Buying Pool Routes and Building Best Day Pools

Hey, what's up friends? We got a unique episode coming at you today. My name is Grant Baldwin. For those who are not familiar, I host The Pool Pros Podcast. And then we also have Parker Conley who hosts the Pool People Podcast. We're throwing a lot of P's in there today. And so we each host podcasts in the pool space. We were emailing recently and I was like, hey, I'd love to interview you, talk about what you're doing in the pool space. And he was like, I'd love to interview you. I said, all right, let's do, let's kill two birds with one stone here. Let's record something. We'll kind of talk about each other's story, journey, things that we've learned in the pool space.

We're also brand new to pools. All right. So if that is you, you've come to the right place and hopefully we can share some of our insights and learnings. But Parker, what's up, man? We ready to do this? Yeah, we are. Thank you so much, Grant, for doing this with me. I can't wait to learn about your work with Best Day Pools and talk about pools with you. Yeah, we're figuring it out right now. So we're both kind of in the thick of it. And so maybe first of all, just for some context here, for people who are listening on my podcast, The Pool Pros Podcast, maybe give us some context here on who you are and your world in the pool space.

Yeah, I'm Parker. I'm the founder of Pool Dial. We are a pool service software that is a newer offering that is a similar sort of product to Skimmer, Pool Brain, Paythepoolman, pool service software. And I've been learning all about pools for the past nine or so months. I'm based in Arizona, and I found out that Skimmer and Pool Brain were both started in Arizona. So I've been working on it and trying to build a great software ever since. Now, we were talking a little bit beforehand, and even just kind of email them back and forth over the past week or two, that, like me, you're also

brand new to pools. And so I'd also be curious of all the different things that you could be doing. How'd you how'd you stumble on the pools? Yeah, and I'd be curious to hear about you too. But I am a college student. And I wanted to start a business when I graduate. And so last summer now, maybe a year or so ago, I with a buddy was just brainstorming different industries that might be ripe for disrupt disruption with with software. And I started with real estate, real estate seems like

there's a lot of a lot of land out there. And people have got to manage it, whatever. So I had maybe 30 or so calls with just different people in my network, who were property managers, real estate investors, whatever. I then went to youth sports, because I had a past quite small business in beach volleyball. So I was talking to different operators of youth sports clubs, beach volleyball clubs, and there just weren't enough businesses in that industry to justify building some

sort of software product. But all of this work sort of led me to understand that CRMs and all in one business software products, like Skimmer, like Pool Brain, and like me are kind of a staple for the small business world. And there are sort of vertical software products in in youth sports management, property management, whatever. And I was in Arizona, there are lots of pools in Arizona, like I said, I knew about Skimmer and Pool Brain having started here. And pool service as an industry, being a college student seemed like an

industry I could learn about without having to get a bachelor's degree or a PhD or something like this. And that there wasn't, there weren't gatekeepers where I'd have to I could just cold call people and learn about the industry. And so I decided I'll commit to this and give pools a try. And here I am. And so far, I'm quite happy with what I found. Nice, very cool. Well, I'll just be curious, like, just as a follow up there, as you're exploring, I'm assuming like you probably explored a variety of different home service verticals. So ultimately, like, why pools beyond HVAC, plumbing,

roofing, pest control, any other number of things, I'm assuming like a factor is being in Arizona, where, like you mentioned, like, everybody has a pool. And it's just a, it's just a major, major, you know, home service player there, that may be different relative to other parts of the country. But yeah, why why pools ultimately? Yeah, it was really just one long ChatGPT chat over the edge. I was so I started in real estate. And then I was kind of vaguely aware of home services, but I didn't really understand it as a different space. So I was talking and sort of just researching about, I had a bunch of different dimensions along which like an industry to start software would

be interesting to me. Like I was talking about it being sort of easy to learn about. And hopefully, there wasn't like a ton of compliance. And so I could get get off the ground relatively quickly building a software that people enjoy. And the I've come to find that pools is a nice business model, in some respects compared to HVAC and plumbing and electrical in terms of them being more dispatch based rather than route based. But I, I didn't do a deep dive on plumbing electrical

HVAC. My friend was learning about electrical electrical a little bit. And I kind of had a little bit of a sense that there wasn't as much certification in pools. And it was a little bit easier to get started in terms of, you know, just needing a truck and a Skimmer net and maybe a contractor's license if you want to do repairs. And if you want to do commercial a CPO, but I didn't really learn about that. To later, it was more of like a judgment call of this is the right shape of industry. I've heard some numbers of there being quite a lot of pool businesses out there. Tens of thousands, maybe even sub 100,000.

