Build audit-ready habits before you have a GRC team.
For startups heading into a first SOC 2 or ISO 27001. Get the framework awareness of a larger company without hiring for it.
Your first SOC 2 or ISO 27001 arrives because a customer asked for it, usually before you have anyone whose job is compliance. The instinct is to buy a big platform and fill in a spreadsheet. The higher-leverage move at your size is to keep a few habits at code review, where you already have eyes on every change, so there is little to retrofit when the audit comes.
The framework knowledge you have not hired yet
What a small team lacks is not diligence, it is the knowledge that a given diff touches a given control. heygrc is built to supply that: it reads each change against the frameworks you picked and names the control, so a five-person team reviews with the framework awareness of a much larger one. Start the habits early (log security events, keep access least-privilege, never log secrets or personal data) and the first audit meets a system that has stayed close to its controls, not one scrambled into shape before the deadline.
It does not run your audit or replace an auditor. It keeps the everyday changes from quietly drifting away from the controls you will be assessed on.
Changes that read as ordinary code.
A few of the control-relevant changes heygrc is built to flag for this case, each cited to the clause it touches.
A new personal-data table ships with no retention bound
GDPR Art. 5(1)(e)An IAM role widens beyond what the service needs
SOC 2 CC6.1A security-relevant event stops being logged
ISO 27001:2022 A.8.15
The frameworks that matter most here.
Guide: Shift-left compliance for a small team
heygrc flags control-relevant changes and cites the clause so the issue can be handled in the pull request. It does not certify you, run your audit, or replace your own judgment. heygrc is in early access.