Meet Your Co-Founder: Chris "SparkGuy" Downie

Spend just a few minutes with PeopleOne Health Co-Founder and SparkAmerica Founder Chris Downie and you will likely be infused with inspiration and knowledge that could change your life. He brings a can-do attitude, mental fortitude and technological competency to the PeopleOne Health mission. Together with Co-Founders Jordan Taradash, Dr. Zane Gates, and Pat Reilly, Chris is leading an integrated healthcare solution that is changing community landscapes one person at a time. 

Perhaps Chris always had an entrepreneurial spirit. In high school, he recalls writing a report about his career aspirations, stating he wanted to be an entrepreneur before his friends even knew what it meant. Always competitive, he played soccer growing up and although he was the smallest on the team, he was also recognized as one of the toughest, always bouncing back up when being knocked down by the bigger kids. 

That same entrepreneurial spirit and competitive nature led to Chris’s next big move just after college. After graduating from The University of Cincinnati, he began working at Procter & Gamble, where he learned about completing projects quickly under deadlines and how to help others on the team succeed.  He also later left P&G and joined his college buddy in a quest to launch a non-profit organization called Spark Leadership. The mission was clear. The two would teach leadership skills to high school and college students. But they never stopped dreaming, and that’s when the game changed for both of them after his partner had an idea to build an internet company. Within 24 hours, they pivoted from their nonprofit to building a for-profit auction site called Up4Sale. After about two years, Up4Sale grew into ebay’s leading competitor with five employees working in the attic of an old dilapidated mansion paying $500/month in rent.  ebay, the world’s largest online auction site, then made Up4Sale its only pre-IPO acquisition. 

“We knew it was going to be such a challenge, we had a small team and budget. We worked an insane amount of hours during the second year of this business because we were helping users all over the world so we had to stay awake to make sure the website servers didn’t crash,” Chris shared. “I jokingly say that for about 10 minutes we thought we were going to pass ebay. But then we set a goal of being the second largest person-to-person auction site. That was in 1998. We ended up selling the company as the first and only pre-IPO acquisition to Ebay later that same year.” 

Chris then started SparkPeople, a healthy lifestyle website that received more than 100 million unique visitors.  He then merged SparkPeople with two other companies to form PeopleOne Health.

With this challenger mindset and commitment to living a healthy lifestyle, it’s no surprise to see Chris join other PeopleOne Health leaders. The team believes wholeheartedly in a new form of healthcare management. No longer bound by insurance companies who are only incentivized to manage the sick, this integrated model offers dramatically lower costs, more care, and better coordination. Doctors, pharmacists, mental health providers, health coaches and technicians work together to keep members healthier, all with the support of a technology-based platform that incorporates goal setting and friendly competition. 

“The craziest thing is being able to wake up every day and create tech features and healthy lifestyle programs and content that make people healthier,” he stated. “What we have done is revolutionary because we are the opposite of the traditional model - we do better when we keep people healthier. It’s amazing to see how SparkAmerica, PeopleOne Health and PeopleOne Personal Pharmacist work together to deliver a care model that has never been done before.”

Chris’s challenger mentality and commitment to setting small goals even helped him to become a New York Times Bestselling author. His book, The Spark: The 28-day Breakthrough Plan for Losing Weight, Getting Fit and Transforming Your Life became a massive hit.. The Spark outlines a breakthrough formula that combines nutrition, exercise, goal setting, motivation, and community, which has helped people change their lives beyond the scale.  Chris continues to use the same everyday goal-setting technique today to maintain motivation and inspire others to live their best lives. 

“One of my biggest messages to anyone is that you really can make big changes by setting one small goal at a time. Even 10 minutes a day of exercise can change your life when done consistently.  I’ve seen it happen many thousands of times in our Community. We’ve had amazing stories about people who were previously overweight and depressed, and found success accomplishing their dreams,” he shared. 

When asked where PeopleOne Health, PeopleOne Personal Pharmacist and SparkAmerica will be in five years, Chris smiled and said confidently, “The sky's the limit. We can literally redefine how healthcare works in America. In the process, we can save countless lives and an enormous amount of money for individuals and corporations.  We can impact a very large part of this healthcare pie. We will expand one city and state at a time.” 

Chris resides in Northern California with his wife, two boys and one dog. 

Learn more: https://peopleonehealth.com/