If you’re thinking about how to make your marketing budget stretch further in 2024 and stand out with less, industry-beating cybersecurity could be the key to unlocking a competitive partnerships strategy.

A clean SOC 2 report is becoming one of the SaaS-specific security standards that investors and partners look for. You could be missing out on business without it. I’m talking about leveraging your data protection practices as a strategic driver and source of revenue. 

Industry-Beating Cybersecurity

As a startup founder, it’s my job to set us up to achieve our hyper-growth agenda. However, I’m also focused on organizational alignment to position us for long-term success. We provide cloud-based services and our current and desired partners do business in the cloud. SOC communicates our shared commitment to security and privacy.

Released in 2010 by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, Service Organization Controls (SOC) 2 is an internationally recognized auditing procedure that verifies that rigorous security controls and privacy standards are in place to protect sensitive information.

Financial and business records and protected health information are governed by regulatory frameworks including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). But if your company provides services such as software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), or managed services, and by definition stores customer data in the cloud, SOC 2 is an important verification that you can provide to your partners to give you an edge. 

Skeptical? The global cloud computing market size is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.9% from 2022 to 2027 to reach $1,240.9 billion USD by 2027. If you can stand out with industry-beating security, you can cash in. 

Tapping Into New Markets 

“How you do anything is how you do everything.” This coaching adage means I think about how cybersecurity protects us day to day, but also how it can enable partnerships to accelerate growth. It’s important that we grow in a way that aligns with our next stage of funding and investors in mind, but also in a compliant way to execute our partnerships strategy.

A lot of our enterprise companies only do business with partners and vendors that are SOC 2 certified. In our case, for our company to remain SOC 2 compliant, all our partners must be compliant too, and vice versa.

Strong Security - Your Competitive Edge

Demonstrating this kind of commitment to information security has obvious benefits for any company because mishandled data can leave businesses vulnerable to cyber attacks and data breaches. According to IBM’s The Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022, 83% of companies will experience a data breach at least once. The report goes on to add that data breaches cost companies $4.35M on average, and that the industry with the highest average data breach cost is healthcare at over $10M. Regardless of your company size, the financial loss, customer loss, public scrutiny, and damaged reputation can be devastating. 

Beyond protecting your business from attacks and leaks, SOC can be a profit driver by distinguishing your brand as trustworthy and enhancing your reputation.

If you’re trying to disrupt a highly regulated industry—like financial services, healthcare, or education—you’ll likely benefit from SOC certification because it gives investors and partners extra assurance. 

Build Credibility 

In my line of work, I believe that maintaining trust by minimizing risk is a key enabler of business. It takes effort, but because SOC 2 is a significant investment of time and resources you can market your company’s adherence to rigorous standards while others can’t. SOC 2 signals to clients and customers that your business processes consistently exceed regulatory requirements, it also builds credibility.

Foster a Culture of Security                            

I know the reality as a startup is that you’re focused on building and getting your product or service to market; you might not be thinking about security. But making investments early on helps ingrain cybersecurity into your company’s culture.      

The SOC audit process is customized to the scale of your business. It might be tempting to delay SOC 2, but in my experience it’s easier to take action when you’re smaller, in part because it’s faster and easier to gather the necessary information.

On top of this, automating the process is the key to minimizing the regulatory burden while you continue to focus on revenue. As an added bonus, security AI and automation controls reduce data breach costs by 70% according to the IBM report. I’ve had success automating the mandatory SOC 2 security procedures, like background screening. (API integrations to deliver better and faster automated experiences automation underpin our partnerships strategy.

Another plus side: going through the audit process from the get-go is good benchmarking and helps your teams with future assessments. You’ll also learn how to be more efficient because you can streamline your processes and controls based on your cybersecurity risks and the needs of your business.

SOC 2: A Win-Win                                        

In today’s business environment, there are no downsides to building trust in the marketplace early. Our approach to SOC 2 has been helping our company grow and helping our brand stand out as a privacy leader.

SOC 2 compliance isn’t always required by partners or clients, but the way I see it is that it’s always advantageous. By demonstrating a commitment to security and trust, a company can differentiate itself from competitors, build confidence with clients and partners, and potentially attract new business. In today's business environment, where data security and privacy are of increasing concern, building trust in the marketplace can be especially valuable.