Obviously, a lot of it might be single poolers. But the idea of there being because there were like 100, maybe 300 beach volleyball businesses, where there being tens of thousands of pool businesses just made building a software for people make a lot more sense because I could get it in the hands of more people easier. Is it intimidating, like going the software route, knowing that you do have like you meant you routed some of the big players off. And especially, you know, not only do you have these big players that have some big market share and some potential big dollars behind them, but also in an age where it's a lot easier to

you know, vibe code. And so there are, you know, you and I are probably in the same Facebook groups and forums and every day someone's popping up with their latest, you know, spin off of some pool CRM. Because it's something that they it's just a heck of a lot easier to create software today than it was, you know, five, 10 years ago. So is that daunting and intimidating? Or how do you think about that? I mean, it's a factor. And, you know, I wasn't really familiar with the small business world before really like doing a lot of interviews, learning, learning from people in the pool service world. I wasn't familiar with how like, like I've

learned of single digit number of folks now who have started just simple home service businesses and they've built a really lucrative living for themselves and software is a lot more speculative of a space. And, you know, I've developed a lot of admiration for folks who, you know, manage people build a great company, build a great culture and then maybe sell their route or sell it to private equity someday. But yeah, it is, it is an evolving space. And I do have confidence, though, that I think building high quality software,

learning from my customers, I don't really have some sort of positioning that I'm quite confident in yet in terms of how I'm different from Skimmer and how I'm different from Pool Brain or whatever. They've obviously built great companies that people are comfortable running their significant businesses on. So my my situation right now is I'm just learning about the industry. And if someone is keen to maybe get a little get on the ground level with a software product who's open to sort of experimenting and building features that, you know, if if you're having an issue, I can be

fast and respond in a way that a software product that has five thousand six, six thousand seven thousand businesses running on it that they can't sort of change things. So yeah, I'm I'm confident that I'll be able to build something special here. But I hear you in terms of there being lots of competition and I'm making that even even more uncertain. Do you feel any imposter syndrome in this meaning like because you and I were talking a little bit beforehand and kind of tease this at the beginning that you and I are both just brand new to pools. It's not like, yeah, man, my,

you know, taking over the family business and I've always been in pools and I've cleaned pools forever. And when I was a teenager, I did this. It's like I I own a pool. I've had a pool for nine years and I don't fully know how to clean it. And so there's just there's somewhat of an intimidation factor of going. You know, I'm learning. I'm getting that. I know you're in the same boat. It's not like we have quote unquote chlorine in the veins, like, you know, other guys who just like they grow up in this and they have like a software therefore it's natural for them to build some type of CRM or to build some type of, you

know, business out of the thing. It's just you and I legit have no background in pools. And so you can make the case or the argument of like we also have no business being in pools. So I don't know. Do you ever think about that or is that intimidating for you at all? It's intimidating from the perspective of like when I'm talking to a customer and like I wish I had the background of like Adam Beech of Pool Brain that he started a pool company and this sort of thing. And he's now building his software based on all of his knowledge in pools. I wish I had that background. And when people are talking about like the

different nuances of like running their routes and I just learned when I was shadowing a dude last week that he wore gloves on his route. And like that's a big thing for using a mobile app. And there are all these sorts of things that I find out that I do feel like my experience in software and just having the dedication that I'm really going to see this through and build a product for people and be really curious about the problems that people have. I feel like that'll take me to the level of being able to really build something that people are delighted to use. But

it is a mountain and even the simple problems that I'm facing in starting the product out of the bad are daunting. So we'll see where it takes me. And I'm curious about you to tell me about, do you ever feel imposter syndrome? All the time. Yeah. I'll give you a couple of examples like, well actually let me jump out. I'll kind of like go back for a second here and kind of give you some background. Yeah, tell me about your background. Yeah. So I most importantly I'm married to my high school sweetheart. We got three daughters. So it's me in a house full of women. It's the best. And so I actually went to Bible College and was a youth pastor for a little

