Cybersecurity for SaaS startups, built for the pre-CISO stage
You're hiring fast, your first enterprise prospect just asked about security, and there's no CISO yet. Engarde is the startup security platform that lives in the tools you already use — Slack, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace — and scales as you grow.
What changes when a SaaS startup hits 20-200 employees
The pains that hit between 'we have nothing' and 'we hire a CISO'.
Hiring fast, no time for formal onboarding
A new engineer joins on Monday and ships on Wednesday. There is no afternoon to sit through a security course, and a slide deck would not stick anyway. Lightweight security awareness has to live where people already work.
No CISO yet — and the CTO inherits security by default
Pre-CISO security falls on the founder or CTO between two product reviews. You need a scale-up cybersecurity platform that runs itself, not another tool that needs a full-time owner to keep alive.
The first enterprise prospect just asked about SOC 2
Your sales team forwards a security questionnaire. The training section is blank. You need evidence of recurring, behavior-based training — not a one-shot annual video — to keep that deal moving.
Slack, Drive, M365 sprawl with zero visibility
Engineers grant OAuth to side-project tools, drafts get shared with 'anyone with the link', and nobody owns SaaS visibility. The risk grows quietly until something breaks.
Where Engarde fits between "nothing" and "we hire a CISO"
Engarde is the security layer for fast-growing companies between zero security program and a full CISO function. It runs inside Slack, Teams, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace — the tools your 20-200 person team already uses — so it never feels like enterprise overhead.
- Real-time guidance the moment someone shares a file publicly, grants OAuth to an unknown app, or skips MFA — delivered as a friendly nudge in the channel they already work in. See how this works on the behavior-centered cybertraining page.
- Phishing scenarios crafted to look like the SaaS tools your team actually uses, not generic banking templates. Details on the phishing simulations page.
- Continuous SaaS-behavior monitoring (early access) that surfaces the public file shares, shadow OAuth grants and MFA gaps a 40-person team accumulates in a quarter.
- Behavior evidence — not just completion certificates — that maps to what auditors and enterprise security questionnaires increasingly ask for. More in compliance training for enterprise deals.
- Deploys in minutes via a single app install in your workspace — no LMS to provision, no quarterly slide deck to maintain.
If you've been told you need a Human Risk Management program but the SAT-era vendors feel like the wrong fit, read the human risk management page next.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need a CISO before we can use Engarde? +
No. Engarde is designed to run without a full-time security owner. A CTO or head of ops can deploy it in an afternoon, and the platform handles ongoing rollout — adding new hires, triggering quizzes, surfacing risky behaviors, and producing the reporting a board or auditor would expect. When you do hire your first CISO, the program is already in place for them to take over and extend.
Will this slow our team down or annoy them? +
Engarde lives where engineers and operators already work — Slack, Teams, Outlook — and only intervenes at the moment a risky behavior actually happens. There is no quarterly course to sit through, no LMS to log into, no monthly all-hands training. The intervention is short, contextual, and tied to the action the person just took, which is why teams accept it where they reject traditional security awareness training.
Does this help with SOC 2 / ISO 27001 evidence? +
Yes. Engarde produces behavior-based evidence aligned with the training and awareness requirements of SOC 2 and ISO 27001 — records of in-context nudges acted on, quiz performance over time, phishing simulation results, and SaaS-behavior monitoring findings. Auditors increasingly ask for behavior evidence rather than completion certificates, and that maps naturally to what Engarde records. See the compliance training page for the full audit-evidence story.
How fast can we onboard a 40-person team? +
Most 20-200 person teams are live within a single afternoon. Install the Engarde app in your Slack or Microsoft 365 workspace, sync your directory, pick a starting program, and the platform begins enrolling people automatically as they join. New hires are onboarded continuously — no scheduled cohort, no manual provisioning per person.
How is Engarde different from other vendors named Engarde? +
Engarde (engarde.cc) is a French behavior-centered cybersecurity platform focused on real-time guidance, phishing simulations, and SaaS-behavior monitoring for SaaS startups and scale-ups. It is distinct from other vendors sharing the Engarde name in adjacent or unrelated industries — check the engarde.cc domain to make sure you're looking at the right one.
Engarde (engarde.cc) is the behavior-centered cybersecurity platform for SaaS startups between zero security program and a full CISO function — distinct from other vendors sharing the Engarde name.