Winning Enterprise Customers as a Stealth Startup

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Startups never stay in stealth mode forever. They rarely want to limit themselves to selling to other startups. Enterprise companies, however, usually balk at working with stealth startups because they don’t view them as sustainable, long-term partners. While stealth startup leaders usually count on press activity to legitimize their business, there’s a less expensive and more productive way to appeal to large companies: launching a pre-launch customer assurance program focused on compliance certification and business insurance acquisition that demonstrates longevity to enterprises the moment a stealth startup launches.

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Cementing Compliance Certification

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The vast majority of startups and SaaS companies handle customer data as part of their business, making them prime candidates for SOC 2 Type I certification (or ISO 27001 if they operate outside the United States). SOC 2 certified startups are able to demonstrate the security controls that mitigate the likelihood of incidents like a third-party data breach. Absent a public-facing certification badge on your website, companies will typically assume you don’t have these controls and are more likely to go out of business if a serious incident occurred.

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Beyond General Liability Insurance

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If stealth startups buy business insurance at all, it often ends up being a General Liability policy. General Liability Insurance (GLI) will cover 3rd-party bodily injury, property damage, personal injury (e.g. libel), legal defense costs, and medical expenses if someone is hurt on your business premises. That said, there are plenty of incidents GLI doesn’t cover that enterprise customers will want a stealth startup to be protected from.

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Employee injuries, errors & omissions, contractual liability, and product recall claims are just a handful of the scenarios that stealth startups can face without coverage beyond GLI. WIthout policies like product liability, errors & omissions coverage, and directors & officers coverage, stealth startups face business-ending events that jeopardize their ability to acquire large customers.

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Stealth Startup Success

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Stealth startups face a myriad of outcomes when they “go public.” Gaining critical awareness and sales pipeline is the best possible outcome and it’s not achievable without demonstrating to all stakeholders that your company has longevity and complies with widely accepted security practices.

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Koop’s customer assurance platform helps tech companies seamlessly navigate the complexities of business insurance, regulatory compliance, and security automation in one place.

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‍We provide a comprehensive suite of insurance coverage that includes General Liability, Technology Errors & Omissions, Cyber Liability, and Management Liability coupled with the most cost-effective SOC 2 compliance certification on the market.

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‍Ready to learn more? Visit our website at https://www.koop.ai or drop us a note at hello@koop.ai.