Startup: Cybersecurity from Day 1 to Raise Funds and Convince Your Clients
Security by design: GDPR, ISO 27001, secure client contracts from launch. Budget under 5K€/year, scalable with your growth. From 5 to 500 people.
Why cybersecurity from day 1?
3 reasons why you cannot wait
Facilitated fundraising
VCs require cyber due diligence: security maturity = signal of professionalism
Demanding B2B clients
RFPs require ISO 27001, long security questionnaires: save time
Mandatory GDPR
Fines up to 20M€, reputation at stake: protect yourself from the start
5 fatal startup mistakes
Avoid these costly traps
1. "We'll see later"
→ Cyber refactoring costs 10x more2. No GDPR
→ Fines + B2B client blocking3. Weak authentication
→ Breaches, customer data loss, reputation4. No DPA contracts
→ Impossible to sell B2B5. Unsecure code
→ Technical debt, critical vulnerabilitiesReal case: 15-person SaaS startup
Business impact
- Series A fundraising facilitated: cyber due diligence passed seamlessly
- 3 enterprise contracts signed thanks to ISO 27001
- Security questionnaires completed in 1h instead of 2 days
OwlCub enabled us to obtain ISO 27001 in 6 months. Decisive argument for our Series A round.
Startup Cyber Checklist: 50 essential points
Your complete security roadmap
GDPR (10 points)
- Processing register
- Client & supplier DPAs
- Privacy policy
- Cookie banner
- Data subject rights procedure
- Impact assessment (PIA)
- DPO designation
- Retention periods
- Data security
- Authority notification
Authentication (8 points)
- Mandatory MFA
- SSO (Google/Microsoft)
- Strong password policy
- Session management
- Token rotation
- Login logs
- Anomaly detection
- Secure recovery
Infrastructure (12 points)
- Data encryption (transit + rest)
- Automatic backups
- 24/7 monitoring
- Centralized logs
- Firewall & WAF
- Intrusion detection
- Patch management
- Network segmentation
- Secrets management
- DR plan
- Separated environments
- Bastion access
Secure code (10 points)
- Automatic SAST
- Regular DAST
- Dependencies scan
- Security code review
- Secrets out of code
- Input validation
- Output encoding
- OWASP Top 10
- Secure SDLC
- Threat modeling
Governance (10 points)
- External/fractional CISO
- Security policy
- Risk analysis
- Prioritized action plan
- Regular audits
- Team training
- Cyber insurance
- Incident management
- Compliant contracts
- Dashboards
Realistic first-year budget
Roadmap that scales with your growth
From 5 to 500 people: OwlCub grows with you
5-20 people
GDPR + ISO 27001 basics
20-50 people
ISO 27001 light
50-100 people
ISO 27001 certification
100-500 people
SOC 2, sector certifications
OwlCub Startup Offer
Special conditions for startups < 20 people
What's included
- -50% first year for startups <20 people
- Onboarding included (2h)
- Startup-friendly templates
- Reactive support (Slack)
- Access to startup community
Launch your startup with solid cybersecurity
20 minutes to discover how to secure your startup right now