A Successful FedRAMP Startup & Small Business Meetup in San Francisco
October 15 | 2019
On September 25, 2019 the FedRAMP PMO had its first Small Business/Start-Up Meetup in San Francisco! Attendee feedback was overwhelmingly positive and there were several requests for more meetups throughout the year. Many thanks to the 75+ participants from 37 different organizations for attending.
One of the highlights was a panel of experts from the startup community that discussed their FedRAMP journey and provided best practices to help them along the way. The panel represented three businesses that have been through the FedRAMP process, at varying security levels, as well as one that is currently undergoing authorization. Here are a few notable quotes from panel participants:
- “Make security a part of the fabric of your company so that every employee is thinking about it as a strategic advantage.” - Rob Hoehn, IdeaScale
- “Reach out to your counterparts at other companies who have been through an authorization, their insight and advice is invaluable. I’ve found that other companies are more than willing to hop on a call and answer questions, which has been very helpful.” - Lisa Hawke, Everlaw
- “Think about FedRAMP early and build it into product and processes from the start.” - Ignacio Martinez, Smartsheet
- “Communication is key. Ensure all alternative and partial implementations, along with planned or not applicable controls, are precisely communicated with all stakeholders - internal teams, 3PAO, Agency, and PMO. Without sufficient documentation, the 3PAO, Agency, and PMO are unable to assess the true nature of the risk and this will introduce preventable friction into the authorization process.” - Nick Hardy, Slack
For the past several months, the FedRAMP PMO has been journey mapping and collecting feedback from small businesses and start-ups regarding their experience achieving a FedRAMP Authorization and entering the federal marketspace. Based on what we heard, we came up with the Seven Lessons Learned from Small Business & Start-Ups, and wanted to share with the FedRAMP community.
The FedRAMP PMO is committed to supporting the small business and start-up community and looks forward to hosting more FedRAMP Meetups in the future all across the country. If you are interested in the FedRAMP PMO coming to your city, please let us know! Also, if you have any lessons learned to share, please share them with info@fedramp.gov and we will work to devise a way to share them more broadly with the community.
