Carrot Aligns Benefits and Compensation to Power Growth 

Carrot is the leading global fertility and family-building platform, providing fertility navigation and benefits for people on every kind of fertility journey. As the company grows and its distributed workforce expands, Carrot is investing in three key areas: a thoughtful people strategy, competitive total rewards, and an employee experience that reflects the care they deliver to their own members.

Carrot wanted to offer competitive compensation and benefits while keeping costs under control and maintaining a lean people team. Sequoia’s integrated advisory and platform partnership helps Carrot bring structure to total rewards, modernize compensation, and keep employees engaged and supported.

The problem

Carrot’s workforce has evolved far beyond its Bay Area roots. What began as a location-based pay model tied to one of the most expensive markets in the world needed to adapt to a team now spread across many regions and cost-of-living profiles.

At the same time, Allison Blackwell, SVP, People at Carrot, and her team were focused on what matters most: talent.

“Talent, talent, and talent,” Allison said. “If you bring in the right people and you keep them engaged, you develop them, and invest in their development, you are going to have an amazing team.”

But delivering on that vision required:

• A modern compensation architecture that could support a distributed workforce
• Competitive, well-governed pay ranges built on market data
• Benefits that matched Carrot’s own standard of care for its members
• A partner who could see the full picture of total rewards, not just one piece

Without that, Allison’s team risked operating with outdated structures, fragmented systems, and piecemeal external support.

The solution: Sequoia as a comprehensive total rewards partner

Carrot turned to Sequoia to bring structure, strategy, and scale to its total rewards. The relationship began with benefits and expanded into compensation advisory and platform solutions as Carrot’s needs evolved.

“Sequoia has been a great partner for Carrot,” Allison said. “They understand us. They seek to understand where we’re going, what our strategy is — both from an overall business perspective and from a people strategy perspective — and they help us address it.”

Sequoia now helps Carrot:

• Design and manage competitive benefits offerings
• Keep benefits rates attractive and manageable
• Rebuild its compensation architecture from the ground up
• Leverage technology and data to support better decision making

“You’ve got to have trust in your partner, and we do. When Sequoia talks to us about rates, benchmarks, or anything affecting compensation and benefits, I trust that information — and that leads to better decisions at Carrot.”

Rebuilding compensation from the ground up

When Carrot engaged Sequoia’s compensation advisory team, the mandate was ambitious: a full remodel of compensation architecture on a tight timeline.

Carrot’s existing pay structure had been loosely put in place and then stretched as the company grew and evolved. Ranges were still anchored to a Bay Area-based model, which was no longer the right fit for its distributed workforce.

Working closely with Sequoia, Carrot:

• Revisited and clarified its pay philosophy
• Rebuilt pay ranges aligned to current market benchmarks
• Structured every job family into a logical, scalable framework
• Examined all levers of compensation, from base salary to bonus to equity

“It was a really, really big remodel,” Allison said. “But on the other side of it, now we have a great structure that makes sense for Carrot and will evolve with us as we grow.”

The impact

With Sequoia as a strategic partner across both benefits and compensation, Allison and her team feel confident in the decisions they’re making for Carrot’s people.

Through the partnership, Carrot now has:

• Stronger structure and governance: Carrot now has a comprehensive compensation architecture and clear governance model that can scale with the business.
• Confident, data-backed decisions: Access to trusted market data and expert guidance leads to more informed, aligned decisions at the executive level.
• Cost control with competitive offerings: Sequoia helps Carrot balance generous, attractive benefits with careful attention to cost.
• Cohesive total rewards: Instead of piecemeal vendors, Carrot benefits from an integrated partner who sees the whole picture of total rewards.
• More time for strategic work: With Sequoia handling complexity behind the scenes, the people team can focus on talent, engagement, and the future of work at Carrot.

“There are a multitude of vendors you can choose from, and you could do it very piecemeal,” Allison said. “That might save you a little here or there. But having someone who understands you and can look comprehensively at what your employees need…I feel like Sequoia is able to do that.”