Good Compliance is Good Value(ation)
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As a founder, your to-do list is an infinite scroll of activities necessary to build your business. Product development, marketing, sales, support, and more, you’re constantly deciding between the urgent and the important. The last thing you want to do is slow down and make things more difficult.
That’s how many startups view compliance and security: as a difficulty. All the policies and procedures seem to get in the way of progress. Compliance feels like the opposite of many startup’s motto: “move fast and break things.” But as many companies are discovering, moving fast can also break customer trust, or worse, the law.
Compliance and security add complexity to any product or service. But those layers protect you from costly mistakes. Whether a malicious breach or an unplanned outage, skipping key steps leads to company-ending events. Enterprises can take a hit and survive with good PR (and insurance). A startup won’t be so lucky.
Every startup should have an early conversation about compliance. Some industries (healthcare, finance, B2C) have day-one requirements. Others might skip strict standards until there’s more money to make the investment. You should think about good compliance now, as your building,and not later, as a bolt on.
When looking for funding, having a solid governance and compliance program is a critical asset. Investors do a risk analysis before they give out their money. Could they lose it all through a breach or system failure? If you can’t answer questions about building secure products, they might say “no.” Large customers are the same.
What’s the solution? Don’t skip over compliance and security. Principles like “Secure by design” and “Privacy by design” guide decisions along the way. Have an advisor help you navigate compliance standards like SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and CMMC, too. You can do things today to meet those standards in the future. Will “future you” thank you for building the foundation or say bad things about all the work remaining. Consider a maturity model to measure your progress and guide those decisions.
When approached from the beginning, compliance doesn’t have to slow you down. It can help other things be easier too. Good continuous delivery helps both security and feature releases. Internal reviews improve quality and product market fit. Good IT security protects intellectual property, a key part of your company’s value to investors.
You’re pouring your time and money into your startup. Including compliance with your planboth improves the business’s value and protects your investment. A young business faces many challenges. Don’t let an avoidable security incident be one of them. Build secure and compliant today.
Ready to start? Here are some next steps:
