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Startup Security — enterprise deals don't wait for you to hire a security team.
SOC 2 and ISO 27001 attestation are now standard prerequisites in enterprise procurement, and 78% of organisations have already deployed AI in production with far fewer having tested it. SIRI's startup security capability gets you ready — without requiring a security hire first.
Standard askSOC 2 / ISO 27001 attestation in enterprise procurement, not a differentiator
87%Of organisations run software with a known, exploitable vulnerability
78% / 12%Have shipped AI in production vs. have formally tested it for security
Why enterprise procurement now gates on security readiness
Live tracking · scroll to see what's actually blocking enterprise deals
Procurement gate
STANDARD ASK
SOC 2 Type I or Type II attestation has become a standard prerequisite in enterprise SaaS procurement, not a differentiator — its absence is now more likely to stall a deal than its presence is to win one.
Security questionnaires
GROWING SCOPE
Enterprise security questionnaires have grown longer and more technical, increasingly covering AI usage, subprocessor security and incident-response readiness alongside traditional infrastructure controls.
Vulnerable by default
87%
87% of organisations run software with at least one known, exploitable vulnerability already deployed — a starting-point risk most early-stage companies haven't assessed, let alone closed.
AI adoption outpacing testing
78% / 12%
78% of organisations have deployed AI in production, but only 12% have a formal AI security testing programme — a gap that shows up directly in enterprise AI-usage questionnaires now.
Structural advantage
BUILT IN EARLY
Security built in during early architecture decisions is materially cheaper than security retrofitted after enterprise procurement demands it — the earlier the start, the smaller the eventual remediation project.
Diligence, not just procurement
FUNDRAISING & M&A
Investor and acquirer technical due diligence increasingly asks the same questions an enterprise buyer does — a security programme that already answers them removes a source of friction from the raise or the deal.
Insurance underwriting
RISING BAR
Cyber-insurance underwriters now request many of the same controls and evidence enterprise buyers do, which means a startup security programme can also lower premiums and speed up binding.
The security questionnaire doesn't wait for headcount
By the time an enterprise deal needs SOC 2, it's usually too late to start from zero.
Most startups build their first real security posture in reaction to a specific blocked deal — an enterprise prospect's security questionnaire, or an explicit SOC 2 requirement in procurement. Starting there means compressing months of assessment, remediation and evidence-building into a deal timeline that wasn't built to accommodate it, usually without an in-house security hire to run the process.
The earlier pattern is more sustainable: security assessed and remediated as part of normal product development, evidence built continuously rather than assembled under deal pressure, and SOC 2 or ISO 27001 readiness treated as infrastructure rather than a fire drill. This matters more as AI becomes central to more startup products — 78% of organisations have already shipped AI into production, but only 12% have a formal AI security testing programme, and that gap increasingly shows up as a direct line item in enterprise security reviews.
SOC 2 / ISO 27001 attestation is now a standard prerequisite in enterprise procurement
Not a differentiator that wins a deal, but a baseline whose absence is increasingly enough to stall one — making readiness a growth-stage requirement, not an optional investment.
SIRI's startup security capability runs assess, remediate, validate and prepare as one connected process: a gap assessment against SOC 2 or ISO 27001, prioritised remediation scoped to what a small team can actually execute, validation through real testing via SIRI Attack, and audit-ready evidence — sized and paced for a company without a dedicated security function yet.
The programme is deliberately not a generic enterprise framework applied wholesale to a ten-person engineering team. Scope is set by what's actually driving the need — a specific questionnaire, a named auditor's requirements, or a Type I versus Type II decision — and remediation is sequenced so the items blocking a live deal move first, with everything else following in a pace the team can sustain alongside normal product work.
Most early security debt sits in a handful of predictable places
Access control and offboarding, unencrypted or overly broad data access, missing incident-response procedures, unreviewed vendor and subprocessor relationships, and AI features that were shipped without adversarial testing — the gap assessment is built to surface exactly these first.
Reporting is written for the people who will actually act on it — founders and engineers, not a security operations centre that doesn't exist yet. Every finding is paired with a concrete remediation step, an estimate of effort, and a note on whether it's blocking a specific deal, audit, or questionnaire, so prioritisation decisions are never guesswork.
What organisations get wrong
Four assumptions that turn security into a deal-blocking fire drill
Most startup security gaps aren't about lack of concern — they're about timing.
01 — TIMING
“We'll deal with security when we need SOC 2”
Starting from zero when a deal already requires SOC 2 compresses months of work into a deal timeline, and often costs the deal timeline itself.
02 — SCOPE
“We're too small to be a target”
Automated scanning and credential-stuffing attacks target by exposure, not company size — 87% of organisations run software with a known, exploitable vulnerability regardless of headcount.
03 — AI FEATURES
“Our AI features are just a wrapper around a foundation model”
How that model is integrated — the prompts, data access, plugins and permissions you control — is exactly where adversarial testing finds real risk, foundation-model provider or not.
04 — HIRING GATE
“We need a security hire before we can start”
A structured external programme can assess, remediate and prepare for SOC 2 without requiring a security hire first — the hire, if and when it happens, inherits a running programme rather than starting one from nothing.
05 — COMPLIANCE VS. SECURITY
“A SOC 2 report means we're secure”
An attestation confirms controls existed and were followed during an audit period — it doesn't replace adversarial testing, which is why validation through real penetration testing sits inside the same programme, not outside it.
06 — ONE-TIME PROJECT
“We got SOC 2 once, so we're done”
SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 both require ongoing evidence over an observation period, not a single point-in-time check — treating readiness as continuous infrastructure avoids re-doing the same fire drill at renewal.
What SIRI's startup security covers
Assess, remediate, validate, prepare — sized for a team without a security function yet
Scoped and paced for early-stage teams, connected to the full SIRI Security capability set when you need it.
ASSESSMENT
Security & Compliance Gap Assessment
Assessing current state against SOC 2, ISO 27001, or the specific requirements a deal needs.
- SOC 2 / ISO 27001 gap assessment
- Security-questionnaire readiness review
- Prioritised, deal-timeline-aware scoping
REMEDIATION
Prioritised Remediation
Remediation scoped to what a small team can actually execute, not a generic enterprise checklist.
- Prioritised by deal & audit impact
- Practical, resource-aware guidance
- Founder- and engineer-legible reporting
VALIDATION
Penetration Testing & Validation
Real offensive testing so remediation is validated, not just assumed complete.
- Scoped penetration testing
- AI-feature security testing
- SOC 2 / ISO 27001 evidence-grade reporting
AI SECURITY
Startup AI Security
Testing AI features before they become a line item in an enterprise security review.
- LLM & RAG feature testing
- Prompt-injection testing
- AI-usage questionnaire support
EVIDENCE
Audit-Ready Evidence Preparation
Building the evidence trail SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audits actually require.
- Evidence collection setup
- Policy & control documentation
- Audit-preparation support
ONGOING SUPPORT
Fractional Security Support
Ongoing security support scoped to your stage, without a full-time hire.
- Security-questionnaire response support
- Continued monitoring via SIRI MDR
- Scales as you grow
CLOUD & INFRASTRUCTURE
Cloud Configuration & Hardening
Reviewing cloud accounts, identity permissions and infrastructure configuration against the same controls auditors and enterprise reviewers check.
- Cloud posture & IAM review
- Misconfiguration remediation
- Least-privilege access design
INCIDENT READINESS
Incident Response Planning
Building the incident-response procedures SOC 2, ISO 27001 and most enterprise questionnaires explicitly require evidence of.
- Incident-response plan & runbooks
- Tabletop exercise facilitation
- Breach-notification procedure design
Evidence, not guesswork
No security programme vs. DIY compliance tooling vs. SIRI Startup Security — what actually differs
A compliance-automation checklist and a validated security posture are different things.
| Approach | No security programme | DIY compliance-automation tool | SIRI Startup Security |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 gap assessment | No | Templated, generic | Scoped to your actual environment |
| Real penetration testing | No | Rarely included | Included — via SIRI Attack |
| AI feature security testing | No | No | Included — via SIRI AI Security |
| Prioritised for a small team | N/A | Generic checklist | Deal- and resource-aware |
| Incident response & tabletop exercises | No | No | Included — via SIRI Response |
| Continuous monitoring after readiness | No | No | Optional — via SIRI MDR |
| Scales into full security coverage | No | No | Connected to full SIRI Security |
Sources: 2026 SOC 2 and enterprise-procurement benchmark research; Datadog 2026 State of DevSecOps report; 2026 enterprise AI security benchmarks. Summarised for comparison.
Numbers every founder should know
What's actually gating enterprise deals
Standard
SOC 2 / ISO 27001 ask
Attestation is now a baseline requirement in enterprise procurement.
87%
Run vulnerable software
Of organisations of all sizes, regardless of headcount.
78%
Have AI in production
Of organisations — with only 12% formally testing it for security.
1
Connected programme
Assess, remediate, validate and prepare, run as one process.
Compliance alignment
Standards & frameworks we align to
Our methodology is built around publicly recognised frameworks — not a proprietary checklist. Where a specific certification or attestation is completed and verified, it will be named here explicitly.
ISO/IEC 27001:2022
SOC 2 (AICPA TSC)
NIST CSF 2.0
MITRE ATT&CK
OWASP Top 10
OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications
NIST AI RMF
ISO/IEC 42001
ISO 22301
CERT-In Directions 2022
CIS Controls v8
GDPR
DPDP Act 2023
Framework references reflect publicly available versions as of publication and describe the standards our methodology is aligned to; they are not a claim of certification, attestation, or audit completion unless stated explicitly elsewhere on this site.
