For a growing aviation software firm fielding increasing security reviews from enterprise prospects, the absence of a formal compliance program had stopped being a future risk and started showing up as lost deals. With customer security questionnaires piling up and no SOC 2 in place, the team needed more than a compliance tool. They needed a way to stop the commercial bleeding, centralize fragmented policies, and build a program credible enough to support a multi-entity portfolio. They chose Drata.
[ The Problem ]
Enterprise customers were asking for SOC 2. The answer kept being no.
The company had already lost enterprise revenue by the time the compliance initiative became a formal priority. Customer security reviews were increasing, but the team had no formal program, no centralized policy library, and no way to respond to questionnaires at scale. Policies were scattered across systems, with basic distinctions between policy types causing internal confusion.
The business also operated across related entities with shared infrastructure, which meant any solution had to support distinct audit outputs without duplicating work. The cost of inaction was immediate and commercial, not a governance abstraction.
[ What they needed ]
Before selecting Drata, the team was working to:
- Establish a SOC 2 program capable of satisfying enterprise customer demands
- Centralize scattered policies and map them to audit controls
- Respond to inbound security questionnaires without pulling the team off compliance work
- Build a trust center that could improve prospect confidence before SOC 2 certification was complete
- Support multiple related entities without duplicating infrastructure or creating separate compliance silos
- Identify an auditor partner who could make the SOC 2 path credible to executive stakeholders
[ Why Drata won ]
Selected over Vanta, which was the incumbent, because Drata combined a multi-entity workspace architecture with a hands-on audit path that reduced execution risk for a first-time compliance buyer.
Multi-entity architecture matched the portfolio reality: Drata's workspace model allowed shared policies and evidence to flow across related entities while keeping audit outputs separate. Vanta's incumbent position did not address this structural need, and the team needed a solution that would not paint them into a corner as the portfolio grew.
Auditor partnership reduced fear of failure: For a team running its first formal compliance program, product capability alone was not enough. Drata's integrated auditor partnership gave executive stakeholders a concrete path to SOC 2 completion, not just a platform to manage controls.
Trust Center and AIQA addressed the immediate commercial pain: The team was already losing enterprise deals before SOC 2 was in place. Drata's Trust Center and AI-assisted questionnaire support gave them a way to respond to customer security reviews immediately, not after certification was complete.
Commercial structure made CFO approval achievable: AWS Marketplace billing shifted annual commitments into more manageable cash flow, and AWS credits helped secure internal buy-in at the executive level. The deal closed not because of price alone, but because the commercial mechanics were made procurement-safe.
[ How Drata solved it ]
Drata's GRC platform gave the team a structured path to SOC 2 readiness with automated evidence collection and continuous control monitoring, replacing the fragmented documentation practices that had made audit preparation feel out of reach. Drata's workspace architecture directly addressed the multi-entity challenge: shared corporate evidence such as policies, vendors, personnel, and risk registers could be maintained centrally while each entity retained separate controls and audit outputs.
The Trust Center gave the team an immediate way to respond to customer security reviews before SOC 2 certification was complete, reducing the questionnaire burden that had been consuming direct team time. AI-assisted questionnaire support through AIQA extended that capacity further, letting the team handle inbound security reviews without diverting resources from the compliance program itself. An integrated auditor partnership reduced execution risk for a first-time compliance buyer and gave executive stakeholders the confidence they needed to approve the investment.
[ Before and after Drata ]
Before Drata, lost enterprise revenue was the direct consequence of having no compliance program, and the team had no scalable way to respond to customer security demands. After, a structured SOC 2 audit path is underway, the Trust Center handles inbound security reviews, and the multi-entity architecture supports portfolio growth without rebuilding compliance infrastructure from scratch.
[ Business outcome ]
With Drata in place, the team moved from a reactive, fragmented compliance posture to a structured program with a defined SOC 2 audit path and a live Trust Center. Enterprise conversations that had previously stalled on security posture now had a credible answer. The multi-entity architecture meant the compliance investment could scale across the portfolio without rebuilding from scratch for each entity.
The decision to bring in an auditor partner as part of the motion, combined with AWS Marketplace billing flexibility, gave both the technical team and executive stakeholders the confidence to commit. The compliance gap that had been costing revenue became a program with a scheduled outcome.