Owning your own private pool is a dream for many. However, it’s an expensive dream. This inspired Bunim Laskin to start Swimply, an online marketplace where users can rent other people’s pools by the hour. Think of it like Airbnb, but for swimming pools. He pitched his startup on Shark Tank but was unable to land a deal. As of 2024, Swimply is valued at $30 million.
Background of Bunim Laskin
Bunim Raskin is a very private person, but it is known that he is from Lakewood, New Jersey. He is the eldest of 12 children, which is why he spent a lot of his teenage years finding ways to entertain and take care of his younger siblings.
One day, he noticed that his neighbor didn’t use the swimming pool often, so he kindly asked his neighbor if he could use the swimming pool, but he had to pay 25% of the swimming pool maintenance fee.
The neighbor agreed, and five other families made the same deal with Bunim, who was 20 years old and attending Talmud College in Florida, and soon realized he could create a scalable business out of this.
Founding Swimply
Swimply, which he founded as a young man in 2018, is considered the first online marketplace for renting private swimming pools. Bunim launched in beta with just four pools in the New Jersey area.
Later, he used Google Earth to find homes with pools. He even knocked on doors to convince homeowners to join his market. This strategy got him the first 100 pools signed up and helped him gain some momentum.
Family and friends gave him $30,000 to officially launch the business in 2019. After getting more than 400 pre-orders, the entrepreneur raised about $1.2 million in funding.
Shark Tank Appearance
Despite the massive capital investment he had just received, Raskin thought it would be wise to get some extra help from angel investors on Shark Tank. In 2020, he appeared on the show’s 11th season, offering 5% of the company for $300,000.
The articulate entrepreneur claimed that Swimply could be profitable by the end of 2020, $15 million. However, Barbara Corcoran and Kevin O’Leary thought his projections were too high. Barbara again announced her exit because she didn’t understand the business.
Lori Greiner and Mark Cuban liked the business model because it was similar to Airbnb, but they were skeptical about the forecasts. Robert Herjavec said the valuation was unattainable, and Raskin ultimately did not make the deal.
Success after Shark Tank
Swimply has become one of the hottest success stories to be rejected on “Shark Tank.” Shortly after the episode aired, the pandemic hit the economy. That forced public pools to close, but private pools remained open.
The Swimply app has been downloaded more than 250,000 times on Google Play and the Apple App Store, with an average rating of 4.5 stars based on more than 7,000 reviews.
This helped them achieve over $1 million in revenue as they received 15,000 to 20,000 bookings per month. This triggered a Series A investment round that raised $40 million in 2021. The round was led by Mayfield and several angel investors, including former Airbnb co-founder Nate Blecharczyk.
Today, Swimply operates in the United States, Australia, and Canada, with 76 full-time employees. Swimply’s revenue is estimated at $10 million per year, and the company is valued at $30 million. Recently, they have expanded into new areas. Now you can rent courts for pickleball, basketball, and tennis.
Categories: Shark Tank
Source: svlsf.edu.vn