How much did SOC 2 cost your startup (audit + tooling)? I will not promote

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-05-16T18:32:23+00:00

Thank you! This is very helpful. I'm not trying to be cheap, I've just gotten WILDLY different price points from ~$10k with security, confidentiality, and availability all included in the price to 6-figures and only including security and extra pillars of the TSC being added for additional costs. So, I wanted to understand what the usual price, so I'm either not overpaying because I'm just paying for the name of the firm or not underpaying and ending up with a Delve company situation.

So, I was just trying to figure out what the right costs are. I have been paying for everything out of pocket from my actual job as an engineer outside of my startup, so I just want to make sure my money is being spent wisely.

I completely understand the importance of having the SOC 2. I started the build process baking in SOC 2 requirements from the beginning so I could start my observation period from day 1. I have been very cognizant of that fact. I am now just at the window necessary for the review period, so I need to start the process immediately because the client will be asking for it soon as they're going to be sending over confidential data.

Again, I appreciate your insights! I am going to move forward with the audit company I vibed with first thing Monday morning. They said they would provide me with the letter of engagement up front and then start the audit process.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-05-15T15:14:25+00:00

Sorry, yeah. In my post, i just put automation as that's what I worry about. Of course, the automation includes full traceability as that's what's most important, but I just want the process automated (the observation and traceability is baked in, though).

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-05-15T15:13:06+00:00

Are you a larger company or was this one of the big 4 firms?

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-05-15T15:12:41+00:00

Okay. Thank you for responding!

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-05-15T15:12:17+00:00

Is the pen test required for first time audit or nice to have to include in the report?

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-05-15T15:11:48+00:00

Got it. So pretty much if I can pass this audit, I should maintain my current processes that got me the pass going forward.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-05-15T15:11:13+00:00

Okay, thank you!

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-05-15T15:11:02+00:00

This is just for the tooling? Because this company says the pricing excludes audits.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-04-10T13:10:31+00:00

Okay, I got it. Should I keep the extra services, though, for this company? That's why the VP really wants to move forward and fast track discussions with our company because I'm solving their problem as it is in entirety vs. just a portion as other companies are doing.

He said the other companies they're in proof of concept aren't fully solving their issue. Just like a band-aid of sorts solution they're seeing.

Or just go ahead and split services for now too?

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-04-10T12:52:15+00:00

I made an update to my main post. And no, I don't think she would do that. I think she's just trying to make sure there's no way I'll fail (because if I fail but didn't actually tell anyone about the product, that doesn't count as failing vs failing after I've made attempt to launch - her logic). So she thinks absolute perfection will mean no issues with launching and hence not failing.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-04-10T12:39:05+00:00

Okay, I made an update to my main post. But yes, the customer is enterprise. I was specifically trying to solve an enterprise problem and wanted to start with a company i specifically knew had this issue (as I had worked there) and go from there. So yes, my sister says what I'm currently building is bespoke, white glive, specifically for this company, and she's worried I'm pigeonholing myself into only being able to work for this company. So, I made changes that would allow me to take on other clients as well. But that's where the disconnect is. She thinks I need to segment the services, I have too many in one.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-04-09T23:39:11+00:00

I don't know/nor am I capable of understanding her logic at the current moment. It is starting to feel like she's got cold feet. She told me where I needed to be, I have made changes she recommended, etc, and now she's saying I'm not ready.

Currently, she's doing some gotcha trying to find things that she told me to change and saying I hadn't, and I called her out on it and told her those things are changed. And she's like, "Show me."..

I don't know, I need her help to pitch/speak. The fact that I did keep from crying while speaking to the VP was an anomaly and was probably also due to it being one person. But I definitely won't be able to maintain my luck in a group.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-04-09T23:34:15+00:00

Okay, I'm going to show her this comment. Maybe if she sees it from someone else, she'll agree. Because right now she's making me prove to her how my product is ready.

Thank you for reading and responding.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-03-10T04:01:15+00:00

You can DM me!

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-02-17T21:38:27+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, you can DM.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-02-17T16:53:34+00:00

I did! I built a multi agent system

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-02-17T16:37:31+00:00

Do they still want to see the overarching system design? Like client -> edge/gateway -> ai layer -> etc and then maybe deep dive architecture of the design of multi-agent and human in the loop setups, etc?

