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Got a SOC 2 customer request and don’t know who to call? Here’s a straight answer.
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Appropriate if you’re Series B+, already have an internal security team, and need to move fast with auditor relationships pre-built. Cost: $25k–$80k+.
Appropriate after you’ve locked scope. These tools accelerate Type II evidence collection. Buying before scope clarity wastes 3–6 months and $12k–$20k/year.
Appropriate if you’re early-stage, first compliance ask, or have been quoted $30k+ and want a second opinion before committing. Start here before any other call.
THE HONEST ANSWER
Start with a human clarity session. Know your scope, timeline, and top gaps before hiring anyone.
Yes. Especially Type I. A clear scope and documented policies are most of the work — before any tool or firm is needed.
Type I readiness: $5k–$25k depending on gaps. Audit itself: $8k–$20k. Tools: $10k–$20k/year. Most operators spend $30k–$60k total for Type II.
Type I: 3–6 months. Type II: 9–15 months including observation period.
A plain-English scope review. Understanding what you need before calling a firm or buying software saves months and real money.
Text PJ with your situation in 2–3 lines — what’s driving the question, your stage, and what you’ve already looked at.
No retainers. No pitch. Clarity before cost.
Text PJ · 858-461-8054Depends on your stage. Pre-deal (no customer asking yet): start with a readiness gap assessment — a 2-4 hour engagement that identifies what you'd need to fix before audit. Mid-deal (customer asking for SOC 2): call a San Diego compliance consultant or a startup-focused auditing firm immediately — auditors take 6-12 weeks to schedule. Compliance SaaS (Vanta/Drata) is useful but doesn't replace the consultant-to-configure-it layer. PJ at SideGuy does the readiness assessment + implementation layer; auditing is a separate firm.
Boutique San Diego firms: $15K-$60K flat-fee. Big-4 / national firms: $75K-$150K+. Vanta or Drata SaaS: $12K-$35K/yr. Consulting layer (audit prep, evidence collection, control implementation): $3K-$15K depending on gaps. Actual audit attestation fee (separate from consulting): $8K-$25K for Type II from a licensed CPA firm. Most seed-to-Series A San Diego SaaS companies end up spending $25K-$75K total in year one, then $15K-$30K/yr for annual re-certification.
Type I: auditor verifies your controls are designed correctly at a point in time. Type II: auditor verifies controls were operating effectively over a 6-12 month period. Prospects want Type II — it's the one that actually proves continuous operations. Most San Diego SaaS companies do a Type I first (3-4 months, lower cost), then add the observation period for Type II. Enterprise deals in healthcare, fintech, and government almost always require Type II.
Readiness gap assessment: 1-2 weeks. Remediation and control implementation: 4-12 weeks depending on gaps. Audit observation period (for Type II): 6-12 months. Total timeline from 'starting now' to 'Type II report in hand': 9-18 months. Type I report only: 4-6 months. The scheduling bottleneck is usually the auditing firm, not you — plan 6-8 weeks to get on a CPA firm's calendar.
SOC 2 applies when B2B customers ask for it — which happens most in SaaS (especially healthcare IT, fintech, HR tech, legal tech). Related frameworks that often come together: HIPAA (healthcare data), PCI-DSS (payment data), ISO 27001 (enterprise procurement internationally), CCPA/CPRA (California consumer data). Many San Diego companies in Sorrento Valley and UTC face SOC 2 + HIPAA together. If you're going after enterprise deals, plan for the stack — not just SOC 2 alone.
AI automation tools are everywhere right now — but most vendors oversell what they can actually deliver for a small business. The honest answer is that the right tool depends entirely on your existing workflow, team size, and how much time you're losing to manual tasks today.
['Starting with the most complex use case instead of the simplest.', 'Buying a platform before running a 30-day single-use-case pilot.', 'Not involving the staff who will actually use it in the selection process.']
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