while. And that led to me getting into public speaking. And so I was a full time speaker for seven, eight years, traveled all over the US, speaking did a lot like in the education space, conferences, conventions, high school assemblies, colleges. It was awesome. And I remember I had a friend say one time, like speaking is a high paying manual labor job in that I get paid really, really well to stand on stage and run my mouth. But the nature of it was I had to get on a plane. I had to leave my family. I had to go somewhere. Um, and it was super fun and cool at first. And eventually he was like, I don't want to get on

another plane. I don't want to sleep in a hotel. I want to be home. Uh, I want to see my family. I want to sleep in my own bed. And so eventually I started having a lot of people ask me like, Hey, you're a speaker. That's kind of cool. How would I go about doing that? And so we started doing a basically a training company teaching the business of speaking, uh, and that evolved into, um, a training company, uh, built and grew called The Speaker Lab. And so The Speaker Lab was again, just teaching the business of speaking. Like, how do you find them with gigs and how much you charge and who hired speakers? What do you speak about? Like, how does the business work?

Um, and I was always just really drawn to the business side of things. And that also kind of ties into, you know, pool stuff in a second, but, um, so yeah, so we did that for about 12, 13 years. Um, and then, um, about that same time we moved, uh, grew up in Missouri. That's where my wife and I are from. And then we moved to Nashville, uh, where we're at now. And so we've been here about 12, 13 years. And, um, so I'd say we had a lot of growth within the, the speaking company. And like I said, I had about 40 employees, totally virtual company and really enjoyed it. But, um, I think we kind of hit a plateau on some growth and, and I was

kind of like, I, I didn't feel burned out, but felt kind of tired and just like, I don't know what's next, but I'm, I think I'm just ready for something different, um, and ready for a new mountain to climb. And so, uh, we're recording this in the summer of 2026. And so I'd say, you know, probably a year ago, started thinking like, I think I might be ready for something different. I have no clue what that would be. And so at the beginning of this year, January, February, I was kind of thinking like, I think I'm, I think I'm ready to wrap it up. And so long story short, ended up selling the business to two employees and handed the baton to them. They're still running

it, doing a great job and, um, super, super happy about that. And then also going like, all right, what's now, you know, now what do we do? Um, and so I was kind of, because so much of the, the speaking world and the, the training world was like this online education teaching space. I was kind of interested in doing like swinging the pendulum in a totally different direction. Um, and so I liked the idea of like a home servicing and local services and a small local business. And, um, so similar to you explored, you know, various home services and pros and cons with all of them. And I was kind of intrigued by pools. I knew a

couple of people in the pool industry and other parts of the country. Um, and in particular, one of the things that was intriguing to me was the guy who cleans our pool. And so, like I said, we, we built this house about eight, nine years ago, uh, put in a pool at the beginning. And, um, we've had one guy who's taken care of our pool and he worked for one or two different companies over the course of his career. He's in his early thirties. Um, and he then went out on his own about two years ago or so. And it's just been building his business, um, had about, uh, 60 to 80 accounts or something. And just a great dude, just I've interacted with him over eight, nine

years. Um, and he just really knows pools. And as you've probably seen with a lot of the industry, there's a lot of one- and two-poolers who they know pools more than you and I will ever begin to know, but they struggle on the business side. Um, and so it kind of reminds me if you've read the book, The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, he, he uses the analogy of, of, um, of baking. And he said, there's people who are like really good at baking cakes, cupcakes, bread, whatever it may be. And he said, just because you're good at baking, doesn't mean you have the same skill set that takes to open a bakery. Um, and those are just two different skill sets. And

so to carry that analogy forward, I would say, like, I don't know anything about baking, but I'm confident on the bakery side of things. And so in talking with this local guy who cleans our pool, I was like, listen, you know how to bake, you know, pools insanely well. Um, let me run the bakery and you know, let's, let's do something together. And so, um, we talked for months and months and months. It finally took them a minute to kind of come around. Um, and in the meantime, I was like, listen, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start trying to figure this out. So I made two small acquisitions. Uh, the first one was, uh, I think 17 pools. The

