Laika builds compliance infrastructure
Sam Li and Austin Ogilvie, co-CEOs of Laika, on the compliance-as-a-service business model
Laika’s real bet is that the audit workflow, not just the prep work, is where compliance software becomes durable infrastructure. The company connects a customer’s cloud, identity, code, ticketing, and HR systems, then gives auditors access to the same underlying evidence inside its software. That turns a messy handoff of screenshots, spreadsheets, and email into a shared system of record, much like Carta used software to make outside 409A firms faster and more standardized.
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Laika is not hiring auditors to replace firms. It is supplying the tool they use. That matters because SOC 2 still requires an external CPA, but the software can standardize requests, surface evidence, and keep company and auditor working from the same data instead of separate files.
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The old audit process was expensive and manual. Auditors often collected screenshots and notes, sometimes on site, and startups paid $50K to $100K for slow audits. Compliance platforms cut that by pulling evidence directly from systems like AWS and Google Workspace, which creates pricing pressure and lets audit firms handle more volume.
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This model mirrors Carta’s 409A playbook. Start with a painful outside expert workflow that cannot be fully in housed, partner with those experts, then build software that makes them more productive and easier to trust. In compliance, that opens expansion from SOC 2 into ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, questionnaires, and continuous monitoring.
The next phase is a shift from annual certification software to daily security operations software. Once audit evidence is flowing continuously through the platform, the same data can support more frameworks, faster renewals, vendor reviews, and real time security checks. That is how compliance vendors move from a point solution into a broader security system of record.