# Sequoia One review: the PEO for startups that forgot to update its website

Source: https://www.getprescience.com/guides/sequoia-one-review
Author: Rishab Jain, Cofounder and CEO, Prescience
Published: 2026-11-03
Updated: 2026-11-03
Cite as: Rishab Jain. "Sequoia One review: the PEO for startups that forgot to update its website." Prescience, November 3, 2026. https://www.getprescience.com/guides/sequoia-one-review

Sequoia One is a good HR department for a startup without one and an expensive way to buy health insurance; a startup that only needs the plan can buy Prescience Diamond directly. Sequoia One is a professional employer organization built for venture-backed startups, and it is good at the part founders care about, which is making benefits feel handled. Then you go looking for a price. The page describing the program is still titled 2021 to 2022. There is no rate table anywhere on the site. For a company whose product is administration, letting its own public pricing page age four years is a strange signal, and it tells you exactly who the pricing conversation is designed for: the person on the other end of the phone, not you.

- **Public pricing:** None. Quoted after a call
- **Program page:** Still titled 2021 to 2022, checked October 2026
- **Who it serves:** Venture-backed startups and growth companies
- **Prescience Diamond:** A group plan you own, no co-employment

## A PEO aimed at the venture-backed company

Sequoia One is a co-employment arrangement, the same structure as TriNet or Insperity, sold to a narrower audience: startups with investors, a board and a plan to hire quickly. That audience has specific needs. Founders want a benefits package that looks credible in a recruiting conversation, a payroll system that will not break at forty employees, and someone else to deal with the paperwork.

It delivers those things. What it does not deliver is transparency. Sequoia One sells a bundle and quotes a bundle. Underneath the bundle is a health plan that belongs to the arrangement, a service fee priced on your headcount and payroll, and a workers' compensation program you did not buy separately. None of that is unusual. All of it is invisible until you ask for the split.

One clarification worth making, because it comes up in every conversation: Sequoia One is part of Sequoia Consulting Group, the HR and benefits firm. It is not Sequoia Capital, the venture fund. Startups hear the name from an investor and assume a relationship that does not exist. The PEO has to earn its renewal like anyone else.

> **The signal I cannot ignore:** Sequoia One's program overview page was still titled "2021-2022" when I checked it in October 2026. A company that administers your benefits for a living should be able to keep its own product page current. Ask what else has been left to age.

## There is no price, and there is no range

Across the PEO market, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce puts fees at 2% to 12% of monthly payroll, or roughly $50 to $250 per employee per month. Sequoia One sits somewhere in that band. Which part of it, nobody will say until a salesperson has your census.

That is the same story as every other PEO, so why does it matter more here? Because Sequoia One's customers are early-stage companies with a runway and a burn number. A founder at 25 employees with eighteen months of cash needs to model personnel cost eighteen months out. A fee that can land anywhere between 2% and 12% of payroll makes that model useless. The founder ends up budgeting the high end and paying for caution.

**What Sequoia One publishes about cost, October 2026**

| Question | What you get |
| --- | --- |
| Is there a price on the website? | No |
| Is there a per-employee range? | No |
| What is stated? | That pricing is tailored to the company |
| How is it billed? | One bundled service fee |
| Can I see insurance alone? | Ask, and expect an all-in number |

**What a runway model looks like without a price**

Illustrative. 25 employees, monthly payroll $260,000, 18 months of runway. The founder budgets all-in personnel cost at the market range instead of a quote.

- PEO fee at 2% of payroll: $5,200 per month
- PEO fee at 12% of payroll: $31,200 per month
- Annual difference: $312,000
- Months of runway that difference buys: Several months at this burn

A startup's most valuable asset is time. A fee that could reasonably take $312,000 a year out of the business, more than a full engineering salary, should be a number on a page before the second meeting, not a discovery in the proposal.

## The health plan is the arrangement's, not yours

This is the same objection I make to every PEO, and it applies here. In a co-employment arrangement you are not the plan sponsor. You choose a tier from the menu, set a contribution, and the plan behind it belongs to the PEO. You cannot take the plan document to three carriers and ask for a comparison, because you are not the party they are pricing.