second one was 58 pools. And so all of a sudden, within about a month, uh, I went from knowing nothing about pools to having 75 pools I was responsible for. And you're just trying to get up to speed as quick as you possibly can. And so I think that caused him to be like, okay, I think he's, I think Grant's serious on this pool thing. And so, uh, we ended up, um, I basically kind of acqui-hired him. And so he kind of became a minority partner in the in the company. Um, and so now together we have about 150 pools we take care of. So since then, you know, we've hired an ops manager and hired, um, three new techs and bought four

trucks and got everything wrapped and, you know, just like trying to like get the thing up and running while continually also trying to have our software in place and have our systems and processes in place and, um, figure out hiring and operations and sales on marketing. And, um, so yeah, it's been drinking from a fire hose. Um, and at the same time, it's been a ton of fun and kind of going back to the original question there is, yeah, it's certainly been intimidating and daunting. And, uh, when we made that first, uh, acquisition that first

week, I wrote along with the tech in part to meet all the customers, uh, and just say, Hey, I'm the new guy. And so they'd be like, Oh, cool. While you're here, come over here. I got this question about my heater. I got this question about my pump and I'd be like, Oh crap. Uh, and so they start asking me a bunch of like normal customer pool owner questions. And I'm just like, I don't know what you're saying. I don't know what the solution is. And I don't know anything about this. And so it's just, I certainly felt like an idiot, um, of just going, I want to get a, you know, this other guy Taylor in place that can help on the pool knowledge side of it.

But also I recognize like, I, I need to become more competent on pools and I need to know what I'm talking about. And so it's in fact, as soon as we're done with this, this conversation, um, I got a, I got a meeting with a new potential customer. And I know they're probably going to ask me some stuff that I don't necessarily know every answer. And so stuff like that of the more knowledgeable I am, the better I'm going to be at my job. And, um, yeah, so that's, you know, long answer of how we got here and, um, like you were, we're, you know, coming at it from a different angle, but at the same time trying to do a podcast like this to learn and to, you know,

figure out the pool world. Great. Yeah. And I'm curious what sort of, um, resources or thinking went into your both decision to choose pools. Um, I'm not sure if you're, um, if you had a background in like knowing people and finance and private equity and thinking about starting, uh, um, a roll up or something like this, um, were there, were there any researchers there? And then also resources in terms of, um, building your pool business and choosing this industry. Yeah. Great question. So no, zero background in

any of this, you know? So like I said, I went to Bible college. They don't teach anything on private equity, as you might imagine. And so, um, I, uh, thankfully through The Speaker Lab just learned a lot on business, learned a lot, especially in like culture, hiring people operations. I think that's one thing I've always been really good at is, is connecting with people and working with people and, um, just creating the kind of culture that people want to be a part of. And so that was one thing I felt like even with The Speaker Lab, I felt like I did a good job was of just getting the right people on the bus. And I would always tell people

like, um, we'd have, uh, I do orientation with new team members and I'd say, I want this to be the best place you ever work. And I would tell them, I said, I want to make it really hard for you to ever leave, not in a manipulative way. Um, but just to say, listen, we, we all got to work. We all got to make a living. There's plenty of things you could go do in terms of a career, but we're not perfect by any means, but I want you to be like, yeah, I really enjoy what I do here. I'm paid well, I have freedom and flexibility. They treat me like an adult. I like the people that I work with feel like we're doing something meaningful. This is a great company. I want

to be a part of this. And so I think there was a lot of lessons I learned from that, that I started to think, um, as I was starting to look into pools that I think this was potentially applicable. So a couple of things like when I started poking around, one factor was, uh, I had a buddy who actually did a roll up of pool companies and sold it to private equity. And so had a couple of conversations with him. And, uh, I was like, I don't think you know anything about pools either. So how did you, how'd you do a roll up here? And, and, uh, like, what is that? What does that mean? What does that entail? You know? And so he kind of talked it

through. And, and one of the things that we kind of landed on was that Nashville is a really, really good market for that. And, um, and so I started like just paying attention and following people on Twitter or listening to podcasts or YouTube or whatever, you know, and, you know, as, as you and I discussed, there's not a ton of resources on the pool space. And so even kind of similarly to within The Speaker Lab, I want, I, I, I, we didn't talk as much about how do you put together a great talk and how do you do storytelling and how do you do, you know, movement on stage and the idea. I was just more interested, like, how do you actually run a speaking

