$4 billion Vanta has a new CMO who wants to make security compliance marketing 'a little zingier'

Security-compliance software startup Vanta wants to go known arsenic a "trust company" that tin besides person a spot of fun. It's entrusting a caller CMO to get it there.

Vanta has promoted its VP of marketing, Sarah Scharf, to CMO, the institution exclusively told CMO Insider.

In an interview, Scharf said the 2 tasks astatine the apical of her to-do database are to solidify the Vanta brand's relation pinch spot among its clients and imaginable customers, and to reinvent really the institution gets trading done internally successful the property of AI.

"How tin we seizure the infinitesimal and besides reposition Vanta successful a measurement to showcase really we thief businesses of each sizes instill and support that spot successful a world wherever AI makes it harder to travel by and maintain?" Scharf said.

Founded successful 2018, Vanta offers an automated level that helps companies measure the information and compliance of their products. While it's champion known for helping startups complete processes for illustration SOC 2 audits, it's branched retired to connection services to larger endeavor customers, successful areas specified arsenic assessing third-party consequence and AI governance. Its customers see Snowflake, GitHub, and the Golden State Warriors.

Vanta said it was weighted astatine astir $4 cardinal successful a backing information past year.

Vanta has sought to guidelines retired from its competitors pinch playful marketing, specified arsenic plastering San Francisco pinch advertisements reading: "Compliance that doesn't SOC 2 much."

Scharf, who joined the institution successful 2020, said she wants Vanta to proceed trading "with a wink," while different information brands thin to attraction connected fearfulness and posturing to stress their strength.

"We're a compliance company, we're giving you information information. Some of that is going to beryllium bland and boring, but what tin we do to make it conscionable a small zingier?" Scharf said.

"We want to beryllium seen arsenic trusted experts, personification you tin travel to pinch a question," she added. "We're not arrogant aliases looking down."

While these trading efforts tin thief humanize the marque successful an often dusty sector, Sarah Ashdown, user trading and gross head astatine the consultancy Manifesto Growth Architects, said Vanta can't simply build "trust" into a level aliases declare it done positioning alone.

"Trust is earned complete clip done the value of the service, the outcomes customers achieve, and the narration a business builds pinch them," Ashdown said.

Where Scharf is investing Vanta's trading budget

Scharf said the institution is investing its trading fund successful areas specified arsenic influencer trading and podcasts. This summer, it launched a video podcast called "The Tabletop," successful which it invites main accusation information officers to role-play unrecorded "situation-room"-style scenarios, specified arsenic really they would respond to a information breach.

"That's what group want to watch and prosecute with, and besides has the added use now that LLM hunt is blowing up, and high-authority, owned contented is very additive for LLM discovery," Scharf said.

Internally, Scharf said Vanta is utilizing AI to streamline repetitive tasks, for illustration resizing advertizing assets and editing content. It's besides utilizing devices for illustration Midjourney to prototype campaigns. When hiring, Scharf said she is screening candidates for AI proficiency — though "not from a tokenmaxxing perspective."