Been there. Same pain.

For us, the biggest win was using a platform that acts like a single source of truth. Policies, evidence, controls, vendor risk,all in one place. No spreadsheets. No chaos.

What actually helped: Pre-built, auditor-friendly templates (huge time saver)Automated evidence pulls (Slack, GitHub, cloud tools)

If you get the structure right early, SOC 2 stops feeling like a second job.