Don’t fall for these first-time compliance myths

When you’re moving fast, you can’t waste cycles on noise—you’ve got to focus on what actually matters. Compliance is no different. If you’re trying to lock in SOC 2 so you can close bigger deals, you don’t have time to vet claims in the market or to deep dive into a Reddit rabbit hole.

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That’s why we pulled together a crew of certified experts—and startup operators who’ve actually been through it—to cut through the myths. You’ll hear from folks with serious chops in venture, AI, and security, plus other founders who’ve had to wrangle compliance themselves.

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Here are the myths we run into most often with first-time compliance—and how real experts and founders break them down.

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• Myth: It doesn’t matter who your auditor is
• Myth: All compliance tools are the same

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Myth: It doesn’t matter who your auditor is

Verdict: Jadee Hanson, Vanta’s CISO, says this myth is false. 

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Working with a high-quality, accredited auditor is a signal to customers and prospects that you don’t cut corners: You take compliance and security seriously. Working with a non-credible auditor can signal the opposite—which can then lead to rejected audit reports and ultimately lost deals and revenue. 

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“Customers want to see that you’re picking an audit firm that is credible … not some small, tiny audit firm that is rubber-stamping audits.”

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Jadee recommends that startups ask the following questions when vetting potential audit partners:

• Is this an accredited, vetted audit firm or partner?
• Does this auditor understand my specific tech stack?
• Is this audit partner a good culture fit with my team?
• Can they access my compliance platform to streamline the audit process?

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Myth: All compliance tools are the same

Verdict: According to Anarghya Vadhana, the Strategic VC Partnerships Manager at Vanta, this myth is a fiction. 

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Startups need three things: funding, talent, and customers. Anarghya says that not having an effective compliance solution in place—or taking shortcuts on your compliance—can stall deals and turn away enterprise customers.

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“The last thing you want is to be in the final stages of getting a deal over the finish line, and have compliance be something that prevents you from winning an important deal that could make or break your company.”

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A deal lost to compliance isn’t just lost revenue. Those big deals are critical for more funding, more hiring, and to fuel the funding-talent-customers flywheel that startups rely on.

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Anarghya advises startups to look for the following features when vetting whether a compliance vendor will fuel your flywheel or stunt it:

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• A deep understanding of startups: Look for a partner that deeply understands a scaling startup's needs and pain points.
• Robust AI capabilities—not surface-level automation: Robust LLMs should reference hundreds of thousands of data points.
• A scalable security foundation: Find a compliance platform that provides a security foundation you can build on as you scale, with capabilities like vendor risk management and personnel security.

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Stay tuned, more myths are coming soon…

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Vanta is for builders

Are you ready to stop wasting hours on compliance spreadsheets and focus on shipping instead? Vanta is the AI-powered security and compliance platform that helps you grow faster, win deals sooner, and scale securely. 

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We simplify security with superior automation so it’s easy to meet buyer expectations in just days—and we continuously monitor your compliance so future deals are never blocked. Plus, Vanta scales with you, backed by startup-speed support every step of the way.

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That’s why serious startups get secure early with Vanta.

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Check out our Vanta for Startups program if you’d like to join more than 1,000 YC-backed and venture-funded startups that trust Vanta to move faster.

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