business? And so I feel very similarly on the pool stuff is, um, I don't really want to do podcast interviews, talking about equipment and chemistry. And I want to talk about, like, yeah, but how do you get customers? How do you retain customers? How do you drive margin? How do you route efficiency? How do you, how do you find good technicians and what do comp plans look like? Like that's the stuff that was way more interesting. How do you run the bakery? You know, quote unquote of pools. And so that was the part that I was way more intrigued by. Um, and so, yeah, part of it was talking with this one particular guy who'd done a roll up and just some

of his validation of I have done this, you should totally do this. And Nashville is a great market for that. I was like, okay, that's one data point. Um, the other thing that was, I think, kind of interesting was thinking about my own experience as a pool owner and a customer of a pool service. So this particular guy Taylor, he serviced her pool for nine years. Uh, and so I started doing the math of like, I've paid him tens of thousands of dollars and I haven't thought twice about it. Uh, and a pool is not in the category of, um, you know, if it's July in Phoenix or Nashville and your air conditioning goes

out, that's an emergency and you have to get that fixed. So pools aren't quite an emergency, but if you don't pay attention to them, they can become that real quick. And so at this point I've visited enough pools to see, you know, oh, this, you know, pump or filter went out a couple of days ago and the pool is nasty now. Like you have to do something about it. Um, and so seeing that like it's kind of a, I don't know, tier two emergency thing, it's also like outside of the house dwelling itself is probably people's second biggest investment. I mean, people are spending, you know, in a lot of parts of the country, six

figures for a pool and they want to, it needs to stay clean and pretty and usable, you know? And so there's a lot that goes into that. Um, and so also learning that I think that status, something like 70, something percent of the industry is one-pooler single poolers. And so realizing that there's a lot of people like the guy who took care of our pool, who they get to 40, 50, 60 pools, whatever it may be. And they're just kind of capped. And so, um, so back in February, I was like, I don't know how to get ahold of these people. So like, I guess I'm going to start cold calling them. And so I

made spreadsheets, whipped up a vibe-coded CRM specific to what I was trying to do and just started smiling and dialing. And it was, I'm a pretty confident guy. Um, and it was intimidating as all get out of just calling people and hey, you don't know me. I live here in town. I'm a local business owner. I'm interested in pools. Do you know anyone who would ever sell, you know, would you ever be interested in selling and just starting conversations. And so, um, thankfully most people, nobody like hung up on me or jerks or anything. Um, most people were super friendly and nice. Some people say, oh, you should call, uh,

Tommy over there. He might be selling, you know, I heard such and such maybe selling and, and I've talked to enough people who would say, um, yeah, I might be interested. And so then, you know, trying to grab lunch with people or meet with people. And so thankfully that led to having a couple acquisitions. Um, and getting the foot in the door. And so then, uh, since then, one of things I've seen is word starts to travel a little bit and people are going like, oh, Hey, I heard you, I heard you bought Tommy's business. Um, you know, can, how do you price that? Like if I ever wanted to sell mine, what would you give me for it? And how would that work? And

so trying to just establish myself in the Nashville market to say, whether you want to sell today, tomorrow, six months or six years from now, I want you to call me and I want to have the reputation in town that I will treat you fair. I'll give you a fair price. I'll be great to your customers. I'll be great to your team. It'll be great to work with. It'll be a smooth transition. Cause I also recognize like building a business as a, you know, especially as a one-pooler and then trying to sell it is super intimidating and daunting. And that's, you know, that your livelihood and your career. And so the idea of selling it and going, I know pools, I

don't know how to sell a business. And is this guy ripping me off or is he going to screw me over? Is he going to stab me in the back or whatever, you know, is trying to say, no, no, like I respect what you've built and I want to pay you fairly for that. And here's how the market values a business like yours. And here's how we would structure that. And here's how it would pay you and yada yada. And so, um, but it's still like, it's still intimidating. It's still daunting, but, um, yeah, slowly, but surely we're, we're making some progress here. Yeah, totally. That's interesting. Are there any, um, unique things that you've learned about the Tennessee market, uh,

