Hi, everyone. Welcome to the A6 and Z podcast. I'm Sonal, and today's episode is all about a compliance topic, FedRamp, which is going to affect a lot of enterprise SaaS companies selling to government, and actually even if not. So we share everything that startups need to know in this episode. Please note, you can find all the pointers, templates, and other links they mention in the show notes at A6.Z.com slash FedRamp. I highly recommend you check that out, too, to get all the resources

after listening to this episode. Okay, so now on to the intros. This episode is hosted by

A6NZ board partner Steven Sinovsky, who interviews Lisa Hawke, VP of Security and Compliance

at A6&Z Company Everlaw.

By the way, you can also catch both Lisa and Stephen on another interesting compliance topic

that applies to many tech startups as well, GDPR, which we covered last year by going to

A6NZ.com slash GDPR. But this episode is all about FedRamp, which stands for the federal risk and authorization

management program.

And here's what they cover.

What risk means in selling to the government depending on your product features?

Some of the most commonly used acronyms to be aware of, which they quickly lightning round in

between, how similar or different FedRamp is to other types of certification,

authorization, and compliance, such as ISO, SOCTU, GDPR, even HIPAA. Most importantly, they break down

the steps to FedRamp certification, including how and when to engage third-party auditors and

advisors, how long it takes, and how it affects sales. They also share the

best strategy for moving forward with a customer lined up first, but they begin by discussing

why startups should consider FedRamp in the first place. Before everybody gets cynical about

acronyms with the word Fed in them and security and the government and all this other stuff.

This is some pretty interesting things that you can do for your company, and it opens up a world of

opportunity in terms of selling to the United States government and beyond, as we'll talk about.

So first, welcome, Lisa.

Thanks, Stephen.

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