Every AI startup selling to enterprise eventually faces the same document. A security questionnaire, often dozens of questions long, sent by a buyer's security team to decide whether you can be trusted with their data. Most founders face it for the first time with no idea what good answers look like, scrambling under a deadline. It does not have to be that way.

We have built a free template that gives you the core questions enterprise buyers ask AI startups, explains why they ask each one, and shows you an example answer to adapt. It is designed to take you from staring at a blank questionnaire to having a clear, honest, confident response. You can download it at the end of this article.

Why a generic template is not enough

There are plenty of generic security questionnaire templates online. The problem is that almost none of them are written for AI startups, and the questions that catch AI founders out are precisely the AI specific ones that generic templates ignore.

A standard template will cover access control and encryption. It will not help you answer how you protect against prompt injection, whether customer data is used to train your models, or whether one customer's data could surface in another's results through your AI. Those are the questions that decide AI deals, and they are exactly the ones a knowledgeable buyer focuses on. A template that skips them leaves you exposed where it matters most.

What is in this template

Our template focuses on the core questions that matter most, rather than overwhelming you with hundreds of items. It is organised into the areas a real enterprise review covers, and for every question it gives you three things.

• The question itself, phrased the way a real buyer asks it.
• Why they ask, so you understand the concern behind the question and can address it properly.
• An example answer to adapt, showing the shape of a strong, specific, honest response.

It covers data and AI model providers, the AI specific security questions, your core security controls, and the compliance and assurance items buyers expect. In other words, the questions that actually come up, with guidance on how to handle each.

The one rule for using it well

There is a single important rule, and it matters enough that the template states it at the top. Do not copy the example answers word for word. Every answer you give a buyer must be true for your business.

The reason is simple and serious. If you claim a control you do not have, the claim will fall apart the moment a security team asks a follow up question, and it can put you in breach of contract later. The example answers are there to show you what good looks like, so you can write your own honest version. Used that way, the template makes you faster and more confident. Used as a copy and paste exercise, it creates risk. Honesty is not just the ethical choice here, it is the one that actually keeps deals alive.

Who this is for

This template is built for founders and teams at AI startups who are starting to sell to larger customers and want to be ready for the security review that decides those deals. If you have just received a questionnaire, it will help you respond. If you have not yet but expect to, it will help you prepare in advance, which is by far the better position to be in.

It is genuinely useful whether or not you ever work with us. We built it because the gap is real, and because a founder who understands these questions is a founder who closes more enterprise deals.

Download the template

The template is free. It gives you the core enterprise security questions for AI startups, the reasoning behind each, and example answers to adapt into your own honest responses. It is the head start most founders wish they had before their first security review.