How Binti positioned itself as a trust partner, reduced employee burnout, and grew its mission

THE CHALLENGE

Proving compliance (even when the original auditing company gets acquired)

As a mission-driven technology company, Binti builds software with the goal of helping every child have a family. Since first launching in 2017, they’ve partnered with private agencies and county and state governments to help more than 44,000 families get approved to foster or adopt children. On average, the clients who use Binti have been able to increase the number of families approved by 30% – so Binti knows its mission and its platform have been working.

But when Adam Arellano joined the team as Chief Information Security Officer in 2022, he was faced with a challenging situation that the company wasn’t prepared for.

“Binti was in the middle of a compliance audit gone sideways,” says Adam. “My team had spent a year successfully proving the effective implementation of their controls, but when the original auditing company got acquired, we were given a qualified report and forced back to square one.”

It was news that immediately challenged Binti’s ability to instill confidence in new and existing customers, and even more, Adam knew that if the Binti team had to spend all their time addressing the qualified report on their own, they’d have less time and attention to spend on other important security projects and improvements.

It was a situation Adam wasn’t willing to accept, so he turned to Trava for help.

THE SOLUTION

Developing a long-term strategy to grow Binti’s mission

Trava’s first step was to dive into the qualified report, and as they looked closely into Binti’s controls, they were able to provide a letter of attestation verifying that Binti had already proven compliance in every area of concern.

“Of course, that letter was huge,” says Adam. “But even more important was how instrumental Trava was in helping us develop a long-term strategy to address the report.”

Because Binti operates with a 100% government client base, they’re partnering with clients who already have their own security programs and requirements firmly in place. And because most of these government clients have an annual recertification process, Binti knew it would be hard to maintain customer confidence if their report wasn’t renewed every year.

For Adam and the team at Binti, Trava has become a trusted advisor, and Adam says that Trava’s commitment to Binti’s success has extended far beyond his expectations.

“I faced a health setback in 2022 and during that time, I relied on Trava’s team to keep critical timelines and strategies in place,” Adam says. “They thought and acted like key members of our team. They were invested in our success and in our mission, and I can’t even imagine making it through the last year without their help.”

THE RESULTS

Less burnout. More growth. More impact.

Adam has also leveraged Trava to help expand Binti’s mission without adding extra strain to Binti’s team or budget.

“We’re a small team, and as a responsible citizen of Binti, it’s my job to maximize how much I get for the money that we spend.”

With Trava, Adam says that Binti’s security engineer is now able to spend less time on compliance-related tasks and more time on the type of work that makes more placements for children and their families. Even better, Binti is able to show up with some serious, value-added ROI for their own clients.

Case in point: California.

“The state has paid hundreds of millions of dollars setting up a social services tracking system, and after three iterations, it’s still not in use,” Adam says.

Binti provides a viable alternative, however, empowering county and local governments to use a platform that is at a better price point.

“With us, they’re able to accomplish their processes so quickly that they qualify for more federal dollars than they’re even paying for our services.”

It’s just one success of many that Adam points to as a result of Binti’s partnership with Trava.

Today, Binti continues to expand their reach into more states, and they’re considering how they can help international governments better serve their local communities. And rather than attempting to hire a full security team right away, Binti is choosing to hire strategically and intentionally – while leveraging the help and resources of Trava.

“Trava understands our commitment to trust,” says Adam. “They know that if we have a breach, that’s a thousand kids whose privacy has been jeopardized. The impact of that would mean fewer agencies trust us, fewer agencies work alongside us, and fewer children get placed in healthy, loving homes. At the end of the day, our partnership with Trava means more children get placed with more families and have a fair chance at life.”