requirements but quickly hit limitations. "I still had to do lots of things myself,” Clementine recalls. With no time to lose, she realized they needed more hands-on expertise, not just software, to navigate the certification process successfully and efficiently. 

Enter Workstreet. 

“Workstreet handled the admin processes and enabled us to focus on what really needed to get done” Clementine explains. 

Instead of spending time learning platform navigation or understanding which format to use, the Granola team could focus on implementing robust security practices. 

Working with Workstreet also gave Granola the confidence they wouldn’t miss any critical requirements. "It only takes one thing to fail the certification," Clementine emphasizes. "There's a lot of pressure from the whole company because you can't screw this up. Having Workstreet took that pressure off."

The result: Granola achieved SOC 2 certification in just three months, without pulling engineers away from critical development work.

Use Case 02: Turning security questionnaires from a bottleneck into a competitive advantage

As the business scaled, security questionnaires became a painful blocker, slowing down enterprise sales.

"Before Workstreet, I would sit down with one or two engineers and go through spreadsheets," recalls Shreman Shrestha, who handles Granola's go-to-market operations. "It felt like extracting teeth for everyone involved."

When Shreman took over the process, he built systems using AI tools to catalog previous responses. But even with partial automation, 30-40% of each questionnaire still required manual work. Files came in weird formats, responses sounded robotic, and engineers were constantly pulled away from product work.

The impact of Workstreet's questionnaire support was immediate, helping Granola to make responses "10x faster," Shreman notes. "Our engineers and I have saved 100+ work hours since we started with Workstreet."

"Our engineers and I have saved 100+ work hours since we started with Workstreet."

The result: Security has stopped being a bottleneck in Granola's sales cycle. Questionnaires get handled 10x faster without pulling Shreman, engineers or the founding team away from their day-to-day duties.

Use Case 03: Building a scalable compliance foundation for enterprise growth

With SOC 2 certification achieved and security questionnaires no longer slowing down enterprise sales, Granola has the compliance infrastructure to support its ambitious growth plans.

But what Clementine values most is the ongoing partnership. SOC 2 isn't a one-and-done achievement, it requires continuous monitoring and improvement.

"Without Workstreet, we might move on to something else, thinking we're done with certification," she explains. "It's good to have this constant check-in. It's a bit like having a personal trainer at the gym—you know how to train, but they keep you on top of things and make sure you don't forget."

The result: Workstreet has become an extension of Granola's security function, integrated directly into its Slack workspace and supporting everything from penetration testing to incident response and emerging compliance requirements. 

"When we have security questions, I just go and ask Workstreet," Clementine says.

Turning Compliance into a Growth Engine

Granola is growing at a rapid pace. Since onboarding Workstreet, security and compliance have transformed from roadblocks into competitive advantages. Questionnaires that would take days, now take hours and the team has peace of mind that security won't slow them down.

For a hypergrowth startup in the AI space, every hour matters. Workstreet enabled Granola to maintain its growth trajectory without compromise:

• Engineering teams stay focused on product, not questionnaires
• Sales cycles accelerate without security bottlenecks
• Operations can scale strategically instead of drowning in security documentation
• The team has confidence they're secure without sacrificing speed

For Shreman, the value is clear: "Workstreet helps us move a lot faster. I save time, our engineers save time, and we’re able to get back to customers quicker, which helps us with faster sales cycles."

Workstreet helps fast-growing companies achieve compliance without slowing down. From SOC 2 and other frameworks to security questionnaire automation and penetration testing, we deliver full-stack solutions that transform security and compliance from operational anchors into growth accelerators.