The biggest risk isn’t non-compliance - it’s momentum loss. Most founders underestimate how quickly uncertainty around what you can or can’t say can stall an entire team. That’s where startups start losing their edge.”
Phil Clements
CEO, Finspector
Every founder I know is chasing momentum. You’ve pulled together a motivated team, worked long hours, poured energy into something meaningful – something that could change the game. You’ve built belief, not just in the product, but in the mission behind it. And then something stalls. It’s rarely what you expect. More often than not, it’s compliance.
And while compliance is a crucial and unavoidable aspect of business for many start-ups, man-oh-man, it can really sap the energy from your team – dragging people into endless review cycles, slowing launches, dampening that buzz you worked so hard to build. Suddenly, the excitement of ‘what if’ is replaced by the reality of ‘not yet.’ I’ve worked with enough founders to know that speed is sacred. You’re chasing product-market fit, pushing campaigns out, trying to stay one step ahead of the competition. But more often than not, just as you hit your stride, you run into something that kills momentum: compliance.
It’s the late-stage content review that throws a spanner in your campaign. It’s the sales conversation that goes cold when the prospect asks about your audit trail. It’s the uncertainty around language, claims, or disclaimers that slows the whole team down.
70%
Gartner predicts that by 2026, 70% of enterprises will have integrated compliance as code into their DevOps toolchains.
I’ve seen this happen repeatedly – and I’ve also seen what changes when you remove that friction. Campaigns get to market faster. Teams stop second-guessing themselves. And the whole business gains confidence and momentum. It’s not just about ticking a box; it’s about creating an environment where people can move decisively without the constant fear of slowing things down or making costly mistakes.
The Hidden Drag on Momentum
Let’s be honest: most founders have hit that moment. You’ve nailed the pitch, you’re weeks from launch, and suddenly you’re stuck in a loop of back-and-forth with legal or compliance. Everything grinds to a halt while you try to untangle language, disclaimers, or approval workflows.
I’ve seen situations where promising deals have been lost simply because marketing or legal couldn’t get sign-off in time. Meanwhile, competitors with smarter systems – often ones that build compliance checks directly into the creative workflow – are out the door faster and winning those early conversations. Meanwhile, their competitor launched quickly – not because they had more resources, but because their compliance checks were automated and embedded into the creative workflow.
Compliance handled reactively is a silent killer. Not because it’s visibly broken, but because it quietly erodes your speed, your confidence, and your credibility.
Manual Compliance Is Costing You More Than You Think
Most early-stage teams treat compliance as a final box-tick. But in practice, it’s a slow, manual process that drains time from your best people:
Manual marketing compliance checks can take 30 to 60 minutes per asset.
Teams publishing 10+ content pieces a month are losing 25+ hours monthly – time that should be spent shipping and selling.
Worst case? Something slips through and causes a reputational issue, regulator scrutiny, or even a forced rebrand. I’ve seen companies spend over £100K fixing mistakes that could’ve been prevented with a better system.
And this isn’t just a financial services issue. Every fast-growing tech company is entering markets that are getting more regulated – whether it’s AI, healthcare, sustainability, or data.
Teams publishing 10+ content pieces a month are losing 25+ hours monthly – time that should be spent shipping and selling.
What AI-Driven Compliance Actually Looks Like
At Finspector, we help companies automate the boring but critical parts of compliance. That means:
Running real-time reviews on campaign assets as they’re being built.
Tagging content automatically based on the latest marketing and regulatory rules.
Giving marketing teams clear boundaries they can work within, without needing legal to hand-hold every decision.
The goal isn’t to replace people. It’s to remove the bottlenecks. In some cases, teams using this approach have reduced campaign approval timelines by weeks, often without adding headcount, and significantly increased content output while improving consistency and reducing risk.. Another saw a 60% increase in content output with better consistency and lower risk.
What Can Change When Teams Take This Seriously
Take a typical scale-up in the HR tech space: product’s solid, market’s warming up, but nothing’s getting out the door fast enough. Not because the team’s lacking energy or ideas, but because everything’s getting caught in internal review loops. Marketing wants to be bold, but they’re stuck second-guessing every claim.
By integrating compliance checks into the actual creative process rather than leaving it until the end, teams like this are able to move faster, cut internal friction, and get in front of buyers who actually care that the operational foundations are sound. Their product was strong. Their market was responsive. But they couldn’t get campaigns live fast enough, and sales were stalling.
The problem wasn’t their messaging. It was the internal ping-pong between marketing and legal. They were trying to be bold and innovative but second-guessing every claim.
We worked with them to build compliance guardrails directly into their creation process. Instead of reviews happening at the end, they happened invisibly, in real time. That one change helped them speed up delivery, avoid internal delays, and – more importantly – start having serious conversations with enterprise buyers who valued the operational maturity.
What Founders Gain from Getting Ahead of This
This is the bit I want more founders to understand. Getting your compliance processes right isn’t about avoiding fines. It’s about:
Launching faster without fear.
Impressing investors with your operational discipline.
Qualifying for bigger deals earlier because you’re seen as trustworthy and credible.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, 70% of enterprises will have integrated compliance as code into their DevOps toolchains, reducing risk management and improving lead time by at least 15% (source). Investors are already asking more questions around AI usage, marketing claims, and ESG promises. Founders who are ready with processes and systems to match, will pull ahead.
Rethinking the Role of Compliance
I don’t think of compliance as a department. I think of it as an enabler. A strategic advantage. Something that lets your team move quickly and smartly. It’s not exciting, and that’s the point. You want it to be invisible. Frictionless. Built into your systems so it disappears into the background.
Founders who get this early spend less time cleaning up messes and more time growing.
Smart Systems = Scalable Growth
If there’s one lesson I’ve learned from working with startups and scaleups, it’s this: speed is only helpful if it’s sustainable. You can hack your way through early growth, but to scale, you need systems. And compliance is one of the first systems that breaks under pressure.
The good news? It’s fixable. And the right tools mean you don’t need a big team or legal army to stay in control.
AI-driven compliance isn’t about adding red tape. It’s about cutting through it.
So if you’re tired of slowing down every time things start to move, maybe it’s time to rethink the way you work. Not later. Now.
Author: Phil Clements, CFA, CAIA, FDP
Phil is the founder and CEO of Finspector, the AI-powered compliance platform helping ambitious companies move faster without losing trust. With a background in fintech, marketing, and risk, Phil brings a practical, founder-first lens to one of the biggest hidden blockers to growth: compliance. His mission? Strip out the friction, so creative teams can move faster, stay bold, and scale responsibly.