as a pool business? Cause as we were talking about sort of before the show, um, Arizona, Florida, California, Texas are kind of the states you think about when you think about pools, you don't think of Nashville. Right, right. Um, so I think there's a couple of factors that work really, really well for Nashville. And it's not like we moved here with the intention of starting a pool business. Um, that was, you know, never on the radar. And even, you know, six months ago, um, even talking with my daughter's like, I think I'm gonna do a pool business. And they're like, but you don't know pools. Like I know, but someone learned it so I can learn it too. Uh, so I

think some of the natural byproducts of Nashville are, um, it's a very wealthy area. There's a lot of money here. There's a lot of people that have built pools and are building pools and are migrating here. So there's a lot of growth here. Um, it is, uh, just calling around and realizing most businesses have either supply problem or demand problem. And meaning like you can service however many, but there's just not enough demand. Um, and multiple people I talked to, it seemed to be the thesis was at least there's much more of a supply issue of talking with

other pool companies and saying, if you do a good job and the bar for doing a good job is relatively low. Meaning like if you just communicate well, if you show up when you say you're going to show up, if you do what you say you're going to do, if you follow through, if you'd be easy to work with, and if you keep their pool clean, you will crush it in this business. Um, and so I think some of that is just to get a by-product of where we live. Um, uh, so from that standpoint, the other standpoint is I think that like all those Sunbelt states that you mentioned, you have real supply and demand issues where because it is so competitive, it drives

the price down massively. So I was talking to a friend recently who lives in Naples and I was like, you probably have a pool, right? And they're like, Oh yeah. So what do you pay for service? I think it was $130 a month. And I said, I pay $350 a month for the same thing that they're doing for you. You know, so three times as much because I live a little bit further north in a different market. And so I remember also early on, um, there was a, uh, big pool guy, um, from who built something up and sold to PE and I reached out to him. I was messaging with him and, um, asking about pools. And I said,

knowing what you know now, like, would you do pools again? And he said, if I lived in Florida or Texas or California, no. If I lived in Nashville, I would do this tomorrow. I was like, Oh, that's good to know. Um, so I think part of it is like the, um, uh, just again, the kind of the supply and demand financial economics. The other thing I would say would just be from a, a weather standpoint, you know, when you were not a 12 month swim season. Um, but I know again, as a pool owner that, um, we don't close our pool and I'm not swimming in it in December, but we don't close it. Um, and

we still, I've paid him, we usually get a biweekly service in the winter. I'm still paying him year round though. Uh, and so we've got probably a seven month swim season, but I'm paying for a biweekly service for three to four of those months and weekly service for the other seven, eight, nine months. Uh, I've also seen that in addition to the weekly service that just keeps you in someone's backyard, that there's always something breaking and it's baffling how much stuff breaks and needs repair and needs, you know, something. And so even now with 150 pools, someone's always a heater, a pump, filter

cleanings, you know, someone an actuator, uh, valves, lights, there's always something, you know, so I think you have the recurring revenue base of, um, of just the weekly service and being in someone's backyard. But then you also, because you have all of the repair opportunities, um, it creates a higher margin opportunity there on the business. So I think there's just a variety of things that kind of came together. And the last one I would say would be, uh, a big, big factor of why I was intrigued with this was Taylor, the guy that cleans our pool, because I just built enough relationship with him to be like, I want to, I

want to build something with this guy. I want to get in the weeds with this guy. Because uh, I think we'd make a really, really good team. Um, and so he just happened to be in pools. If he was our, I dunno, pest control guy, I was like, man, I really liked this guy. I think he really knows something. I think he knows pest control and I could handle the business stuff. We might be doing pest control right now, but I would say like, um, the factors of the industry, the opportunity, but then also Taylor himself was a major factor. Okay. That's interesting. Interesting. It is. Um, so we were talking before the show too, that I've done a little bit of research on

the different rates. It's interesting to hear that Nashville, you said it's three 50 or at least you were paying three 50. I'm not sure what you guys charge. Um, but at the same time, you don't have to close your pools and it's not like half the year, the, the business isn't doing any business. Um, is that something special about Nashville? Yeah, I think that again, it's just kind of, I think it's where we are located geographically, you know, and so you go much further north and it's a different market and you go much further south and it's a different market. And so, you know, we're kind of, um, in that maybe somewhat of a sweet spot, um, where, uh, you

