OpenAsset Scales Global Growth and People Impact

With a lean, one-person HR team and a rapidly growing, distributed workforce, OpenAsset needed more than a traditional PEO. VP of People & Culture, Kate Edery, was looking for a true strategic partner – one that could own the complexity of benefits, compliance, and compensation so she could focus on culture, performance, and development.

The problem: A one-person HR team carrying outsized risk

When Kate first connected with Sequoia, she was running HR solo and relying on a different PEO for payroll and benefits.

“I was a one-person HR team, and I really needed a strategic partner,” she said. “I needed something that was an extension of my own team.”

As OpenAsset hired more remote employees across the US and continued to grow its UK presence, the model started to strain:

• Complex, state-by-state compliance obligations in the US
• A patchwork of leave laws and regulations that were hard to navigate alone
• Increasing volume of employee questions around benefits and leaves of absence
• Limited strategic support on compensation and total rewards

Kate saw two issues clearly:

1. Time and bandwidth - Too much of her day was spent “muddying through” leave requests, benefits questions, and compliance nuances.
2. Risk and liability - Without a deep bench of experts behind her, the company was exposed on multi-state compliance and complex leave scenarios.

“Not having a true partner – not having somebody I could call up and ask a question to about somebody going on maternity leave in Illinois versus New York – became really a risk for the company,” Kate explained.

Despite internal resistance to changing PEOs and switching everyone’s health insurance, Kate knew the status quo wasn’t sustainable. She needed a partner who could:

• Reduce compliance risk across multiple states
• Take on day-to-day benefits and leave complexity
• Provide strategic guidance on total rewards and growth

The solution: From PEO vendor to strategic extension of the team

After significant research into different PEO options and a lot of internal pitching, OpenAsset made the decision to move to Sequoia One.

With Sequoia One, OpenAsset gained:

• Dedicated HRBP support for complex compliance, leaves, and policy questions
• Integrated payroll, benefits, and HR tech in one modern platform
• Expert guidance on benefits design, wellness programs, and total rewards strategy

Turning savings into better benefits for employees

• Increased the company’s share of healthcare costs
• Enhanced the overall benefits package
• Maintained a similar total spend at the company level

Building a global view of compensation with Sequoia OS

• Centralized compensation data across US and UK
• The ability to benchmark roles and pay against market data
• A platform to support company-wide leveling and bands

Supporting high-growth and AI innovation with strategic HR capacity

• Ensuring recent hires are fully ramped and contributing at a high level
• Investing in training and development to retain and grow talent
• Supporting the continued growth of Shred AI and future product plays

The impact

• Strategic risk reduced: Sequoia’s experts help OpenAsset manage multi-state compliance, leaves of absence, and policy design, reducing liability for a lean HR team.
• Better benefits, same spend: Cost savings from switching PEOs were reinvested to cover more of employees’ healthcare and enhance the benefits package.
• Stronger employee experience: Employees report an easier experience with Sequoia and value both improved benefits and added wellbeing perks.
• Global compensation visibility: The comp module enables benchmarking, leveling, and banding across US and UK employees in one place.
• HR capacity unlocked: With Sequoia as an extension of the team, Kate can focus on performance management, training, and supporting OpenAsset’s next stage of growth.