Startup Security Readiness Assessment
Specialized security assessment designed for startups at every growth stage, from angel funding through Series A and beyond. Our tailored approach addresses the unique security challenges of rapidly evolving startups, balancing innovation speed with essential security controls. We help founders and startup teams build security foundations that enable growth, satisfy investor expectations, and prepare for enterprise customer requirements without slowing down product development.
In scope
- Security architecture foundations review
- DevSecOps implementation assessment
- Cloud infrastructure security evaluation
- Authentication and identity strategy review
- Data protection controls assessment
- Security policy framework development
- Customer security requirements readiness
- Security questionnaire preparation
- Compliance roadmap planning
- Technical debt evaluation
- Security resource planning
- Investor due diligence preparation
You receive
- Startup security roadmap
- Growth-stage security framework
- Security control priorities by funding stage
- DevSecOps implementation guidance
- Cloud security configuration templates
- Lightweight security policy templates
- Enterprise customer security readiness report
- Security questionnaire response templates
- Compliance preparation checklist
- Security hiring and resource planning
Tiers
Choose the depth.
Angel/Pre-Seed Security Foundations
$18K
Pre-seed teams: up to 10 employees, up to 5 developers and 1 cloud account. Review of cloud configuration, authentication, data protection and code pipeline basics, with a prioritized 90-day security roadmap and a lightweight policy template set.
- employees
- 10
- developers
- 5
- cloud accounts
- 1
- Cloud infrastructure security review (1 account)
- Authentication and identity strategy review
- Data protection controls check
- Lightweight security policy templates
- Prioritized 90-day security roadmap
- — Security questionnaire response templates
- — Enterprise customer readiness report
- — Compliance roadmap
- — Penetration testing
Seed Stage Security Program
$30K
Seed-stage: up to 25 employees, up to 15 developers and up to 2 cloud accounts. Adds DevSecOps pipeline assessment, customer security requirements readiness, security questionnaire response templates and cloud configuration templates.
- employees
- 25
- developers
- 15
- cloud accounts
- 2
- Everything in the pre-seed tier
- DevSecOps implementation assessment and guidance
- Security questionnaire response templates
- Customer security readiness report
- Cloud security configuration templates
- — Compliance framework preparation (SOC 2, ISO 27001)
- — Security hiring and resource plan
- — Investor due diligence package
- — Penetration testing
Series A Security Scaling Program
$45K
Series A: up to 100 employees, up to 40 developers and up to 5 cloud accounts. Adds a compliance roadmap and preparation checklist for 1 framework, technical debt evaluation, investor due diligence preparation and a security hiring and resource plan.
- employees
- 100
- developers
- 40
- cloud accounts
- 5
- Everything in the seed tier
- Compliance roadmap and preparation checklist for 1 framework
- Technical debt evaluation
- Investor due diligence preparation
- Security hiring and resource plan
- — The compliance readiness project or audit itself
- — Penetration testing
- — Ongoing vCISO support
- — Companies above 100 employees (use the general assessments)
Members: engagement coupons from the CISO Marketplace coupon book apply to services. There is no blanket discount.
What's inside this engagement
Phase by phase.
How a readiness & governance assessment engagement runs, what happens in each phase and what you see. Exact scope, tier and timeline are fixed in your proposal and SOW.
01Scoping & framework selection
The standard or regulation, the systems and the business units in scope are fixed.
You see · Your audit or regulatory driver.
02Evidence collection & interviews
Policies, configurations and records reviewed; control owners interviewed.
You see · Documents and time with control owners.
03Gap analysis
Each requirement mapped to current state: met, partial or missing, with the evidence behind it.
You see · A clear gap register.
04Roadmap & evidence plan
Prioritized remediation with owners, and the evidence an auditor will ask for.
You see · A plan you can execute or hand to us.
Commercials
From first call to final report.
- 01
Scoping call
A practitioner, not a salesperson, walks through targets, constraints and what a good outcome looks like for you.
- 02
Proposal & rules of engagement
A fixed-scope proposal with tier, price and deliverables. Rules of engagement, contacts and out-of-bounds systems are agreed in writing.
- 03
Sign, then start
MSA and SOW are signed electronically and the deposit is paid. Only then does testing begin.
- 04
Execution
Testing runs to the agreed plan. Critical findings are escalated as they are found; you don't wait for the report.
- 05
Report & debrief
An executive summary plus technical findings with evidence, reproduction steps and fixes, walked through with your team.
- 06
Retest
Where the tier includes it, we verify your fixes and reissue the report, so auditors and customers see the issues closed.
Timelines are set per engagement in the SOW.
Related
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