Drata Inc.

I think that most companies still either don't have the software or they have the in-house skills or don't have the know-how, their own compliance program to actually produce that.

So I'd say even a world where Vanta, Drata, Compile, Anecdotes, Compliance, Hyperproof, Nalisco keep going, even though they are serving that need in different ways, different forms, we're still not really seeing meaningful movement in that direction.

Then the second side of that is that companies don't want to show it, right? If I say like, how hard is it to get an S-ball? I've been arguing for a long time, we need a compliance S-ball.

No one wants to give you their S-ball because they're going to show outdated third-party packages.

That's how you differentiate yourself.

I decided to make the move to Drata because Drata is at that hyper-growth stage that I enjoy.

Drata is a platform that helps companies become compliant in both privacy and risk frameworks.

As companies have these audits and get these certifications that they are compliant with a particular, it builds trust with other companies so that you can do business.

As I mentioned, the CTO of Drata is a former co-founder of mine, Daniel Marashlian.

When he gave me the updates on what they were doing with Drata and where they were at, and the fact that they were seeing international traction, that's when we started talking seriously about, wow, this is probably ready to go international.

What I look for in a company to be ready to go international, obviously product/market fit has to be there, and also seeing indications of, uh, traction in other markets.

I really like B2B SaaS, but a product that is a must-have, not a nice-to-have.

We, we tend to focus on Fortune 50 large enterprise companies, but we do AI SOC." Immediately you can be like, "That's great." Um, maybe ask a few follow-up questions, how do they differentiate, and then move on.

I also like to ask, "Who are your main competitors?" Right? Because if, if they tell you like, "Oh, we do this thing," right? "We do GRC compliance." You could say, "Oh yeah, who's your main competitors?" They know who their competitors are, and that way if they say, "Oh, our competitors are Vanta, Drata," whatever, then when you see the Drata or the, uh, Vantas of the world, you can say, you can go up to their booth and say, "Oh hey, yeah, I was just at this other vendor.

How do you guys differentiate yourselves?" They're in the same space, right? So now you can really target those questions.

Also, don't be shy.

That's how you differentiate yourself.

I decided to make the move to Drata because Drata is at that hyper-growth stage that I enjoy.

Drata is a platform that helps companies become compliant in both privacy and risk frameworks.

As companies have these audits and get these certifications that they are compliant with a particular, it builds trust with other companies so that you can do business.

As I mentioned, the CTO of Drata is a former co-founder of mine, Daniel Marashlian.

When he gave me the updates on what they were doing with Drata and where they were at, and the fact that they were seeing international traction, that's when we started talking seriously about, wow, this is probably ready to go international.

What I look for in a company to be ready to go international, obviously product market fit has to be there and also seeing indications of, uh, traction in other markets.

I really like B2B SaaS, but a product that is a must-have, not a nice-to-have.

So when we started, it was not that crowded yet.

Was Vanta, Drata had just started and maybe like another company, I think Secureframe.

Yeah, I think we, so we're looking at that space.

We're talking to a lot of startups in the YC community and we're asking like, okay, what things do we care about securing compliance and what would help you make your business better? It was very clear that, you know, they're addressing a real need.

And that's just like, you know, that's a very slippery slope that is really hard to come back from.

So it's like, I'm very important to just stay so close to these decisions.

Given where you are in your role at the acquired company Drata, you were VP of engineering.

Could you maybe reflect a little bit on that role and then what you think would be a future VP of engineering doing in a couple of years? Your version of human in the loop, which is Adar in the loop of review, but then you built an AI bot.

She's got experience outside of Wiz.

She built a career at Rapid7, Snyk, Wiz, and Drata.

And each had their own challenges and opportunities and learnings that she went through.

And it's fun to talk with Lauren about all this in this episode.

But let's, let's fast-forward.

So laterally, you've spent some time leading teams at two really well-known companies.

One is Wiz, another one is Drata.

You joined Wiz at a time with just growth, right? I mean, growth in capital letters and a few exclamation points on the end.