Startup Security Checklist 2025: 12 controls that close enterprise deals
A practical checklist for startups to pass customer security reviews and prepare for SOC2 without enterprise overhead.
Enterprise buyers and investors will ask about security long before you have a security team. This checklist distills the 12 controls we see unblock deals fastest.
First, lock down identity: enforce SSO and MFA everywhere, especially GitHub, AWS, GCP, production tools, and email. Remove standing admin access and require just in time elevation via your IdP.
Second, manage secrets properly. No secrets in code, env files in Slack, or shared vaults in Notion. Use a real secret manager and rotate keys after any team change.
Third, harden your SDLC: branch protection, required reviews, SAST and dependency scanning in CI, and signed builds where feasible.
Fourth, implement baseline cloud security: no public S3 buckets or storage, enforce encryption, enable CloudTrail or equivalent, and define VPC boundaries.
Fifth, logging and alerting: centralize auth, prod access, and billing events in one place with at least 90 days retention.
Sixth, backups and recovery: test restores monthly and document RPO and RTO for your core data stores.
Seventh, third party risk: keep a register of vendors with access to customer data, review SOC2 reports, and manage data processing agreements.
Eighth, data handling: classify data, minimize PII collection, map where customer data lives, and define retention.
Ninth, policies that matter: access control, incident response, acceptable use, and business continuity, kept short and actually followed.
Tenth, vulnerability management: weekly dependency updates and a defined SLA for critical patches in production.
Eleventh, security questionnaires: keep a living document with answers, evidence links, and diagrams so you can respond in hours not weeks.
Twelfth, training: short, specific sessions for engineers and go to market teams on phishing, secure handling of customer data, and escalation paths.