know, by contrast, we did a podcast interview with a guy and they run a big pool company up in, um, New England up in like Massachusetts. And he's like, we have a, like a three, four month swim season. But during those three, four months, they're charging, I think it was like $600 a month and have a, uh, a massive waitlist. Um, and then also everybody opens and closes their pool up there, you know, so there's still like a fair amount of people that will open and close pools here. Um, we just have never done it. Uh, I also notice like, uh, Nashville as an example, this past January, February, we had a major ice storm. And so I

remember talking with Taylor and he, and at that time I was calling cold calling all these other pool owner operators and like a lot of equipment was damaged. Um, and so, you know, we don't have an annual ice storm by any means, but there are like, um, cold freezes that can damage weather or power outages that can damage equipment. And so seeing that, again, there's the weekly service opportunity, but also the, uh, equipment and the repair side made it feel like, I think they're, you know, I think there's a, a legitimate opportunity here. Interesting. Interesting. All right. Well, we're nearing

time. I'm curious where you're at with, with Best Day Pools right now, you've, you've acquired three businesses. What are the biggest blockers for you or things you're thinking about in terms of growing the business and operating it? Yeah, I think the, even kind of going back to one of the things we touched on earlier, that, um, multiple people said that the biggest challenge is people and, um, finding hiring, retaining good talent. And so I, uh, I felt like, okay, um, I don't know pools, but I feel confident on people.

And so we've hired, uh, three new techs in the past month and have onboarded them. They're all killing it. And so even thinking through comp plans with them and thinking through like what, what's the environment that we need to create that again, makes it the best place that they ever work, that they're just like, man, on the days where it's a hundred degrees and I'm sweating my butt off and I'm tired of going to another pool. And this is tedious, monotonous, boring, repetitive. I'm going, this is a good gig though. And I want to be here. And I feel like these guys legit care about me. You know, we had a, a tech, um, yesterday afternoon, he finished

up his route. He was like, Hey, I think I'm going to go to the walk-in clinic. I'm not feeling great. And so, you know, messaged with him, then messaged with him last night, messaged with him again this morning of just like, Hey, just as a human, how are you doing? Are you okay? You good? Do you need anything? And so I think that again, some of the lessons I learned from The Speaker Lab in terms of building healthy culture, um, that is something that translates over here, uh, in pools that ultimately, whether someone's doing, you know, white collar, blue collar, whatever it is that they choose to do in terms of their career, people want to be a part of something

that's bigger than themselves. They want to be a part of a winning team. They want to be a part of a company or an organization that feels like they actually care about me, uh, as a human and as a person. And so those are the things I felt like I think I can do those things well. Um, it doesn't mean like this is easy by any means, you know, you still have cranky people who want their pools clean, you know, every day. Um, so that's part of the logistical operational challenge. But, um, yeah, so far things are going well. I think that's, it's also trying to figure out, um, we want to get to a thousand pools in the next couple of years and, um, each day, more

and more optimistic. That's super reasonable. And, um, realistic, it doesn't mean it's easy or cakewalk, but it also feels like, no, no, this is feasible. This can totally be done. Other people have done it. Um, why can't we? So, uh, yeah, it's just being intentional about how we go about it. What do we say yes to? What do we say no to? How do we get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, the right people in the right seats and get the bus point in the right direction. So we are, uh, making it up as we go, um, doing the best we can. I think that that's, uh, I think that's also like a good reminder for everyone watching and listening is Parker

and I are no different than anybody else. Like we're just two dudes are going like, I don't know pools. Do you know pools? You don't know pools. All right, let's try it. You know, cause there's anybody we look up to, we admire, we respect in the pool space. There was a time where they didn't know anything about pools either. Um, and you know, whether it's software or operating a business or whatever, I think that there, those are just this, the lessons that I try to teach my daughters of going, you got to work, you got to make a living somehow. Um, and dad doesn't know squad about pools, but you're watching him learn and figure it out. Um, and

so you, you can do the same thing in terms of whatever you do in your career. So, um, I'd be curious before we wrap up here, like what's something that you've learned, you know, as again, as another guy that's just kind of new to the game in the past six months a year or something, you're talking with a lot of pool owner operators and coming at it from a different perspective. But what's something, um, that, that, uh, just to kind of put a bow on things of going, Hey, here's the thing that I've really seen. And as I kind of look behind the curtain on a lot of these businesses, if a pool owner operator can nail this, this will really make a difference for

