Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

This past month, the Vanta team launched new features to help you: ‍

For founders of early-stage startups, growth is the North Star. You’re focused on building a great product, winning customers, and scaling fast. Security compliance? It’s probably not on your radar—but it should be. ‍ The reality is, compliance isn’t just a nice to have or a box to check when a customer asks to see a SOC 2 report. It’s a revenue accelerator.

It’s no secret that managing vendor risk is one of the most challenging aspects of any security program—our most recent State of Trust report found that one in two businesses have terminated a vendor relationship due to security concerns. The rapid proliferation of SaaS tools and AI technologies only ups the ante by increasing the complexity of vendor monitoring and oversight. ‍

At Vanta, we’re always looking to experiment, learn, and stay at the forefront of AI. Recently, we built a proof of concept to explore how auditors could interact more effectively with audits and the data within them. Our experiment used Anthropic’s Claude, the open source MCP (Model Context Protocol), and Vanta’s API to enable users to ask deeper questions of Vanta’s compliance data. ‍ ‍

Vanta’s story began like many other startups—moving fast to discover product-market fit and lay the groundwork for a sustainable business. Speed was key as we focused on delivering value to customers and rapidly iterating to meet market needs. This approach propelled us into a phase of healthy growth, marked by milestones we proudly celebrate (read more about our recent achievements here).

Today's buyers are doing their homework—they want to know they can trust your business before they commit. According to Vanta’s latest State of Trust report, nearly 65% of companies say their customers, investors, and suppliers increasingly require proof of compliance before making a purchase. ‍

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) has been developed to protect the financial sector, which is particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks. According to the IMF’s 2024 Global Financial Stability Report, the number of cyberattacks has progressively increased since 2004, and nearly 20% of these attempts target financial institutions. DORA serves as a regulatory measure in the European Union (EU) to improve cybersecurity and operational resilience of organizations in the financial sector.

At Vanta, we power a suite of AI products that enable thousands of customers worldwide to make critical business decisions. These products rely on the ability to quickly search through millions of customer documents to surface relevant information and drive accurate outcomes. ‍ Building a retrieval system capable of handling this scale and complexity was no small feat. Along the way, we learned valuable lessons that we’re excited to share.

The Digital Operations Resilience Act (DORA) is a new regulation aimed at improving the cybersecurity and operational stability of the EU's financial sector, especially regarding risks related to information and communications technology (ICT). It applies to organizations in the financial industry, requiring them to reassess and adapt their security posture to DORA’s stringent requirements.

Startup founders constantly face competing demands as they build and scale their businesses. Engineering, product design, and sales all have legitimate claims to be the most urgent priority and sole focus of attention. ‍ These pressures lead many founders to defer security and compliance investments until later. With small teams and limited financial resources, founders top priorities are building their product and acquiring their first customers.