Case studies
Three kinds of health tech companies, three versions of the same problem. Each came out with security posture working as a revenue asset. The engagements below are composites drawn from real Steadfast client work. Names, platforms and identifying details have been removed. The shapes are real.
Case study one
A venture backed platform connecting clinical data suppliers, including providers and life sciences organizations, with pharma and research buyers. De-identification, consent management and AI driven matching are core to the product. No dedicated security leader.
Every buyer on both sides of the platform demanded proof before integrating. Providers asked for HIPAA evidence and a BAA with teeth. Pharma buyers asked for SOC 2 and increasingly HITRUST. Enterprise prospects were adding AI governance questions to their vendor reviews. The founding team was answering questionnaires personally and deals were slipping a quarter at a time.
We started by mapping the data supply chain. Which sources, under what consent, through what de-identification, to which buyers. That map exposed where the real risk lived, in consent lineage and re-identification controls, not in the perimeter. We built the security program around that flow, scoped SOC 2 to the systems buyers cared about and folded AI governance into the same control set rather than running it as a separate project.
Questionnaires went from weeks to days. The SOC 2 report landed clean and became the first attachment in every enterprise proposal. The AI governance narrative, backed by real controls, turned a buyer objection into a differentiator. Security stopped being the reason deals waited.
Case study two
A multi state telehealth provider delivering clinical care through its own platform and pursuing institutional and payer contracts. PHI generated with every visit. A small operations team wearing the compliance hat alongside everything else.
Institutional buyers required a designated security officer, a documented HIPAA program and evidence that the platform could handle patient data at contract scale. The organization had good instincts and no program. A GRC platform had been purchased and partially configured. Nobody owned it.
Our vCISO stepped into the designated security officer role and built the program around the clinical workflow, from intake through visit through billing. Policies were written with the clinical team, not handed to them. The GRC platform was reconfigured to match the program rather than the other way around, with task owners who had clear expectations instead of just logins.
The organization could answer institutional security requirements with a documented program and a named executive owner. Contract conversations that had stalled on security moved. The internal team kept ownership of day to day operations with a vCISO carrying the strategy and the accountability.
Case study three
A B2B platform embedded in the operational and financial workflows of clinical trials, sitting between pharma sponsors, CROs and research sites. Because the platform moves money, financial controls stack on top of security controls. Small headcount, heavy counterparty expectations.
Every major customer ran a formal vendor qualification program with audits, not just questionnaires. The company needed SOC 1 and SOC 2 running in parallel, with evidence that would hold up to sponsors whose own compliance teams are larger than the entire company. Prior audit work had left gaps and consumed internal hours the team did not have.
We took on the acting vCISO role and unified the SOC 1 and SOC 2 programs onto a single control set and evidence cycle. The GRC platform was expanded to carry both. Internal hours spent on audit support were quantified and returned to the team, and the engagement was structured so the business case for security spend was visible to the executive who approved it.
Vendor qualification audits from sponsors became a repeatable process instead of a scramble. Two reports came from one evidence set. The team got its time back. Security posture went from a cost the company absorbed to a capability the company sold.
The ceiling
Every health tech company will eventually face a diligence process. A funding round, a strategic partnership or an acquisition. In that room security posture is either an asset the deal team leans on or a liability the other side prices in.
This spring a virtual care client's security posture carried acquisition diligence instead of surviving it. The acquirer's review found a documented program with a named owner, controls mapped to the workflows that generated revenue, clean audit history and an executive who could answer every question in the room without a follow up. Security was not a line item in the risk schedule. It was part of why the company was worth buying.
Diligence does not reward the company with the most controls. It rewards the company that can explain why it has the ones it does, and show that they work.
What diligence teams actually look for
The whitepaper
Security That Carries the Deal collects all three case studies in one PDF. Tell us who you are and your download starts right away.
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Thirty minutes with a partner who has sat in the seat. Bring the questionnaire, the audit date or the diligence request.