For a young, healthy startup team, that is usually fine in year one. Then someone gets diagnosed, or the team ages five years in three, or a hire needs a specialist network that the arrangement does not offer in their county. At that point the founder discovers that the flexibility they assumed they had was never in the contract.

- **Ask for the summary of benefits and the full plan document.** Compare the deductible, coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximum against KFF's 2025 averages of $9,325 single and $26,993 family.
- **Ask which networks are available** in every county where you have employees, not just your headquarters.
- **Ask what the renewal methodology is.** If your group's claims do not drive your renewal, you are priced inside a book you cannot influence.
- **Ask whether you can leave the health plan and keep payroll.** Sometimes you can, and it is the cheapest way out.

## The startup pitch is a recruiting pitch

Sequoia One markets itself as benefits infrastructure for companies that need to look established. That is a real need. A twenty-person startup competing for engineers against a public company needs a benefits page that does not embarrass it in an offer letter.

But a benefits page is a marketing surface, and it is worth asking what is behind it. A PEO can make a thin plan look complete because the brochure is well designed. The candidate reads the deductible, not the network breadth, and nobody finds out about the gap until the first claim.

The deeper cost is that the bundle becomes permanent. A startup that had ten people when it signed is at sixty people two years later, paying a percentage of a payroll that has grown six times, for the same administrative work it had at ten. Nothing about the service scaled with the bill. The invoice did.

There is a specific moment this hurts. It is the Series A, when the founder is negotiating a headcount plan with a board and every dollar of gross margin is being scrutinized. The PEO fee shows up as a personnel cost line that grows with every hire the plan calls for, and nobody in the room can explain why administration for sixty people costs six times what it cost for ten. The answer is that it does not. The fee is simply indexed to the thing that grew.

Founders are usually good at spotting this in every other vendor. Nobody pays their cloud provider a percentage of revenue. Nobody pays their law firm a percentage of the round. Benefits administration is the one line item in the budget priced that way, and it is the one line item nobody renegotiates because it sits inside a contract most founders never reread.

## Leaving Sequoia One

The exit is the same project as any PEO. Read the agreement for the notice window and the plan-year date. Line up replacement coverage before you notify. Bind your own workers' compensation policy. Re-register for payroll taxes in every state.

1. **Read the notice clause today** Notice periods are tied to the plan year. Missing the window by a week can cost a full year of the fee you were trying to escape.
2. **Get a group quote on your actual census** You need a start date and a rate table before you give notice, not after.
3. **Ask for the claims history** Request the experience data for your group. It is your data and you will want it when you leave.
4. **Export payroll records** Payroll history, employee records and tax filings. Getting them after the account closes is slower than getting them before.

For a startup, the exit has one extra wrinkle: it tends to land during a hiring or fundraising period, when nobody has time. Do it in a quiet quarter. The exit is a project. The fee is a monthly tax on growth.

**Price the replacement plan before leaving Sequoia One**

Use your employee census and contribution policy to request the comparison. Check notice requirements and confirm replacement coverage before making the PEO exit irreversible.

[Compare my Sequoia One alternative](https://www.getprescience.com/quote)

[Work through the PEO exit checklist](https://www.getprescience.com/guides/how-to-leave-a-peo)

[Download the census CSV template](https://www.getprescience.com/api/employer/census-intake/template)

## What to ask on a Sequoia One call

- What is the service fee per employee per month, and what percentage of payroll does that equal today?
- What will that fee be at 60 employees and at 120, holding the plan constant?
- What is the health coverage cost alone, by tier, on my census?
- Which networks are available in each county where we have staff?
- What was the average renewal increase for clients my size last year?
- What is the notice window, and what date does it attach to?
- If we raise a round and hire thirty people, what changes in the fee?