Why SIRI for startup security specifically
Built for teams without a security hire yet — that scales when you get one
Readiness that fits your stage now, and connects to the full SIRI Security capability set as you grow.
01
Sized for your stage
Remediation and reporting are scoped for a small team without dedicated security headcount, not a generic enterprise checklist.
02
Deal-timeline aware
Prioritisation accounts for what's actually blocking a specific deal or questionnaire, not just abstract technical severity.
03
Real validation, not just paperwork
SOC 2 and ISO 27001 evidence is backed by real penetration testing via SIRI Attack, not just policy documentation.
04
Grows with you
The same programme connects into SIRI MDR, SIRI AI Security and the full SIRI Security capability set as your company and needs grow.
Who this is built for
Companies SIRI's startup security is built for
Seed to Series B SaaS companies
AI-native startups
Companies with a blocked enterprise deal
Startups pursuing first-time SOC 2 / ISO 27001
Founders without a security hire yet
Companies preparing for fundraising due diligence
Startups renewing or applying for cyber insurance
Teams shipping LLM or RAG-based product features
Companies expanding into regulated verticals
What you walk away with
Concrete deliverables, not a slide deck
Every engagement produces artifacts your team, your auditor, and your next enterprise buyer can all actually use.
01
Gap assessment report
A prioritised, plain-language findings report mapped to SOC 2 or ISO 27001 control families, with effort estimates and deal-impact flags on each item.
02
Remediation tracker
A living tracker of what's fixed, in progress, and outstanding — built so a founder or engineer can run it without a dedicated security tool.
03
Penetration test report
Evidence-grade findings from real testing via SIRI Attack, formatted to satisfy both an auditor's evidence requirements and an enterprise buyer's questionnaire.
04
Policy & evidence pack
The core policy documents and evidence artifacts SOC 2 and ISO 27001 audits ask for, tailored to your actual environment rather than boilerplate templates.
How we work
Assess, remediate, validate, prepare
01
Assess
Gap assessment against SOC 2, ISO 27001, or a specific deal's requirements.
Week 102
Remediate
Prioritised, resource-aware remediation of what actually matters first.
Weeks 2–403
Validate
Real penetration testing to confirm remediation actually holds.
Week 504
Prepare
Audit-ready evidence and questionnaire-response support.
OngoingFrequently asked
Startup security, answered directly
We don't have a security team — can we still start this?
Yes — this is specifically built for teams without dedicated security headcount, with reporting and remediation guidance sized for founders and engineers to act on directly.
How fast can we get SOC 2 or ISO 27001 ready?
Timing depends on current state and audit type — Type I (a point-in-time review) can move faster than Type II (which requires an observation period, typically 3-12 months) — but gap assessment and remediation can begin immediately regardless of which you're pursuing.
We have an enterprise deal blocked right now — can this move faster?
Yes, where scoped — remediation can be prioritised specifically around what a blocking security questionnaire or SOC 2 requirement actually needs, rather than a generic full-programme sequence.
Do you test our AI features specifically?
Yes — AI feature security testing, including prompt-injection and RAG-pipeline testing via SIRI AI Security, is part of the capability, since AI usage increasingly appears directly in enterprise security questionnaires.
What happens after we're SOC 2 ready — is this a one-time project?
It can be either — a scoped, one-time readiness project, or ongoing support that scales into fuller SIRI Security coverage (SIRI MDR, SIRI Attack, and others) as your company and its risk profile grow.
What's the actual difference between SOC 2 Type I and Type II?
Type I confirms your controls are designed correctly at a single point in time; Type II confirms they operated effectively over an observation period, typically three to twelve months. Most enterprise buyers eventually expect Type II, but Type I is often the faster first step while evidence for Type II accumulates.
Do you help us fill out enterprise security questionnaires directly?
Yes — questionnaire-response support is part of the ongoing capability, drawing directly on the gap assessment, remediation record and evidence pack so answers are accurate and consistent across every buyer's questionnaire rather than reconstructed from scratch each time.
ISO 27001 or SOC 2 — how do we choose?
The choice usually follows your buyers: SOC 2 is the more common ask from U.S. enterprise SaaS customers, while ISO 27001 is often expected by international customers, government-adjacent buyers, or partners already ISO-certified. The initial gap assessment can be scoped against either, or both where a company sells into both markets.
Can this run without disrupting our engineering team's roadmap?
Remediation is sequenced and sized specifically so it can run alongside normal product work rather than displacing it — the process is deliberately paced around what deal timelines and audit windows actually require, not a maximal all-at-once security sprint.
Get ready before the deal is on the line
Assess, remediate, validate, prepare.
Start with a gap assessment, or move fast if a specific deal is already blocked.
24/7 for active incidents: +91 79819 12046
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