In their own words.
Tell us about yourself and Benepass.
My name is Jaclyn Chen, I'm the co-founder and CEO of Benepass. I started Benepass about three years ago and we help companies give their employees really flexible perks and benefits.
How does MVP compare to your other co-investors?
They're definitely among the most helpful co-investors. To be quite frank, there are some co-investors I haven't really spoken to since we raised. In that case, I guess money is green and it's all the same. But there are ones where I feel like I have a closer, tighter relationship with — and that's certainly MVP.
What's been most useful about MVP's network?
First, the network they bring to bear through their LP base is really differentiated — it's a network that's specific to the two things we care about most: sales and talent. They've been able to provide help and introductions in key areas. In particular, Gray introduced us to a few folks on our customer Advisory Board — CHROs at really large companies that maybe we can't sell to today but over time, through the relationship, we can eventually prove ourselves to be worthy of their business.
How's the working relationship with the team?
It's been a really great working relationship with Alex, Wes, and Gray in terms of making introductions and sending us pings that are net useful — in terms of ideas they put in front of us.
How does MVP balance involvement vs. founder admin overhead?
Part of the traditional knock on co-investors is that having too many investors on your cap table can create a lot of noise or additional admin for founders, when really at the end of the day what you're trying to drive is growth in the core business. MVP strikes a really good balance — being in front of me and putting ideas out there, while not creating additional reporting or admin burden beyond the material I'm already creating for the lead investors. We have a really good and constructive relationship from that standpoint.
Would you recommend MVP to other founders?
Overall it's been a great experience working with MVP, and I would certainly recommend them to other founders in my network.