Security Advisory for Startups & CTOs

What you get

Advisory areas

Security Roadmap

A prioritised plan of what to secure now, next, and later, based on your stage, stack, and real risk exposure.

Vendor & Tool Selection

Honest guidance on which security tools and services are worth your budget and which ones to skip at your stage.

Security Questionnaires

Help answering customer security questionnaires and due diligence requests without overcommitting or misrepresenting.

Team Training

Practical secure coding workshops, phishing awareness, and security culture building for engineering teams.

Design Review

Ad-hoc review of new features, API designs, and authentication flows before they go to production.

Board Reporting

Security posture summaries and risk dashboards that communicate clearly to non-technical stakeholders.

How it works

Engagement model

Advisory is deliberately lightweight to start and easy to stop. The point is that you get a security opinion you can act on this week, not a programme you have to manage.

01

Discovery Call

A single conversation to understand the business before the technology: what you sell, who your customers are, what data you hold, what is coming in the next two quarters, and what is currently blocking you — a security questionnaire from a large customer, a funding round's due diligence, a regulation newly in scope.

It is also where we tell you if you do not need us. If the honest answer is “enable MFA everywhere and come back in six months”, that is what you will hear.

You provide
An hour, and candour about what is actually worrying you.

We do
Understand the business context, the drivers and the constraints; give an initial view.

You get
A straight answer on what you need, what you do not, and what it would involve.

Typical time
1 hour, no charge
02

Security Assessment

A right-sized review of where you stand: your architecture and its obvious exposures, your identity and access setup, what is public that should not be, your current tooling and the gaps between what it promises and what it is configured to do, plus the security posture of the vendors in your critical path.

This is not a penetration test and we will not pretend it is — it is a breadth-first look designed to find the things that matter most before spending money on depth. Where depth is warranted, we say so and scope it separately.

You provide
Read-only access or a walkthrough of your environment, and your current tool and vendor list.

We do
Review architecture, identity, exposure, tooling and third parties against your threat model.

You get
A written posture summary with the findings that matter, ranked by risk to the business.

Typical time
1–2 weeks
03

Prioritised Roadmap

Findings become a plan sequenced by risk reduced per unit of effort, which usually looks nothing like a framework checklist. The first items are typically unglamorous and cheap; the expensive ones are scheduled for when they are genuinely the next-biggest risk.

Each item states the risk it addresses, what it costs in effort and money, and who owns it. Where a control can be met with something you already pay for, we say that rather than recommending a purchase.

You provide
Decisions on what you are willing to take on, and your budget reality.

We do
Sequence recommendations by risk-to-effort, size each one, and map them to existing tooling and owners.

You get
A roadmap you can put into sprints, and a one-page version for your board or customers.

Typical time
3–5 days
04

Ongoing Support

Most questions do not need a project. A retained line gets you answers on the design decision in front of you this week, the customer security questionnaire due on Friday, the vendor you are about to sign, or the alert nobody can interpret — with the context of someone who already knows your environment.

It also covers the periodic work that quietly matters: reviewing architecture changes before they ship, refreshing the threat model as the business changes, and keeping the roadmap honest as risks move.

You provide
Access to your team's channel and a heads-up on significant changes before they ship.

We do
Answer questions as they arise, review changes and vendors, refresh the threat model and roadmap.

You get
A named security contact who knows your stack, with an agreed response time.

Typical time
Monthly, cancel any time

FAQ

Common questions

What is security advisory?

Security advisory is ongoing, on-demand security guidance from an experienced practitioner. Instead of hiring a full-time CISO, you get a trusted advisor who helps you make the right security decisions at the right time.

Who is this service for?

Startups and growing companies that don't yet have a dedicated security team. Founders, CTOs, and engineering leads who need practical security guidance without the overhead of a full-time hire.

What kind of questions can I ask?

Anything security-related: which tools to adopt first, how to handle customer security questionnaires, whether your auth design is solid, what to prioritise before SOC 2, how to respond to a potential breach, and vendor evaluations.

Get expert security guidance on demand.

Start with a free discovery call. No commitment, no jargon, just straight answers.

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Security Advisory