Even though academics were very important, some of the most valuable skills for the real world - both personal and professional - were leadership skills. So, Rob and Chris decided to leave Corporate America to somehow figure out a way to teach these skills.

The two developed a vision that involved the creation of a corporation with two sides. One side would be a for-profit company that would be based on bringing together great people to build entrepreneurial companies - this one was named Jump Inc (meaning "Jump from Corporate America to something you are passionate about!". Note: we didn't have a problem with working in Corporate America - as long as people actually liked it! The other side would be the non-profit company, Spark! Leadership.

Rob and Chris started working on Spark! Leadership - doing research and recruiting top people like Wally C. and Tom D., who both soon became full partners in the venture. Being ambitious guys, Rob and Chris thought they could also get a for-profit business off the ground, so they started looking around for ideas. While doing this, and doing Spark! Leadership research on the net, Rob discovered he had all the programming knowledge to build a website. He had also been nurturing an idea for a site that would bring together buyers and sellers of all sorts of products (At this point in time, Rob and Chris hadn't even heard of eBay). This was the very beginning of Up4Sale, in October 1996.

Soon, the work on Up4Sale was so overwhelming that Spark! Leadership was officially put on the back burner. But, the hope at this point was that some of the profits from Up4Sale would eventually be used to fund Spark! Leadership on potentially a much grander scale than the founders were originally thinking. Also, Up4Sale used many of the principles of Spark! Leadership to grow. For example, Up4Sale used some of the most important Spark! Leadership principles by attracting a top college student named Josh as an intern and basically putting him in charge of engineering for the company.

Eventually, after some crazy twists and many sleepless nights working on the site and marketing like crazy, Up4Sale became the first acquisition by eBay - the largest online auction - just before eBay became a public company.

Now, some of these original Spark! Leadership concepts have been brought back to life as part of SparkPeople. SparkPeople will use the ideals from the original company and expand on them to build an even more all-around system called the SparkPeople System.