## Who Sequoia One fits, and who should buy the plan alone

**My take by situation**

| Your company | Does Sequoia One make sense? |
| --- | --- |
| 10 to 30 people, no HR function, hiring fast | Often yes. The convenience is real |
| A team with families and specialist needs | Only after you see the network and the plan document |
| 60+ people with an HR lead | Rarely. You can buy each piece better yourself |
| A company on a tight runway | Ask for the fee in dollars before you model anything |
| A company that wants to own its health plan | No. Co-employment means you do not |

The honest summary: Sequoia One is a good HR department for a startup that does not have one. It is an expensive way to buy health insurance for a startup that does.

> **Prescience Diamond: A company health plan with an effective $0 deductible.** Diamond is a company group plan with an effective $0 deductible and a broad national PPO network, for one monthly cost fixed in your quote, with no admin fees and no co-employment.
> - **An effective $0 deductible** and simple copays shown before a visit
> - **A broad national PPO network,** plus providers we contract with directly
> - **24/7 physician-led care navigation** that books visits and explains costs
> - **Usually 10–20% below comparable fully insured coverage,** fixed in your quote, with no admin fees
> Best for teams of about 15 or more that want one great group plan. [Get a Diamond quote](https://www.getprescience.com/get-started?p=Employer&product=diamond)

> **Prescience Choice: ICHRA for $20 per enrolled employee per month.** For a small or heavily distributed team, Choice is an ICHRA at $20 per enrolled employee per month, with no setup or platform fee.
> - **You set a monthly allowance;** each employee picks and owns an individual plan
> - **$20 per enrolled employee per month,** with no setup or platform fee
> - **Works in all 50 states and DC,** so remote and multi-state teams fit
> - **Plan comparison, enrollment help and Crystal,** our assistant for benefits questions
> Best for small teams, teams in several states, and anyone pricing ICHRA. [Get a Choice quote](https://www.getprescience.com/employer/choice)

## Frequently asked questions

**How much does Sequoia One cost?**

Sequoia One does not publish a rate. Its fee is quoted per client as a bundled service fee on your census. Across the PEO market, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce puts fees at 2% to 12% of monthly payroll, or about $50 to $250 per employee per month.

**Is Sequoia One the same as Sequoia Capital?**

No. Sequoia One is a professional employer organization from Sequoia Consulting Group. Sequoia Capital is a separate venture capital firm. Sharing a name does not mean sharing a relationship with your investors.

**Is Sequoia One a PEO?**

Yes. It is a co-employment arrangement covering payroll, health coverage, workers' compensation and HR support, with the health plan held under the arrangement's master plans rather than your own.

**Can I keep my own health plan with Sequoia One?**

Not as part of the bundle. Your staff are covered under Sequoia One's arrangements. Some clients can unbundle later, so ask directly whether payroll and benefits can be separated.

**Why does the Sequoia One website not show prices?**

Because the fee is built from your headcount, states, benefits and workers' compensation class, and the company quotes per client. That explains the absence of a single number. It does not explain the absence of a range.

**What happens to my team's health coverage if I leave Sequoia One?**

Coverage has to move to a new group plan effective the day after the arrangement ends, with no gap. Your company also re-registers for payroll taxes in every state and needs its own workers' compensation policy.

**What is a better alternative to Sequoia One?**

If you want the health plan handled and do not want co-employment, Prescience provides a company group plan with an effective $0 deductible and a broad national PPO network, usually 10–20% below comparable fully insured coverage, with no admin fees, and you keep your payroll provider.

## Sources

- [U.S. Chamber of Commerce, PEOs vs. insurance brokers (PEO fees of 2% to 12% of monthly payroll or $50 to $250 per employee)](https://www.uschamber.com/co/run/human-resources/peos-vs-insurance-brokers)
- [NAPEO, What is a PEO (502 PEOs, 233,000 businesses, 5.4 million people)](https://www.napeo.org/what-is-a-peo)
- [KFF, 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey](https://www.kff.org/health-costs/2025-employer-health-benefits-survey/)
- [Sequoia One, Program overview (checked October 2026; page still titled 2021-2022)](https://www.sequoiaone.com/)
- [PEO Marketplace, How to leave your PEO](https://peo-marketplace.com/how-to-leave-your-peo-without-getting-burned-2/)