Revinate Turns a Challenging Renewal into Strategic Savings  

As Revinate evolves from a traditional SaaS business into an AI-powered data intelligence platform, the company is also modernizing how it supports its 500-person, globally distributed workforce. Revinate needed to offer compelling, competitive benefits to employees across nearly 40 U.S. states while keeping costs in check and preserving a lean people team.

With Sequoia as a strategic partner, the company turned a daunting renewal into a major win, protecting employee experience, significantly reducing a proposed double-digit increase, and freeing HR capacity to focus on culture and AI-driven transformation.

The Problem

When CHRO Jodi Weintraub joined Revinate, Sequoia was already in place as the company’s benefits partner. It didn’t take long for her to see how critical that relationship would become.

Revinate is in the middle of a major business shift-from a SaaS software company to an AI-powered data platform that helps hotel groups increase net operating income by building stronger, more direct relationships with guests. While the product and go-to-market teams focused on accelerating this transformation, Jodi’s team needed to support employees through change without sacrificing benefits quality or financial discipline.

Then came the first renewal.

“For a relatively smaller organization, we had a significant number of large dollar value claims,” Jodi explained.

The initial renewal quote from Revinate’s incumbent carrier came in at nearly a 70% increase. Even after negotiations, the carrier only moved down to just under 30%.

“That just wasn’t going to work,” Jodi said. “It was giving me heart palpitations.”

The stakes were clear:

• A massive, unexpected increase to healthcare costs
• A workforce spread across almost 40 U.S. states that needed broad, reliable coverage
• A lean people team that couldn’t afford to get bogged down in complex vendor management

Jodi needed a partner who could help her navigate a tough renewal market, protect employees, and land on a cost structure her CFO, board, and CEO could support.

The solution: A hands-on, outcomes-driven benefits partner

Revinate leaned on Sequoia to turn a near-crisis renewal into a strategic opportunity.

Sequoia’s team immediately went to work:

• Taking the plan out to market and running a competitive RFP
• Navigating carriers who were hesitant to bid due to high-cost claims
• Identifying a national carrier that could cover employees across ~40 states
• Recommending a complementary program to help shift eligible spend to spouses’ plans when appropriate

Sequoia didn’t just bring options, they brought a strategy. Together, they:

• Designed a new benefits package with a different medical carrier
• Implemented thoughtful cost-sharing strategies that balanced company and employee contributions
• Ensured the overall package remained competitive for a tech company of Revinate’s size and stage

The result: a year-over-year increase of about 4% – far below both the initial quotes and the national averages Jodi had been bracing for. “With everything I was reading, I was expecting something in the 20s,” she said. “To come in at around 4% was incredible.” “I felt like I came away as a hero – with my board, my CFO, my CEO, and our employees, because we were able to keep our costs at a really reasonable level. One new partner alone, designed to shift appropriate medical spend from Revinate’s plan to an employee spouse’s plan, is expected to save the company around $100,000 in the first year. “And that’s on top of the savings from changing providers,” Jodi added.

One partner for benefits, wellbeing, and retirement

Revinate partners with Sequoia not just for healthcare benefits, but also for 401(k), wellbeing services, and the broader Sequoia Tech program. For Jodi, consolidating programs under one strategic partner is non-negotiable. “I have a very, very small team that needs to spend its time on our employees, not the administration of programs,” she said. “Being able to cluster them under a single provider means we don’t have to spend a lot of administrative time working with multiple companies.” From day one, Jodi made her expectations clear. “I need my partners to be way smarter than me in their functional disciplines. That’s my expectation of Sequoia – and they’ve absolutely delivered.”

A trusted partner Jodi recommends to peers

Jodi’s confidence in Sequoia shows up not just in internal results, but in the referrals she makes to fellow HR leaders. “I work with a portfolio of PE-backed companies and have relationships with other heads of HR,” she said. “I’ve already referred several of them to Sequoia.” Her message to peers is simple: “They make my life easier. They come to us with competitive offerings. I can’t imagine not having them as a partner and I am not interested in switching.”

Impact

• Massive renewal risk averted: Turned an initial 60-70% medical renewal increase into roughly a 4% year-over-year increase.
• Six-figure savings unlocked: New program expected to save around $100,000 in addition to carrier and plan design savings.
• Competitive, employee-friendly benefits: Maintained a strong benefits experience with minimal disruption and no spike in employee complaints.
• Lean team, amplified: Consolidating benefits, 401(k), and wellbeing with Sequoia reduces administrative burden and lets HR focus on strategic work.
• Strategic extension of the people team: Sequoia brings benchmarking, best practices, and candid guidance that challenge and strengthen Revinate’s decisions.