# Andrew Duffy

> Andrew Duffy is the co-founder and CEO of SparkPlug, a San Francisco software company that pays frontline retail and restaurant workers cash bonuses for the sales they actually drive. A behavioral-science nerd from Harvard who put in time at Bridgewater Associates and built a luxury whole-leaf tea brand before this, Duffy turned a teenage hot streak selling margaritas into a venture-backed platform that has routed millions of dollars in supplemental income to hourly employees and raised $11.5 million to keep going.

- **Role:** Co-founder & CEO at SparkPlug
- **Organizations:** SparkPlug, Sky & Wyatt, Bridgewater Associates
- **From:** Washington, D.C., United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A. in Psychology and Economics, Harvard University, High School Diploma, St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.)
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads SparkPlug, an incentive-management platform for frontline retail and restaurant workers, Raised $11.5M total, including an $8M Series A led by Lightbank with Industry Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures, and Jason Calacanis, Routed over $1 million (and growing into the millions) in supplemental income to hourly employees

## Career timeline

- **Teens** — Worked as a server at Cactus Cantina in Washington, D.C., and sold the most Gold Cadillac Margaritas for three straight months
- **Harvard** — Studied Psychology and Economics; met future co-founder Jake Sky Levin
- **Post-grad** — Joined Bridgewater Associates in Client Service, became Investment Associate & Product Manager, and led a machine-learning team in the Disruptive Technologies Lab
- **Pre-2020** — Founded Sky & Wyatt, an organic whole-leaf tea brand with a sustainable supply chain and DTC community
- **2020** — Co-founded SparkPlug with Jake Levin after selling Sky & Wyatt
- **2021** — SparkPlug raised $3.5M in seed funding
- **2022-11** — SparkPlug closed an $8M Series A led by Lightbank, bringing total raised to $11.5M

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads SparkPlug, an incentive-management platform for frontline retail and restaurant workers
- Raised $11.5M total, including an $8M Series A led by Lightbank with Industry Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures, and Jason Calacanis
- Routed over $1 million (and growing into the millions) in supplemental income to hourly employees
- Built and sold Sky & Wyatt, a luxury organic tea brand, before SparkPlug
- Led a machine-learning trading team at Bridgewater Associates

## Latest updates

- **2022-11** — Announced $8M Series A led by Lightbank to fund executive hires and investment in data, development, and behavioral science.

## Links

- Website: https://sparkplug.app
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajwduffy/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/andrew-duffy
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-04