Spark

2023 was a breakout year for Spark. We partnered with 100+ leading agencies serving 3,400+ brokers, and enrolled 60,000+ beneficiaries. We’re carrying that momentum into 2024 with two announcements: First, we’ve raised a $25 million Series B, led by Drew Aldrich at Viewpoint Ventures. We’re particularly proud of this milestone given the challenging fundraising climate right now. Second, we’re launching the new Spark brand. Our new visual and verbal identity better captures our ambition, and articulates just how much we have to offer our partners. Our new website is a celebration of our partners, our performance to date, and the incredible trajectory we are on together. Here’s a taste: - Last year, we saved partner agents 400,000 cumulative hours, freeing them to focus on revenue generating activities - Across our largest agency partners representing >70% of our business, we’ve seen an astounding 140% enrollment growth year-over-year - Through this growth, we maintained a agent NPS of 91, affirming the value we bring to our customers and our commitment to service Our co-founder and CEO, James Jiang, writes in-depth about all these topics and this year’s vision for the organization on the Spark blog. You can read more here: https://hubs.ly/Q02htCMC0. The future is bright, and our team is ready to get back to work. We’re grateful to be on this wild journey with the industry’s best.

Sparkiversaries, or Spark anniversaries, are a big deal here. In our internal All Hands, the Zoom chat gets 🪩 lively 🪩 when we announce teammates who have hit their Sparkiversaries. 🍾 This week, we’re celebrating the four year Sparkiversary of James Jiang, Byron Edwards, and Alex Zhang — and a happy fourth birthday to Spark! We’ve come a long way since our three co-founders started the company from their New York City apartments, over Zoom, in 2020. Here are some of the results we’ve achieved: - Built a close-knit, fully remote team of 75 employees in 23 states - Grew our agent partners 3x, from 1,600 to 4,800 since 2022 - Grew our enrollments more than 5x, from 20,000 to 100,000+ since 2022 We’re thrilled about what we’ve accomplished, but we’ve got our eyes set on bigger, bolder results in service of our partners in 2025. Our CEO James Jiang says it best: “The explosive growth we’ve had over the last four years would not be possible without our team. Our people make Spark extraordinary.” Here’s to the next four years! Spark is hiring! Join the fastest-growing FMO in the country: https://hubs.ly/Q02Mfh8t0 

Spark Company Retreat in Review ⚡ Spark is proud to be a remote-first company with a standout team of 75 spread across 23 states. Our recent retreat in Adairsville, Georgia was an opportunity to connect in person, collaborate cross-functionally, and deepen our understanding of the Spark story and the change we are driving in the industry. The inside scoop on the Spark Retreat: 1. Strengthening Company Culture: Our retreat helped the team build stronger connections, reinforcing our collaborative, accountable, and goal-oriented team dynamics as we prepare for 2025. 2. Refining the Sales Process: We conducted retrospectives on the past sales season, focusing on how we can improve and grow. Ambitious goals were set, including how we can expand our sales team and refining processes to better support our agency partners' growth. 3. Enhancing Agent Success Training:  We are committed to increasing Medicare, compliance, and new feature training. These efforts are designed to equip our agents with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed. 4. 2025 Product & Operations Roadmap: Our partners have a unique opportunity to share feedback and ambitious, "hasn't been done yet" requests. We actively take this feedback and incorporate it into our roadmap, guiding our product enhancements, new features, and services. We look forward to making even more of an impact on our partners in 2025. Ready to take your career to the next level? Apply to join our team: https://hubs.ly/Q02Mfh8t0 #CompanyRetreat #Spark #Growth #Teamwork #RemoteWork

Welcoming David Rubinstein, Senior Vice President of Sales 🚀 Building on our partners' incredible engagement, passion, and the momentum of our Series B financing, we’re doubling down on our growth investment with the largest expansion of our sales team to date—led by none other than David Rubinstein, our new Senior Vice President of Sales. Here’s why our agency partners should be excited:  - David has a remarkable track record of scaling high-performing sales teams while never losing the magic of what makes them special. From best-in-class enterprise organizations like Salesforce, to disruptors like Outreach, to pre-revenue startups, his experience will be key in taking our growth to the next level.  - He’ll work closely with our Sales team, helping each Strategic Growth manager excel in recruiting and supporting our partners while expanding our reach into new markets and business areas—all while maintaining the exceptional service quality that our partners know and love. David will collaborate with our sales leaders, Sam Wiener and Henry Figueroa, to drive our nationwide sales expansion. In 2025, we’re making our largest investment yet in growing our sales team, and we couldn’t be more excited to have David lead us on this journey. When Dave is not transforming sales teams, he enjoys spending time with his wife, two children, and two dogs in Princeton, New Jersey. #WelcometoSpark #SalesExcellence #Growth

