FounderQuest

Show Notes:
Links:
Notion
Basecamp
Amanuensis
Neuralink

Full Transcript:
Starr:
Well, what's up in y'alls worlds?

Ben:
Went out kayaking yesterday, that was nice.

Starr:
Oh, nice.

Josh:
Cool.

Starr:
Did you get that foldable one you were talking about?

Ben:
I did order, but it is back-ordered, so I have not yet received it.

Starr:
Damn.

Josh:
It's like this was a bad time for everyone to wait to purchase these things they were putting off for their recreation time.

Ben:
Exactly.

Josh:
Till they have forced time on their hands.

Ben:
Yeah.

Starr:
Yeah, totally. We went canoeing on our little vacation a couple of weeks ago, and it was really nice. It was one of those things where I was kind of dreading it because we had Ida with us. But it actually turned out being really calm and peaceful, and all that. It was just very nice.

Josh:
Where did you go, Ben?

Ben:
Out on the Sammamish River, which is right near me.

Ben:
Yeah. We went from Redmond towards Lake Sammamish but there's a little area with a bit of turbulence, and we were in an inflatable kayak, so we were not able to proceed. Some people might call them rapids, but I mean, it's-

Josh:
Did you do some sick rapids?

Ben:
No. We turned around. But it was a nice little cruise.

Josh:
You're going to wait for the paper kayak-

Ben:
Right.

Josh:
... for the rapids? Part origami.

Ben:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Starr:
Yeah. We ordered an inflatable one.

Ben:
Yeah, I think they're fun.

Starr:
Yeah. It's-

Josh:
I should do that. We've got some rivers around here.

Ben:
The only trick is, like where we go is rocky, so every time we're done I have to inspect the bottom for new holes.

Josh:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Ben:
So ...

Starr:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Ben:
As long as I remember to do that it's okay. Because otherwise-

Josh:
Does the water get low in places.

Ben:
Yeah, it gets pretty low.

Josh:
Okay.

Starr:
How does that work when you're out there? Do you just look for bubbles-

Ben:
Yeah.

Starr:
... coming out from under you? You just keep an eye out for bubbles?

Ben:
Or you start to feel lower in the water, and you're like, "Oh, I think I've lost some air."

Starr:
I guess that would make sense. Yeah.

Ben:
Yeah. Do carry the patch kit with us whenever we go out.

Ben:
Good news is, it's pretty easy to patch.

Starr:
People have been saying the '90s are coming back, so low riders are in, so low rider canoes I imagine are the next step for that.

Ben:
For sure.

Starr:
Definitely. We have some good news. I don't know if this ... I'm just going to say it and then you can tell me if it's public or not. But we got our SOC 2 report done, right?

Ben:
Yeah.

Starr:
We got that in?

Ben:
Yeah. That's why I'm feeling a little tired today. I think it's like, finally got over the finish line and now I'm just collapsing. It's post-marathon, just dying.

Josh:
Yeah.

Starr:
I know.

Josh:
Time for a vacation.

Ben:
Yeah. Just scheduled it.

Josh:
Nice.

Starr:
Good.

Ben:
Yeah. It's not public yet, because I haven't written the blog post yet. But, yeah, that's on my to-do list.

Starr:
But it's not a secret?

Ben:
It's not a secret. We did get-

Starr:
Just between us and our listeners, we can share.

Ben:
We did get our type 1 report for our SOC 2 audit, so I'm pretty excited.

Josh:
Yeah. Congratulations.

Ben:
Thanks. It was a team effort.

Starr:
No, not really. A team of one, yeah.

Josh:
I mean, I'll take credit for reading some policies, and-

Starr:
Yeah. I read some policies, and I was like, I guess this makes sense. I don't really understand it. Okay. Yeah. But-

Josh:
I did learn a lot throughout.

Ben:
We talked about this briefly a couple weeks ago. I saw this idea of building a site ... some sort of resource for startups like us, to get more familiar with what the compliance process is, and just demystifying that whole thing. I think I know a lot more now than I did when I started, and I think there's a lot that could be explained in layman's terms to help entrepreneurs understand what the whole thing is about, and why you might want to go through the whole process, and why you might not want to go through the whole process. I know we talked about this ... When we got started down this road, we're like, "Do we really want to do this?"

Josh:
Yeah.

Ben:
We didn't really know how to answer that question. Like, "Oh, I guess."

Josh:
It's not for everyone.

Ben:
Yeah. It really isn't. Yeah.

Josh:
Yeah. We should totally do that.

Starr:
Because one of the reasons we didn't know if we should go down that road was because nobody would tell us what that road actually was. It was all just a bunch of vague ... it was this very vague thing. It's a road you go down, but you can see about a foot in front of you. At least that's what it felt like to me.

Ben:
Yeah. And people who have been down that road are like, "Well, I'm not going to tell you anything about it. I'll let you find out on your own."

Starr:
It depends. You can pay me a retainer.

Ben:
Yeah. Part of the problem is, there aren't many small startups like us who have done it. Most of the people who do that are larger organizations, and for them, it's not even a question. It's like, well, they have to because of whatever.

Starr:
Yeah.

Josh:
Yeah.

Ben:
There really aren't people like us who can say, "Well, here's what I did and here's why you might want to do something like it."

Josh:
What are some reasons not to pursue that path?

Ben:
It's very expensive.

Josh:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Ben:
You're guaranteed to be spending tens of thousands of dollars. There's no way around that. And it's very time consuming. It took a lot of time to put together everything, and then go through the audit itself is actually pretty time consuming as well, because you have to provide so many evidences of the things that are part of that process.

Josh:
Yeah.

Ben:
Those are some pretty good reasons why not to do it. It's experience, and time consuming.

Josh:
If no one's going to care anyway then the trade off doesn't work.

Ben:
Yeah. For sure.

Josh:
Just don't do it.

Ben:
I mean, we got started on the path because we got customers asking about it, and that is really it. If you have sales that are being held back-

Josh:
Someone actually cares.

Ben:
Yeah.

Josh:
That affects your bank account.

Ben:
And if you can't talk your way out of it.

Josh:
Yeah.

Ben:
Because there are things that you can do, and this is part of the resource site that I'm thinking about putting together. Because there are things that you can do that are short of full compliance audit, that will help alleviate concerns for people who are asking you for a SOC 2 report, who are asking you for your security posture. And no one who has any vested interest in this whole thing, like auditors, or consultants, no ones going to tell you that. Like, "Oh, by the way, there's this really cheap approach you can take, which sh...