Auditors Embrace High-Volume SOC 2
Christina Cacioppo, CEO of Vanta, on the value of SOC 2 compliance for startups
Vanta changed the auditor business model from a bespoke consulting project into something closer to factory throughput. When the software pulls evidence continuously, maps it to controls, and gives auditors a standardized view, an audit firm can charge less per customer but finish far more audits with the same staff. That makes startups economic for firms that previously ignored them, and it helps explain why audit capacity expanded alongside compliance software.
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Before automation, a SOC 2 audit could cost $50K to $100K and involve auditors collecting screenshots, checking employee logins by hand, and writing reports from notes. Vanta turned much of that manual evidence gathering into API pulls and dashboards, which cut the labor inside each engagement.
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This is why lower ACV can still be attractive to auditors. Instead of winning a few large, slow startup audits each year, firms can process many smaller audits faster, because customers arrive more prepared and auditors review structured evidence rather than build the file from scratch.
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The same pattern showed up across Vanta, Secureframe, and Laika. All three built around SOC 2 as the entry point, partnered with auditors rather than replacing them, and used software to make small companies look more like organized enterprise buyers in the audit process.
The next step is a bigger shift from audit prep into always on security operations. Once auditors are trained to work inside these systems, the platform can add more frameworks, more monitoring, and more adjacent security products, which turns a faster audit workflow into a broader system of record for trust and security.