Chapter 8: Managing Compliance Without Killing Momentum

Admin
May 19
2 min read

Chapter 8 of Operations That Scale

Most founders aren’t excited about compliance. And we get it! However most founders will be affected by it, whether through missed filings, delayed funding or hard questions from an important stakeholder.

For purpose-driven startups, the stakes are often even higher. You're accountable to more people: your community, your employees, your funders, your values.

However you don’t need to invest in a retained legal team when you are small. You do need to get the basics right and stay on top of deadlines so you don’t slow everything else down.

At Compact, we help founders set up lightweight compliance foundations that scale as they grow. We avoid unnecessary red tape. Just the essentials, handled correctly. Below we have summarised our approach.

The compliance trap: too little or too much

Startups often make one of two mistakes:

Ignore it entirely, thinking “we’ll sort this out later.”
Overcomplicate it, building heavy systems that are not yet needed.

While ignoring compliance puts you at risk (of fines, lawsuits, or reputational damage), overengineering wastes time and money (resulting in processes no one follows).

What good compliance looks like

You might not yet need ISO certification. However, it’s very likely that you should:

Track your contracts and know what’s signed, expiring or missing
Set clear data handling practices (especially if you collect user or personal data)
Keep your house in order (e.g. policies, filings, shareholder records)
Make sure your commitments to funders or public bodies are followed through

Crucially, compliance should support your values, not just your obligations.

Our view: compliance should feel like a seatbelt

Leaders who care about integrity should feel confident, not overwhelmed, when it comes to compliance. We believe:

Great compliance is quiet, useful and embedded
Your team shouldn’t waste time digging for what’s approved, signed or required
Funders should see you're on top of the essentials

We build simple, founder-friendly compliance systems that:

Track key risks (e.g. data, employment, contract terms) in a shared, living register
Set up basic workflows (e.g. contract signing, filing reminders, policy sharing)
Create clear roles and ownership (e.g. who approves what, who tracks what)
Help you prepare for the future (grants, ISO readiness, B Corp audits)

We’ve done this for impact startups working across healthcare, climate, education and public-sector partnerships. Our goal is to keep your company protected without turning into an admin machine.

💡 One client preparing for a large scale public grant audit had zero issues because their compliance system took just 15 minutes a week to maintain.