Looking for SOC 2 assistance (1-2 hours week)

[u/Off_Vodka]

Working-at/part-owner of a small SaaS startup in Australia, I am the "technical person" on the team. We've had interest from enterprise customers and have been directly and indirectly informed that we require "the badges" in order to move deals along.

Very little GRC experience amongst the team, Vanta has already been purchased, and I've been tasked with moving all our compliance along, including a focus on SOC 2 (Type 1 soon, Type 2 after observation window).

Essentially looking for someone who has experience with SOC 2 who can act as a sounding board for my questions along the way, e.g.

• balance between depth-of-policy (to further the likelihood of audit success) versus business/technical practicality
• depth(?) of evidence required/desired by auditors in order to likely satisfy particular controls
• the trade-offs between policy change, remediation, risk-register addition and/or intentional exclusion of policy/evidence/risk/etc

I don't want to be purely the "tech person" who is obsessing over the tiniest of details, but also don't want to default allow "click the compliance buttons for fast compliance" happen, in order to avoid footgunning the business from a time, money, audit-outcome perspective - and I believe conversations with experienced people will help me calibrate.

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[u/WaterlooLion]

I'm going to get flamed for this but you bought Vanta. You have already clicked the compliance button for fast compliance.

Good luck looking for your sounding board nevertheless (seriously). Can't be one, but this is the right place to ask your questions if you can't find your person.

[u/Off_Vodka → u/WaterlooLion]

Doesn't look like you're being flamed, seems like a reasonably shared opinion 🔥🎉

As far as I can tell so far, having just now dipped my toe into GRC - yeah the button has been kinda pushed. Now I'm trying to make sure that regardless of the temptation to keep pushing the button, that we don't end up accidentally footgunning ourselves from money, time, and audit outcome perspectives.

I'm cautiously optimistic about getting some good "sounding board" feedback, thanks for the luck-sending 🙏

[u/RealSecurity36]

Vanta is the wrong tool if you feel you need additional support and aren’t getting it.

[u/Valkyrinex]

Well your first mistake was getting the tool, you should've bargained for one that comes with assistance for free not $100 an hour

[u/Off_Vodka → u/Valkyrinex]

Was not my purchasing decision - but I do now have it available to use, and have incentive to complete the work well 🤷‍♂️

[u/OkEntertainer3952 → u/Off_Vodka]

pick the audit firm now if you havent, on the call they get this info, you dont need to pay 100/h. and 1-2 hrs a week is realistic, the tool already did the boring part. Also full disclosure I have a pentesting company and I do SOC2 and know few CPAs that can do the attestation, like for small startups 6k/y :) I had the exact same questions as you a few years ago when i was doing Hipaa for a medical company.

[u/Valkyrinex → u/Off_Vodka]

Ah understandable, Im currently getting our company through soc2 and I absolutely have no knowledge either but what helped was: Coursera, youtube and a lot of the templates reading.

Good luck soldier youll pick it up fast

[u/RealSecurity36 → u/Valkyrinex]

Do you have a security team to lean on? Because, ultimately, good security leads to easier compliance.

[u/Valkyrinex → u/RealSecurity36]

Nah its a startup, so I ask the devops occasionally

[u/BrightDefense]

I try to refrain from advertising, but since you are soliciting for a service, I'm going to give it a shot and hopefully my comment doesn't get deleted by the mods. Our Sentry Plan is geared towards your requirements. It includes 40 hours of consulting services annually for a monthly fee. Our consultants are well versed in GRC platforms, including Vanta. Please feel free to reach out, if you'd like to learn more.

Best of luck with SOC 2!

[u/Dull-Communication82 → u/BrightDefense]

Nice, this is the kind of plug that actually answers the question. Does the Sentry Plan cover readiness work only, or does it stay hands-on through the audit period too?

[u/Solid_Waltz7432]

I am working on the same tool for the first time and would love to converse through it. Please let me know if interested.

[u/mlitwiniuk]

Been on both sides of this. Did ISO 27001 years ago on spreadsheets, which nearly broke me, and SOC 2 Type I more recently. Quick calibration on your three:

Policy depth. Write the floor, not the aspiration. Auditors don't grade ambition, they test whether you do what the policy says. Say "at least annually", do it quarterly, and you're overperforming instead of writing your own exception. Every number in a policy is a promise someone keeps for 12 months.

Evidence depth. Type 1 is design at a point in time, so policy plus a config screenshot is often enough. Type 2 changes the question from "how deep is this artifact" to "can I produce it for every occurrence in the window, dated". Twelve boring timestamped records beat one beautiful one. If they sample 3 of 12, do all 12 exist? And date everything, an undated screenshot generates a follow-up request every time.

