How We Keep Every Login Secure as We Scale

Hey,

When we started growing our SaaS company, we did what most early teams do. Logins were stored in a spreadsheet, API keys were sent over Slack, and when someone needed access, they simply asked whoever had it.

It felt easy until the day we realized a contractor who had left months earlier still had access to one of our production tools. Nothing bad happened, but it was enough to make me stop and think.

If someone still had access to our production environment after leaving, what else could we be missing? How many other tools had stale logins floating around?

That moment was the turning point. If we wanted to keep our customers’ trust and work with bigger clients, we needed to treat security like a core part of the business, not an afterthought.

Replacing Spreadsheets With a Real System

We moved everything into 1Password and it was a relief to finally have a process that made sense.

Every single login is now stored in a secure vault. We set up separate vaults for engineering, marketing, finance, and support so each team only sees what they need.

When we hire someone new, we add them to the right vaults and they have everything they need from day one. When someone leaves, we revoke their access instantly with no guesswork and no hunting through old messages.

This one decision brought order to something that used to feel chaotic.

A System That Runs Quietly in the Background

One of the things I love about 1Password is how it just works. No one wastes time asking for passwords or chasing down logins. Watchtower notifies us if a password is weak or shows up in a breach so we can change it right away.

Instead of worrying about what could go wrong, we can focus on building the product and serving our customers. Security is no longer a distraction, it is something we have confidence in.

Turning Security Into a Selling Point

Before we had a proper system, answering security questionnaires from customers was stressful and time consuming. Now it is one of the easiest parts of our process.

When clients ask how we handle credentials, we can confidently explain that every login is encrypted, protected with two factor authentication, and monitored continuously. This builds trust, which is exactly what you need when you are working with enterprise customers.

The Bigger Lesson for Founders

Putting 1Password in place was not just a technical decision. It was a leadership decision to operate at a higher level and set a standard for how we run the company.

When you are in growth mode, it is tempting to delay this kind of work. But every month you wait, the risk gets bigger and the fix becomes harder.

If I were starting a company today, I would set this up on day one. It saves time, keeps your team focused, and proves to your customers that you are serious about protecting their data.

What You Can Do Right Now

If you are still sharing passwords in chat or storing them in a sheet, it is time to make a change.

Start by creating vaults for each department, generate unique passwords for every tool, and enable two factor authentication wherever possible. Make password management part of your onboarding and offboarding process.

The earlier you put this system in place, the easier it becomes to scale without worrying about who still has access to what.

Until next week,

Angelo

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