As Vice President of Customer Success, Jon Zifkin is elevating the agency partnership experience for every Agency and Operator that Spare serves. Bringing a proven background from industry leaders like Airtable, Jon was recruited to ensure that every customer, from small rural operators to major metropolitan hubs, benefits from a partner who ensures they derive maximum value from every facet of the Spare platform. 

Jon’s focus is on bridging the gap between powerful technology and the real-world impact it delivers to agencies and their riders. He also brings a deeply personal connection to why accessible transit matters.
‍

A personal connection to the mission

Jon's grandmother lived with Alzheimer's disease, and she made one thing clear: she wanted to maintain her independence and live at home for as long as possible. Access to community programs became her lifeline, not just for managing her condition, but for maintaining quality of life and social connection.

"Relying on accessible transit to get her to these programs was critical for us," Jon reflects. "Without that mobility, she would have been very limited. These programs helped ward off the progression of Alzheimer's for a long time and brought her joy in her later years because she was able to socially interact in a community. This was made possible by accessible transit."

That experience drives home a truth Jon now brings to his work every day: even the smallest inconveniences in transit have large consequences in people's lives.
‍

Why Spare, why now

Three factors drew Jon to Spare: mission-critical operations, forward-thinking agencies, and a platform sophisticated enough to support transformation at scale.

Founded in 2015, Spare has grown into what Jon describes as a category-defining business, powering more than 28 million rides across 200+ cities worldwide. Spare has built a complex, multi-layered platform that goes both deep and wide. "With a robust technical foundation, Jon plays a pivotal role in mapping the platform’s functional capabilities to real-world agency outcomes. 'I’m interested in ensuring our agency partners capture the full potential of our technology,' Jon explains. 'My focus is helping our team and our agency partners bridge the gap between technical features and the actual value those features drive in their daily operations.'"The platform covers everything from intuitive rider and driver apps to real-time operation monitoring, dispatch and scheduling, and with the recent launch of Spare EAM, the full lifecycle of fleet maintenance and operations.

The impact has been measurable. In 2023 alone, agencies using Spare experienced a 42% reduction in cost-per-trip for microtransit and a 25% reduction for paratransit services. MBTA's The RIDE, one of the largest ADA paratransit programs in the United States completing over 1 million trips every year, achieved over 90% on-time performance within days of launching on Spare, and agencies like GATRA in southeastern Massachusetts improved on-time performance to 97% using the platform.

But the product alone wasn't enough. "It's really important for me to wake up with a team that cares about its customers and has integrity in the work we do," Jon says. "The mission brought a lot of clarity for me."
‍

Success at every level

Ask Jon what great customer success looks like, and he'll tell you there's a fundamental difference between essential customer support and strategic partner success. At Spare, every customer is viewed as a partner, a distinction that fosters a true two-way relationship and ensures both teams are working toward a shared vision

"Customer support is the essential foundation of a reliable operation. It’s about providing immediate, high-stakes expertise to keep things moving and resolving roadblocks with precision and timeliness," he explains. "But real partner success is about how we co-author the journey toward your long-term goals. It only happens when you have a team that is in total lock-step with their partners on what the roadmap to value looks like.

For Jon, that partnership mindset needs to span every level of an agency, from leadership down to frontline operators. "We need a holistic view of what the software means to the organization at all levels and what it means for accomplishing their outcomes. We're the stewards of those outcomes."

This approach aligns with how Spare has built its platform, with an open API architecture that enables partnerships and integrations with other transportation services. It's about creating an ecosystem rather than a siloed product.
‍

Scaling with confidence

Jon's experience at Airtable taught him something crucial: agencies need to feel confident that their partnership with Spare is built to last. That means scaling operations, teams, and systems in ways that grow alongside customer needs.

"My deep enterprise experience with CS organizations, complex implementations and delivering on customer's vision for today and for tomorrow will hopefully bring our customers confidence," Jon notes. "It's about building scale through the right teams, the right product, and working collaboratively as a business. Always guided by doing right by the customer long term."

That confidence is backed by Spare's investment in reliability and infrastructure; multi-layered testing processes, real-time monitoring systems that detect issues before they affect riders, and gradual rollout procedures that prevent widespread disruptions. 

Key to this approach is building a robust voice of customer program that ensures Spare continues to solve for real outcomes. Jon's focus is less on short-term wins and more on long-term transformation: "What does your future as an agency look like, and how does Spare incorporate the voice of the agencies to help inform our platform's future?
‍

Building a team culture

For Jon, leadership means creating an environment where people can do their best work and see meaningful impact every day.

"I want people to see this as a really awesome place to work," he says. "It's about bringing in a leadership style where people feel they can have real meaningful impact with a really great team, shoulder to shoulder."

That culture starts with understanding what motivates the work: the knowledge that Spare plays an instrumental role in the lives of transit agencies and, more importantly, the riders who depend on them.
‍

Looking ahead

Jon's focus is on what agencies need as their operations evolve and expand. His vision is clear: build repeatability and predictability that agencies can rely on, help them unlock the full value of Spare's integrated platform, and create partnerships that feel less like vendor relationships and more like true collaboration.

"Knowing the role we play in riders' lives—in mission-critical environments for both agencies and ridership—that's what excites me most," Jon says. "There's real impact there. It's very motivating."

If this story resonated with you, and you're passionate about solving real-world problems that impact communities every day, we'd love to meet you. Come join us!