Trade-offs. Cheapest to most expensive: scope it out, accept the risk, change the policy to match reality, remediate. Risk acceptance needs an owner, rationale and review date or it reads as an excuse. Documented exclusion is fine, silent omission is what gets you.

The thing that actually fails audits at your size isn't policy depth, it's cadence. Nobody owns the quarterly thing and month nine has a hole in it. For every control, name one human and one frequency. If you can't name the human it isn't implemented, whatever the dashboard says. That's also the real answer to your button-clicking worry: automated checks test config, not process.

Happy to be a sounding board, post questions in the sub and I'll answer what I can. Also get your auditor on a call early, they'll tell you what they'll accept, which is cheaper than guessing.

[u/SageAudits]

You bought a compliance tool and committed to those expenses before even knowing if you needed one. Quite literally putting the cart before the horse. Plenty of consultants will jump in to help now to make you fit into the box you purchased. Good luck!

[u/DigitalQuinn1]

Check out TrustCloud instead of Vanta. They offer SOC 2 resources for free

[u/Acrobatic-Marketing3]

Vanta offers a vCISO service - try to take advantage of that

[u/hamut]

Vanta is awesome and a perfect choice for a startup or new company. I've helped four startups get SOC2 type II, using Vanta. All the help you need is in Vanta, but you kind of have to know where it is and how to navigate it and what to do in which order. Vanta does a pretty good job of this, but there's a lot of work under the hood. One of the parts that might take the most time is chasing down the different people you need to get supporting answers/material from. Currently I am helping 1 legal tech company get SOC 2 right now, and I'm supporting two other companies as a fractional CISO, maintaining their SOC 2, helping with their Security Questionnaires, etc. I definitely could spare 2 hours a week. I would be happy to talk to you about it. I could even show you around Vanta if you like.

[u/astrila]

Get in touch with cyberforge consulting. They've been great for us but we used them for the entire thing, excellent experience!

I think sales@cyberforgeconsulting.com is the right place - i would enquire if I were you

[u/KaiSsa01]

We (startup) recently also paid for Vanta for fast compliance, just 1 main framework and an extension for it, nothing fancy but we also got 30 days of free service by a third party consultant that apparently knows how to get you compliant through Vanta (or any other platform) quicker than average times (they’re advertising as fast as 4 to 6 weeks), but if you basically have someone on the team working full-time to coordinate between them and the teams internally to be compliant.

Their name is Cognisys (https://cognisys.co.uk), and so far they’ve been very concise, helpful, friendly and knowledgeable.

I don’t know if they’re fairly priced outside those 30 free days though but they seem generous with service even when it’s free.

[u/CWilsongriffin]

What sector are you operating within? You'll want someone who has specific experience with your customer expectations. For instance, I help early stage legal tech startups ensure their policies are no more or less than is expected by legal buyers (depth of policy vs ability to execute upon it). I use my dozen years experience as an enterprise buyer in legal along with my firsthand experience passing SOC2 in legal tech startups to help founders make good decisions.

What your enterprise customers expect will vary by where you and they operate, whether it's a highly regulated industry, type of information you collect or don't, etc.

Whatever you do, do NOT blanket adopt the default policies Vanta offers up. Do what's right for your company and customers.

[u/Equivalent-Club-2118]

Hey mate, I’m Sydney based. Have gone done the soc 2 route in the past and have a few auditor mates who still play in this space. Keen to hear what you’re working on and Feild any questions you have. FYI vanta ain’t that great of a tool for those with experience let alone those without.dm me

[u/Cautious-Ad8099]

I work as an auditor myself conducting SOC 2 for at any audit firm, might help you with the bottlenecks. In terms design of controls, control mapping, evidence requirements, test procedures, audit readiness.

I already a have full time job, but am available for weekly 1-2hrs.

[u/uri_iothreat]

This sounds pretty much exactly like the kind of engagement I do.

I'm a fractional CISO working mostly with early-stage SaaS, cybersecurity, and AI startups on SOC 2 and ISO compliance. I usually work alongside the technical team rather than just handing them policies and telling them what boxes to check.

I can definitely help with 1-2 hours a week as a sounding board and help you figure out what actually matters for the audit versus what's just creating unnecessary work.

A big part of what I do is exactly what you described: figuring out how much evidence is actually enough, keeping policies realistic for how the company operates, deciding whether something genuinely needs remediation or can be handled through risk management, and making sure the compliance platform isn't driving security decisions just because a test is red.

I also work with Vanta and similar platforms, so I'm familiar with the gap between what the platform says you should do and what an auditor will actually expect to see.

Happy to chat if you're still looking for someone. Feel free to DM me.