audit
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SOC 2 Is a $23 Billion Business Now
SOC 2 used to be a dull audit checkbox. Now it anchors a governance, risk and compliance software market worth roughly $23 billion in 2026. A cohort of startups - Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, Sprinto, Orbiq - turned a painful PDF ritual into recurring revenue, while incumbents like AuditBoard and OneTrust and security giants like CrowdStrike circle the same prize: the business of proving you can be trusted.
The AI Visibility Audit (Step-by-Step)
The AI Visibility Audit is a step-by-step method for checking how ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini describe a brand. It runs a set of buyer-intent prompts across each engine, measures whether answers stay consistent, flags hallucinated or outdated facts, surfaces missing product knowledge and use cases, and turns the gaps into a ranked list of fixes. The goal is simple: know what the machines are saying about you before your customers ask them.
Sam Li
Sam Li is co-founder and CEO of Thoropass, the New York-based information security compliance and audit platform formerly known as Laika. He grew up in Shanghai, studied computer science and economics at the University of Virginia, worked at Goldman Sachs and Google, dropped out of Harvard Business School to run a YC-backed insurtech called Zinc Platform, watched it die, spent a year as an EIR at Bain Capital Ventures, then in 2019 co-founded a company to make SOC 2 audits less miserable. Thoropass has raised roughly $98 million across four rounds and now combines software with a licensed audit practice.
Simetrik
Simetrik is an AI-powered, no-code reconciliation platform that automates transaction matching, exception management, and compliance workflows for enterprises operating at high transaction volumes across 40+ countries.
Sprinto
Sprinto is a compliance and trust automation platform that helps cloud-first companies achieve and maintain certifications like SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR without drowning in spreadsheets. It connects to 300+ business systems, continuously monitors controls, and orchestrates audits end-to-end - turning what used to be a six-month consulting project into a continuous, mostly-automated background process.
Fieldguide
Fieldguide is an AI-native platform purpose-built for audit and advisory firms. Founded in 2020 by ex-EY auditor Jin Chang and engineer Chris Szymansky, the San Francisco company uses agentic AI to automate engagement work - from evidence collection and control testing to report drafting - for half of the top 100 US accounting firms, including KPMG, RSM US, Baker Tilly, BDO, Grant Thornton, and CLA.