Spark Advisors Company Culture & Values

Describe Spark Advisor’s company culture in one word. What made you pick that word? 

“Empathy.” It informs how we interact with each other and with our agents. One of our core values is “Take Nothing for Granted,” and a fundamental part of that for Spark is having deep empathy for our agents and each other; it’s been the key to our growth so far. 

Instead of just betting on sheer efficiency for disrupting the industry, we’ve bet on our agents, because they use empathy every day to connect and support their clients. Our team regularly uses empathy to hear, support and collaborate to make our company better and drive the change we want to see in this industry, all while navigating the fast pace of a startup. I could have picked a word like “ambitious” but it doesn’t capture the human component of Spark — empathy is our superpower.

What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally? 

Historically, the industry has had a lack of transparency — agents and agencies lack trust in their up lines and carriers, often unable to get on the same page. At Spark, we believe that if we can address the inefficient and disorganized data processes that permeate the industry, transparency will follow. 

The coolest project I’ve worked on at Spark has been tackling this problem head-on using a modern data tech stack, automating messy and unstructured data from carriers so our agents have the most up-to-date insights at any moment. This project has helped me grow in so many ways. I got to stand up data infrastructure from the ground up with our data engineers, research and learn the latest data pipelining tools, stand up an analytics function for the organization and work directly with our top agents to build a data product vision. This multiyear project has given me a broad range of experience and skills and the confidence that I can take on much more beyond my engineering background.