This comprehensive guide helps seed-stage founders evaluate whether joining a PEO is the right benefits infrastructure decision for their startup. It includes a practical 10-question scoring framework, compares three infrastructure paths, explains when a PEO makes sense, and provides actionable guidance on costs, transitions, and common mistakes.

Benefits infrastructure encompasses the platforms, vendors, processes, and governance that make employee benefits actually work. Seed-stage startups don't need enterprise systems, but they do need five foundational elements: a single source of truth for employee data, clear ownership, documented vendor relationships, a compliance calendar, and an exit path from current contracts. These take hours to establish and prevent months of expensive cleanup later.