The Story of Parento: Building the Future of Family-First Employee Benefits

Sometimes the most impactful companies emerge not from chasing trends, but from recognizing fundamental gaps in how businesses operate. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Parento founder Dirk Doebler shared how his journey from finance executive to InsurTech founder revealed a critical oversight in how companies approach parental leave.

From Finance to Founding

Before Parento, Dirk’s career path was firmly rooted in finance and operations. As he explains, “I used to run finance and operation for a company called Game Product. They’re a consumer goods vibrator startup. It was one of the first hires there. Helped them from very early pre product market fit to raising run away a few million dollars in revenue and profitability.”

But Dirk had always harbored entrepreneurial ambitions. “Early on when I was internally in college, I didn’t want just a boring old desk job. I wanted to do something different and interesting and certainly get that as a Founder.” This drive led him to explore various business ideas, but it wasn’t until he discovered the challenges around parental leave that he found his calling.

Uncovering the Real Problem

Through extensive research and conversations with finance leaders, Dirk discovered that the parental leave challenge wasn’t primarily an HR issue – it was a finance problem. “HR generally understands why they should offer paid parental leave, but they can’t convince finance,” he explains.

The data painted a stark picture: “About a third of women will quit their jobs year they have a kid if they don’t have access to paid parental leave, and many of them will stay out of work for five years or more.” With 90% of Americans either having or wanting kids, this represented a massive talent retention challenge that companies weren’t adequately addressing.

Building the Solution

Parento’s approach went beyond just providing insurance. They developed a comprehensive platform that addresses both the financial and human aspects of parental leave. This holistic approach has yielded impressive results, with over two-thirds of eligible parents using their support program and averaging 13 hours of support utilization.

The company’s success challenged common misconceptions about parental leave programs. As Dirk notes, “People think, hey, if I also believe there’s going to quit, they’re going to have their kids and quit. And the reality is that’s not true. People want to stay employed.”

Evolution and Impact

What started as an insurance innovation has evolved into a comprehensive employee experience platform. “We view ourselves as sort of the cusp of both insurance and like an Eap type program or an employee experience like program,” Dirk explains. This unique positioning has helped them achieve something remarkable in the insurance industry: a 95 NPS score.

The Road Ahead

Looking to the future, Parento’s vision extends beyond just parental leave. “We are looking to be the go to provider for companies to support not just working parents, but working families,” Dirk shares. This includes expanding their suite of products built upon their core insurance offering to create a comprehensive solution for companies looking to support their employees through various life stages.

The company is focused on building “a suite of products built atop this financial program of the insurance because that’s the biggest differentiator of our program.” Their goal is to become “that one stop shop for companies, regardless of specific need for one employee where they can provide universal support and leave to anyone who needs it.”

This vision represents more than just business growth – it’s about fundamentally changing how companies support their employees during critical life transitions. By combining financial solutions with comprehensive support services, Parento is working to create a future where work and family life can coexist more harmoniously.