Security

Real offensive depth

Testing and defence led by a published security researcher with five CVEs, including a CVSS 9.1 Mirai botnet kill-switch.

All security →
Compliance

Audit-ready, fixed scope

SOC 2, ISO, CPCSC, and the Canadian privacy stack, run end to end with an independent auditor.

All frameworks →
Resources

Learn the space

Original research, free tools, and plain-language guides on security and compliance, from a published security researcher.

Read the blog →
SOC 2 · Startups

SOC 2 for Startups

Your customer, investor, or auditor just made SOC 2 a requirement. Here is what it takes, how long it runs, and how a Toronto team gets you there. Most clients are audit-ready in 8 to 12 weeks.

For early-stage startups, SOC 2 is usually the first compliance wall, triggered by the first enterprise prospect. We deliver a right-sized SOC 2 program that does not over-build for your stage.

Book a free readiness call Full SOC 2 service
From $3,000 CAD · gap analysis See full pricing →

Why Startups companies need SOC 2

  • The first enterprise or regulated customer typically forces the SOC 2 conversation before a startup has a security team.
  • Startups risk over-engineering controls; SOC 2 scope should match your actual product and size.
  • Founders need SOC 2 without derailing the roadmap: a productized engagement keeps engineering time bounded.
  • A clean first SOC 2 becomes reusable leverage for every subsequent enterprise deal.

More context on this sector on our Startups industry page, and on the framework itself on our SOC 2 hub.

What our SOC 2 engagement covers

Tailored to Startups, delivered by a Toronto security and compliance team led by a published security researcher, with our offensive-security partner where offensive testing is involved.

  • Right-sized control scoping appropriate to your stage
  • Lift-and-adopt policies so you are not writing them from scratch
  • Trust Services Criteria scoping and a gap assessment against your current controls
  • Policies, procedures, and a lift-and-adopt evidence repository
  • Control implementation across IAM, change management, vendor risk, and incident response
  • Auditor introduction and Type I / Type II audit coordination

See the full SOC 2 service page, or productized pricing for fixed-scope engagements.

Related pages

SOC 2 for Startups: common questions

Are we too early for SOC 2?

If enterprise prospects are asking, you are not. We scope SOC 2 to your current size so you get the report without building controls you do not need yet.

Type I or Type II first?

Type I is the faster first milestone and often unblocks a deal; you then run the Type II observation window. We plan both from day one.

How much engineering time will this take?

We aim to keep it bounded by handling the program work ourselves and giving engineering a focused, prioritized task list rather than an open-ended project.

SOC 2 for Startups, on your timeline

Book a free 30-minute discovery call. We will tell you whether this engagement fits, what it would cost, and when we could start.

Book a call Contact us

The same work, without the line item

Every readiness programme needs a control library, an evidence register, policies and a score for the board. Being quoted five figures a year for that is normal. Paying it is not.

traztech Workspace Other GRC platforms
Licence cost $0. Free forever, no card, no paid tier $7,500 to $50,000 a year, on an annual contract
Control library, evidence register, policy templates, risk register, vendor questionnaires, readiness scoring Included Included
What it costs inside an engagement with us $0. You need a workspace either way Unchanged. The subscription sits on top of the fee
What it does to your audit quote $11,000 off a five-figure quote on one engagement, for a documented readiness position Nothing. The audit firm prices your readiness, not your tooling

Pricing in the right column is what compliance automation platforms are publicly reported to charge; none of them publish a number, so treat it as a range rather than a quote. The $11,000 came off the audit firm's own number once the readiness position was documented (the engagement). Where a paid platform is the better buy, and the fuller comparison, is on the Workspace page.

Track record

Who is actually doing the work

We are deliberately not a large firm, and we would rather show you the work than a wall of logos. Here is what is behind the advice.

5
Published CVEs, including a CVSS 9.1
76
Controls taken from nothing to a passed SOC 2 Type II
Zero
Exceptions on that Type II report
75 days
Readiness window we have hit every time we have run it
20+
Penetration testing engagements delivered

Published vulnerability research

Five published CVEs. CVE-2024-45163 (CVSS 9.1) is a flaw in the Mirai botnet itself, which gave defenders a way to shut down attacker infrastructure. CVE-2026-42626 takes HP ENVY 5000 printers offline from any unauthenticated device on the same network.

The printer is the one that matters on a compliance page: an asset nobody counts as a computer, on a flat network, downed by a device that never had to log in. Auditors ask how controls fail. We have found out first-hand.

A SOC 2 Type II built from nothing

At Humera, a venture-backed US security company, Jacob built the compliance programme in-house from nothing: no report, no policies, no documented controls. It ended in a Type II attestation across 76 controls with zero exceptions, on a team of 15.

The platform held 99.9% uptime throughout, which is the part most readiness projects get wrong: controls are easy to design and hard to retrofit onto a system people already depend on.

Recent engagements

For a Waterloo data centre operator we ran SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022 together rather than one after the other, across a production campus, an AI compute platform and a self-hosted collaboration stack. Scoped so further Ontario and Quebec sites enter as they reach production. Findings delivered and remediated.

For an Ontario medtech company putting an AI clinical assistant in front of practitioners, we ran the gap analysis and built the evidence programme behind their SOC 2.