Benefitfocus’ Shawn Jenkins
His company is growing fast–and so is its aircraft fleet
Interview by R. Randall Padfield - August 1, 2008
The NASDAQ crashed in March 2000, Shawn Jenkins recalled. “That June, my partner Mason Holland and I started Benefitfocus. It was an awkward time to start a software company,” he said, with just a touch of irony.
Holland had founded Charleston, S.C.-based American Pensions in 1989. Jenkins joined the company in 1994 and bought into it in 1997. They built a software platform that allowed employers to manage their 401(k) plans over the Internet and this gave Jenkins the idea that a similar platform could help employers and employees manage their health insurance. In 2003, South Financial Group, also in Charleston, bought American Pensions, providing the men with startup funds for Benefitfocus.
Grocery store-chain Piggly Wiggly became their first customer, which required Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina to send Piggly Wiggly’s health insurance data to Benefitfocus. As soon as the insurance provider saw what the software could do, it wanted it for all its clients, which dramatically changed the Benefitfocus business model. Instead of selling to individual employers, the software company began selling directly to insurance providers.
Today, the company supplies its enterprise applications to 25 health insurance providers around the country (most of them “Blue” plans) and to about 115,000 employers, which have more than 40 million employees receiving benefits. Jenkins believes that Benefitfocus will reach $1 billion in revenue within another 10 years. “We’ve been in business only eight years,” he said. “We’re just getting started.”
Business aviation is helping the company achieve more than Jenkins had ever dreamed possible.
In building Benefitfocus, what did you learn?
One of the fundamental things is to get the right people in the right position. I can’t tell you how many times a good person with good skills was just not right for the position. I’ve also learned to make changes quicker than I used to–and to trust my instinct more.
When people are in the wrong position, do you fire them or put them into another job?
Both. If somebody believes in what the company believes in, we’ll keep him. Sometimes we move associates to another area of the business to capitalize on their skill sets. But if the person has something in conflict with our culture or values, that person has to be removed.
What surprises or problems did you encounter as Benefitfocus grew?
Even though our company grew pretty darn fast, things always take longer than you expect. Getting the signature from a customer takes twice or three times as long as you want it to. Getting software to market is a very complex and difficult thing. We’re going to grow 50 to 60 percent this year and I still feel that we should be growing faster.
Based on what you’ve learned, is there anything that you would have done differently in 2000?
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