Olivia Abi-Bayo, CISSP, CCSP, shares some lessons learned as a CISO and advisor to high-velocity startups, along with a call to security leaders, founders and boards to view security not as a brake, but as a growth function.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of ISC2.
Something that I’ve learned from working in startup environments is a simple but often overlooked fact: security is rarely neglected out of apathy. It’s sidelined out of necessity. This is because startups are scrappy; they prioritize product-market fit, customer acquisition and runway over governance. Security gets miscast as a “check-the-box” exercise, a set of controls bolted on to satisfy auditors, rather than the foundation of trust that underpins sustainable growth. Time and again, I’ve seen how the presence or absence of a trustable security posture directly impacts revenue, fundraising and product credibility.
That’s why reframing security is so critical. Security isn’t just about reducing risk, it’s about unlocking opportunity.
Why Startups Get it Wrong – and Why That’s Changing
For most startups, the early playbook is simple: build the product, find traction, then worry about compliance later. Security only enters the conversation when a gate appears. That gate might be a vendor security assessment from a Fortune 500 prospect, a SOC 2 requirement buried in a contract, or investor diligence during a funding round.
I’ve watched certain patterns play out repeatedly, including:
- Security treated as an afterthought. Instead of being embedded in design, it’s bolted on under pressure.
- Scattered ownership. Engineering holds some controls, operations own others, but no one is accountable for operating effectiveness.
- Security conflated with compliance. Founders assume an audit-ready environment is the same thing as a mature security posture. It isn’t.
The result is almost always the same: a scramble to retrofit a “security program” just in time to pass the gate. This rushed approach satisfies auditors but often delivers little internal value. Worse, it creates revenue delays, lost deals and friction with enterprise customers.
However, the landscape is shifting. Investors are asking sharper security questions during early rounds. Enterprise buyers are prioritizing trust as much as features. In AI- and data-driven SaaS, the stakes are higher than ever. I’ve seen founders who once dismissed security as “something we’ll figure out later” now proactively invest in SOC 2, ISO 27001 and vendor risk management not because they must, but because they realize defensibility and credibility are growth levers.
Security as a Trust Function
Traditionally, security was the “Department of no” - a cost center designed to keep the lights on and breaches out. Today, that model no longer holds. In the modern SaaS economy, security is a trust function – a business enabler that builds credibility with buyers, accelerates sales cycles, and reassures investors.
I often frame it this way: security isn’t a moat; it’s a bridge. It protects what you’ve built, but also connects you to the customers, markets and capital you’re trying to reach. Here’s how I’ve seen that reframing play out in practice:
Security is the Product
In SaaS, when you sell software, you’re asking customers to hand over their data, workflows and user trust. Every vendor questionnaire, every enterprise RFP boils down to one question: “Can we trust you?”
I’ve watched startups lose deals because they couldn’t answer basic questions about data flows or access controls. One high-potential SaaS company I was advising stalled a $500,000 deal because it had no documented vendor risk process; two weeks later, the prospect walked away. Months later, after we implemented lightweight access governance and vendor management, the same prospect returned and closed the deal in half the time. That was the founders’ lightbulb moment: security wasn’t an overhead, it was part of the sales motion.
Thankfully, I’ve also seen the opposite scenario. One startup walked into a diligence meeting with its risk register, IAM program and SOC 2 readiness all in hand. The enterprise buyer told me: “Their security readiness was the reason we went with them over a larger competitor.” Security, in that case, didn’t just win the deal, it became the differentiator.
Trust Programs Bridge Business and Engineering
The best security programs I’ve built or advised on don’t live in silos and aren’t just lists of controls or audit prep checklists. They’re trust programs: frameworks that connect business goals with engineering realities, while also speaking the language of auditors and regulators.
I helped the leadership of one growth-stage company reframe their SOC 2 effort. Instead of treating it as simply a compliance project, we aligned controls directly with revenue goals. Access reviews weren’t just about ticking CC6 (Common Criteria related to Logical and Physical Access); they became the backbone of sales enablement. Cloud security baselines weren’t just technical hygiene; they became proof points in every enterprise conversation. The audit went smoothly – but, more importantly, the sales team now led with trust in every customer pitch.
This is the mindset shift. Security leaders aren’t just defenders, we’re trust architects.
Security as a GTM-Enabler
I tell every founder I work with that controls which satisfy SOC 2 are good, but the real value is when those controls reduce friction for your sales, success and partnerships teams. When a security posture clears the path to revenue instead of blocking it, is when you know it’s operating as a trust function.
One of my favorite examples comes from a startup expanding into Europe. Its sales team worried about GDPR objections derailing deals. To address this, we built a lightweight data governance program which included mapping data flows, clarifying processor vs controller responsibilities, as well as embedding privacy impact assessments into product releases. Within six months, GDPR went from a sales objection to a selling point. The company could walk into any deal and say: “We don’t just say we comply, we can prove it.” Trust, in that case, became a competitive edge.
Security isn’t uniform across regions and leaders who want to scale globally need to recognize that.
- In the U.S., SOC 2 often functions as the currency of enterprise SaaS trust. If you want to sell to Fortune 500s, you need it.
- In the U.K and EU, GDPR and ISO 27001 aren’t optional, either. They’re table stakes and they carry enforcement weight that shapes buyer expectations.
- Across Asia-Pacific, I’ve seen rapid digital adoption collide with uneven regulatory maturity. In those markets security diligence isn’t just about compliance, it’s about proving you can be trusted in ecosystems where regulation hasn’t caught up.
The common thread is that, globally, security is no longer just a defensive necessity but a signal of credibility. Leaders who recognize this early enough position themselves for international expansion without scrambling to retrofit later.
Leaders Face Trade-Offs
Let’s be clear: reframing security as a trust function doesn’t eliminate trade-offs, it only reframes them. Do we delay the product launch two weeks to finalize SOC 2 readiness, or push ahead and risk losing an enterprise buyer? Do we allocate budget to privacy engineering or to marketing? Do we slow down engineering velocity to implement access reviews, or risk explaining to a board why we lost a seven-figure deal over it?
These are not theoretical questions, but real, messy trade-offs. I've sat in the room with founders, executives and boards, and I assure you that the best leaders don’t pretend these tensions don’t exist. They navigate them by aligning security decisions with growth priorities.
That’s what reframing is about: not ignoring the costs of security, but recognizing its value as a lever for credibility, defensibility and growth.
Closing the Loop
For too long, security has been framed as a defensive moat. But in the modern SaaS economy, trust is the bridge to growth and security is the infrastructure that supports that bridge. In my experience, leaders who treat security as a growth function will close more deals, raise more capital and build companies that endure. Leaders who ignore it will find themselves explaining lost deals, longer sales cycles and missed opportunities.
As security leaders, our job isn’t only to protect data. It’s also to build credibility, architect trust programs that align with revenue and to be the voice in the room, reminding leadership that every decision about controls is also a decision about growth. The next generation of SaaS companies won’t win on features alone, but on trust. Security, reframed as a trust function, is how they’ll get there.
Olivia Abi-Bayo , CISSP, CCSP has 15 years of experience in IT risk, audit, vendor assessments, and strategic advisory across multiple industries such as technology, banking, healthcare and telecoms. She has led complex cybersecurity and compliance engagements guiding high-impact projects across diverse industries.