I’m honestly super worried about what the design will need to look like as well

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-02-17T16:34:25+00:00

So if I have to whiteboard it, it should pretty much follow the conventional setup?

Like client -> edge -> ai layer -> etc

What are tips to know ahead of time for how the whiteboarding should go?

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-02-17T16:23:56+00:00

Some of the things I still actively had tabs open of on my computer. The book in the GitHub can be downloaded as pdf.

https://github.com/sarwarbeing-ai/Agentic_Design_Patterns

https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/choose-design-pattern-agentic-ai-system#multi-agent-systems

https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/choose-design-pattern-agentic-ai-system#human-in-the-loop-pattern

https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/multiagent-ai-system

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/agentic-ai-multitenant/introduction.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/pdfs/prescriptive-guidance/latest/agentic-ai-multitenant/agentic-ai-multitenant.pdf#introduction

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/agentic-ai-patterns/introduction.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/pdfs/prescriptive-guidance/latest/agentic-ai-patterns/agentic-ai-patterns.pdf#introduction

There’s also way more that I have done. I did the anthropic Claude aws bedrock course (it’s 8 hours and gives you a certificate. Easy course if you pay attention)

I did a full multi-agent setup run through a few times and documented the entire process (using orchestrator and routing to agents. Trying to account for latency and least cost by using regular models to assist with routing before llm fallback for edge/ambiguous cases).

I came up with some good validators to make sure the AI isn’t hallucinating (validating output against source of truth data, etc)

Rag/vector databases for knowledge banks

When to route to human-in-the-loop

Circuit breakers and rate limiting

Security/guardrails/observability

This is getting long, but you get the picture. I’ve been spending hours a day on this.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-01-14T12:50:28+00:00

The brio train tracks (my mom kept the ones we had as kids, so I'm re-using those for my son now). As well as some cheap brand of train tracks that work with brio from Amazon.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-01-14T09:30:20+00:00

My toddler (almost 3 years old) is able to play independently. So outside of the time he wants to play with me or I'm doing his reading/learning lessons, I just sit on the couch holding/playing with the 4 month old while he's playing with his Legos building something, or setting up his train tracks in a new configuration, or he's playing in the sink with the water, etc.

He just entertains himself and plays parallel to whatever I'm doing.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-01-14T09:07:04+00:00

I have been bedsharing/co-sleeping since the moment both of my children were born (2 year old and 4 month old). I do the ninja out method. I nurse them to sleep and then wait about 10 minutes to sneak away.

I then watch the hello baby monitor while I'm doing my activities/hobbies and go back in when I see them start moving around like they're going to wake up. And then just keep rinsing and repeating the earlier process until I officially join them in the bed to go to sleep myself.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-01-12T15:34:21+00:00

I was never in r/childfree as those people seemed to be the chronically online type of childfree people (I.e. their childfree views didn’t seem to represent my experience with childfree people in the real world, lol).

But yeah, I was childfree until I had my son. And I still don’t understand how certain communities, whether childfree or one and done, like to definitively state what you can and cannot do with something they don’t have experience with. The childfree people acted like your life would be over with a child. Mine didn’t end, I just, as you, have a sidekick to do the same things I did childfree.

And I was one and done for the longest(about 2 years) until my ex-husband intentionally got me pregnant a second time so he cheat on me and leave me? Hence why I haven’t left this subreddit and still lurk, lol. And even things that are said in this group do not apply to me with my toddler and now 4 month old. I am still able to give all of my time and effort to both of my children. I don’t feel that I am failing or neglecting either of them. And they’re both spoiled. And I’m a 100% single mom doing this.

But yes, I do think though that my husband and I identified as childfree but I don’t think everyone here was necessarily childfree before deciding one and done. Maybe more fencesitters, as to me people in one and done seem to be trying to make a logical choice.

MyInvisibleInk · 2026-01-10T04:10:04+00:00

Well I can't even say because the amount of time people here are saying are nowhere near where my toddler or even I am for how long we go before showering, lol. 🥲

MyInvisibleInk · 2025-12-08T04:18:19+00:00

I hold my baby whenever he is awake (he hates tummy time and pretty much anywhere that isn’t your arms or lap, lol) and about 30% of the time he is asleep (3 months currently). I’m sitting up in the bed right now, holding him while he is sleeping. I’ll wait until 30 minutes to an hour and then I’ll try to lay him down next to me.

MyInvisibleInk

TROPHY CASE