$UNION-SQUARE-VENTURES · USV's idea-first philosophy and TAM skepticism shaped Vanta's founding thesis

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Compliance at scale and why TAM is a distraction with Christina Cacioppo of Vanta

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USV's idea-first philosophy and TAM skepticism shaped Vanta's founding thesis

2026-03-31 · 2 company · 6 thematic

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christina cacioppo

Founded Vanta in 2018 after experiencing compliance pain at Dropbox; previously investor at Union Square Ventures for two years where she met 15 founders/week and absorbed USV's idea-first philosophy; scaled Vanta to 15,000+ customers with 60%+ annual growth.

quote

“I think USV is fundamentally about ideas. More so than other venture firms... The market size today is only a predictor of the market size today. I think I deeply learned that because if you looked at the SOC 2 market in 2018, my best esti…”

—christina cacioppo

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