them. Yeah, I would echo what you were saying about people. Um, it does seem like hiring and managing and dealing with, um, you know, uh, the high turnover rate. That's potentially something that's prevalent in the pool industry is something significant. Um, I think, uh, there are sort of two classes of businesses, the single poolers and the, the people who decide they want to take on the challenge of hiring people and, um, managing people. And that's

though, what I've really learned is just, and I mentioned this earlier, but it really just has sort of shaken up the way I see the world being someone sort of coming from Silicon Valley culture, which is very much, um, a winner takes it all culture. Um, people who build the next, um, Reddit or Facebook or whatever, or the, the winners. Um, like I've come to just admire the small business world and come to really like, um, see like my customers is like people that are

like really following like a cool life path. And obviously I don't personally know the economics of the pool business. It's possible that these guys are really struggling in Arizona for a few of them. But like, um, one guy I shadowed, he was having like a, he's building like a really solid business. And, um, so I guess what I've learned is that, um, it's really opened my world to understanding, um, that the home service world, the small business world, um, is lucrative for people who want to really get in there, manage people, build a company. Um, and, uh, it's

opened up my, my sort of more narrow or view of seeing the world of tech companies being the business you start. And I think this is sort of, there's a lot of, um, culture, which folks listening to this might not be familiar with or might be familiar with in the sort of Silicon Valley, Northern California, um, of people wanting to raise money from tech companies. And so really talking about business to tech companies and how you start a startup and how you raise money and this sort of thing. I mean, it's, it's really cool. Um, though there isn't much talk about it. Like you talk about that. You can start a pool business and

you can build a pool business and you can roll up routes and you can sell to private equity. And, um, you can have a lucrative exit, it seems. Uh, so just that there's, there's thinking about business and there's sophistication in business outside this sort of maybe more narrow bubble that I was in, in Silicon Valley culture. Yeah. I think one thing to kind of piggyback on, uh, we can put a bow on with is like, that you, you mentioned there is, uh, one of the fun things about entrepreneurship, whether that's pools or software or whatever is you get to design the rules of the game in a way that makes sense for you. And so even when I first started talking to

Taylor about working together, um, you know, it's him and a part time, uh, tech running around. And I was like, just to be clear, dude, you don't need to work with me. You don't need me. You're doing great. And so if you just said, man, I just, I want to clean 40 pools a week for the rest of my career, that's not a bad thing. There's nothing wrong with that at all. So I think like it can be easy to kind of glamorize, you know, at times people who go, man, I, you know, they did a bunch of acquisitions or they, you know, they did the Silicon Valley big thing and then sold and they're on the cover of the magazine, but also like the dude or dude who just goes, I just

want to be a one-pooler though. Like that's great. There's an absolutely nothing wrong with that. So you get to design the rules of the game in a way that makes sense for you. So be clear of with what I'm doing, with what Parker's doing, with what anybody else is doing, doesn't mean that's the way to do it. It is a way, but you get to choose the path that makes sense for you. All right, before we wrap up, you you have a lot of resources. And so talk to us about where people want to find out more about you, what you're up to, where can we find you online? Yeah, first, if anyone's interested in trying Pool Dial, even just having a chat or

if you're on a certain software and you want to learn my view of the software landscape and how I might be better or worse than the other products, feel free to check out our website, book a demo, you can start a free trial. That's pooldial.com. And then I've been working on a bunch of resources. The one I point people to that might be of most value is what I briefly mentioned. There's in the software industry, there's a website, levels.fyi, which is like different salaries for different tech jobs and this sort of thing. So I sort of parodied that with a website, poolrates.fyi. And it's a list, it's a survey of a hundred or more folks now of

different rates and the amount of people, pools people have and the amount of hires people have. So if people are interested, I'd encourage them to take that survey or just look over the data for Arizona, Florida, wherever you are. And hopefully it's of some interest or use or maybe even just amusement for you. So that's, that's pooldial.com and poolrates.fyi. Awesome. Very cool. And so again, the podcast is Pool People Podcast. And again, if you're listening on my side of things, pool pros podcasts, definitely check that out. Subscribe to both shows. We appreciate that. And Parker, this is super fun, man. The collaborative episode came

together, man. So appreciate you taking the time. Yeah, likewise, Grant. This is a lot of fun. Thank you so much.