Welcome Julie Fobert, Spark’s new Vice President of Carrier Relations, to the team 🌟 Here’s why Spark agents and agency principals should get excited: - Julie will work closely with all our carrier partners to identify strategic opportunities and new ways to work together.  - Our agency and agent partners should see faster insights and support on carrier-facing issues, more proactive strategies created with carriers, and more opportunities to engage our carrier partners from the local to national levels. Julie previously led carrier relations at Stride Health, a national digital broker specializing in the under 65/IFP market. She managed Health and Ancillary product carriers, secured the company’s position as a top partner with the ACA’s largest insurers, and implemented retail products for gig economy workers. Julie resides in the Boston suburbs with her husband, teenage son, and their beloved dog and cat. When she’s not driving industry innovation, she enjoys cooking, attending live music events, boxing, and learning Italian. Want to work with our amazing sales team? Check out our open roles: https://hubs.ly/Q02LsRDD0 #CarrierRelations #Growth #TruePartnership #Spark

Join us in celebrating Charlie Bryan, our Director of Account Management! 🎉 Charlie’s team handles onboarding for our newest agency partners, supporting our amazing agency leaders as they grow their businesses using the Spark platform. “When I do my job well, I make an independent business owner’s day and that’s all the motivation I need. My parents are small business owners so I know how far good help can go.” Before joining Spark, Charlie worked almost exclusively with tech boot camps and high growth startups like WeWork. After meeting with the co-founders and loving their focused and ego-free leadership, he knew Spark was the perfect place to invest his energy and support our vision. When asked what he’s most excited about in his role as account manager, Charlie says he’s “pumped about the explosive growth of Spark’s agency partners!” Charlie’s passion for leadership extends beyond his time in the office. During his free time, he mentors with two youth organizations in Austin, finding it the most rewarding part of his life. ✨✨ Exciting News: We're hiring an Account Manager to join Charlie’s team. Ready to make an impact and grow with us? Apply now: https://hubs.ly/Q02KmbT_0 #EmployeeHighlight #JoinOurTeam #Spark #AccountManagement

✨LIVE from the Spark company retreat in Adairsville, Georgia! Today our team had sessions on culture and 2025 strategic planning. The Spark team took the morning to enjoy various activities together including golf, UTV riding, archery, horseback riding and forest yoga. Interested in joining our team? Check out our open roles: https://hubs.ly/Q02KCTcV0 #CompanyRetreat #Spark #Growth #2025AEP

August AEP Prep Webinars — you don’t want to miss these! Join the Spark Agent Success Team for sessions around new features, how to leverage Spark’s technology and services this AEP, complinace updates, and more. Sign up for the sessions in your platform account today: https://hubs.ly/Q02Km5nY0 #AgentSuccess #Compliance #AgentTraining #2025AEP

The Agent Advisory Council (AAC) is a private, annual conference for Spark’s top agency and carrier partners nationwide. Two weeks ago, we brought 40 agency principals, carrier directors, and Spark teammates to Park City, Utah, where we spent two days gathering feedback and sharing insights that ultimately drive our 2025 roadmap. Our co-founders James Jiang, Alex Zhang, and Byron Edwards, along with our EVP of Growth Sam Wiener, led sessions on technology, success, and agent recruiting, while breakout groups workshopped top AEP challenges and the ways Spark can best address them this year. Spark was founded on the principle of listening to our partners' needs – our co-founders started their Medicare journey on a ride-along with our first agency — and AAC embodies our commitment to ongoing collaboration and growth. Thank you to our guests. We are excited for AEP and the continued success of our partners! 🚀

Senior Strategic Growth Manager, Ruben Diaz, was recently featured on the Apex Edge Podcast. Ruben shared his 20+ years of industry expertise and insight into how Spark is transforming the lives of brokers nationwide through technology and dedicated service teams. Special thanks to Filip Lundstedt and Taton Wells from ProCare Consulting for hosting Spark on the podcast and for your ongoing partnership! Are you ready to build the business of your dreams? Book a demo: https://hubs.ly/Q02HQ9hS0 #Spark #InsuranceInnovation #AgencyGrowth #Partnership