SOC 2, explained for Canadian startups

SOC 2 is an attestation report, not a certificate: an independent CPA firm examines your security controls against the AICPA's Trust Services Criteria and writes a report your customers can read. A Type 1 report says your controls were designed properly on a given date; a Type 2 says they actually operated over a period — usually 3 to 12 months. Type 2 is what mature customers mean when they say "SOC 2."

Security is the only mandatory criterion; Availability and Confidentiality are common additions. More criteria isn't better — scope should follow what your customers actually ask about.

B2B companies selling software or services to enterprise and institutional customers — banks, insurers, health systems, universities, large SaaS buyers — most commonly in North America, but the ask travels. The trigger is almost always a customer: a security review that asks for your report, a renewal with a new compliance clause, or a procurement gate you can't pass without it. If nobody in your pipeline is asking, you may not need it yet — and that's a fine answer.

For a seed-to-Series-B company with reasonable engineering hygiene: three to six months of readiness work to a Type 1, then the Type 2 observation window. Budget realistically for the audit itself (roughly CAD $20–60k depending on auditor and scope), a compliance platform if you use one, and — the part most people underestimate — internal time to fix gaps and produce evidence.

The failure mode isn't failing the audit; it's letting the project sprawl. Ruthless scoping is most of the cost control.

SOC 2's controls overlap heavily with ISO 27001, HIPAA's security rule, and the NIST-derived frameworks. Built as one program with one evidence library, your SOC 2 work carries most of the way to ISO 27001 and HIPAA — the "one program, many frameworks" thread that runs through everything I do.

SOC 2 was born in the US, but Canadian CPA firms issue reports under the harmonized CSAE standards — your auditor can be local, and Canadian enterprises and institutions increasingly ask for the same report. Expect customers to also ask where their data lives and who can access it; PIPEDA, provincial privacy law, and data-residency questions travel alongside SOC 2 in most Canadian deals, so answer them as one story.

I run the whole arc — gap assessment, pragmatic remediation, auditor selection, and the audit itself — as your security leader, alongside whatever compliance platform you use. That's the compliance readiness engagement; if a stalled deal is the trigger, start with enterprise deal support.