Most startup founders I know are usually idea rich, and time and money poor. To succeed, they need to be laser focused on what matters now, and leave the rest to worry about another day.

The question that arises is: When do startups need to think about security and privacy? And I think it’s much earlier than many founders think.

The Startup Journey

Let’s look at a typical startup journey (things may vary, obviously, every startup is different):

Diagram of a typical startup journey with some key questions around security and privacy

Ideation

At the beginning, your focus is on understanding the target market, developing the idea and creating interest.

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At this point, your main question should probably be: Is this legal?

Example: If your whole concept relies on stealing people’s personal information and selling it on the dark web, this might not go great for you (well, some on the dark web might disagree, but that’s a different story).

Seed Stage

During this stage, you are looking at refining and validating the idea, likely by building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and looking for some initial funds to help get this stood up.

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This is a good time to assess the key threats to your business: What could kill your venture in the short term, even before is truly starts? Then consider how you’d go about it. You don't have to implement everything just yet, simply to validate that you can when times come.

Example: You’re starting a new crypto product allowing people to securely and privately store their proof of purchase in the blockchain. Could you implement quantum resistant algorithms?

Startup Stage

The business is launched, the MVP is improved upon and operations being. This is a particularly risky stage because technology and processes are not yet mature, and people are rushing to deliver a product to meet the nest funding round’s requirements. Too many crypto startups got hacked at this stage (e.g., North Korean hackers have stolen billions in crypto by posing as VCs, recruiters and IT workers).

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Now the fun really begins: Is your platform and client data well protected? What are you doing against phishing and social engineering (or North Korean developers)? Could you detect (you are reviewing logs, right?) and recover from a severe incident (has someone tested those backups?) ? Have your clients started to ask for pentests yet? Etc.

Growth Stage

The startup scales up and expands, which means more clients, more data. And possibly more investment rounds as needed.

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Many new risks are introduced here (Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems?), with more mature clients asking for more evidence (e.g., ISO/SOC2, if they haven’t asked already) and asking questions around privacy, additional staff making mistakes due to the lack of clear processes, etc.

Expansion Stage

Further growth and market penetration, possibly in different verticals or countries.

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Work will be needed to meet the additional regulations in these new countries or verticals, as well as due to your larger size/income; It’s also likely you’ll open new offices in new countries, or outsource, which will create new risks you’ll need to manage; And more. The fun never stops!

Exit

Time to cash in!

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Did you maintain a good reputation related to your security and privacy? Are you ready with the questions potential buyers will ask? They won’t want to inherit skeletons and will have checks and balances in their M&A processes.

When do you need to think about security and privacy, then?

As we can see, there is work to do at every step of the way. And every step is important, for you, for your investors and for your clients.

What about money, though?

All the stages above tend to have a common denominator: Lack of funds. This should not be an excuse to take inconsiderate risks that could severely impact or even ruin your startup.

You don’t need someone full-time right away. But the cost of early mistakes can compound quickly.

I suggest you have someone who is here along the way. There are many experienced experts who can help you make pragmatic risk decisions around security and privacy and grow with you.

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Start where you can, this could be a few hours a month at first: Ask a quick question, bounce an idea or two, workshop some basic design decisions. Then adjust as needed.
This will equip you with an expert who knows your startup and can help you quickly and can help bring assurance and build trust with your clients or investors.

Check CISO vs vCISO vs fractional CISO for examples.

When do you need to think about security and privacy?