About Us

Big Blue Swim School focuses on creating Big Moments for children ages six months to 12 years old. In purpose-built facilities designed to create a safe, welcoming environment for families, their teachers work with kids to develop swim skills that include stroke, breath, and propulsion, creating confident swimmers and building important life skills like courage, hard work, and perseverance. Their lessons encourage children to face their fears and build self-assurance – giving students the tools they’ll need to face life’s challenges through childhood into adulthood.

Trained under their proprietary teacher-training program, Big Blue’s instructors strive to lead every student to a Big Moment during every class, while teachers, managers, and parents work together to focus on each child’s progress. Lesson Buddy, the company’s robust back-end office support and proprietary software – designed and developed for the ease of the owner, staff, parents, children, and facility – allows families to easily follow that progress and connect with teachers and Big Blue staff.

An attractive, scalable franchising opportunity, Big Blue was founded by former competitive swimmers John Lonergan and Chris DeJong. It’s being financed by Level 5 Capital Partners, founded in 2009 by Fortune 1000 technology executives and dedicated to backing exceptional entrepreneurs in the health, wellness, and family markets.

The Swim School Market

Swimming is a necessary life and safety skill:

• Fatal drowning for children 1­14 is the second leading cause of unintentional injury related death [Center for Disease Control]
  
• Formal swim lessons decrease the risk of drowning for children 1­4 [Pediatric Adolescent Magazine 2009]
  

The Market in the U.S. is large:

• 50 million children under 12 years old
  
• ~4 million births annually
  
• Swim lessons are a $5 billion Industry
  

The Competitive Landscape is fragmented:

• With no dominant players in the swim lesson space, and recent decreases in state and local spending, the market demand is high for quality swim schools focused on basic skills
  

Our Opportunity

• Rapidly become the national market leader in Franchise Swim Schools
  
• 300-500 unit platform focused on Top 50 US markets
  
• Industry leading mature franchise concepts generate >75% EBITDA margin on Franchisor business (L5 Research)
  
• Big Blue Company owned store path continues to have potential for 5-year Enterprise Value of >$30M
  
• Execution on Big Blue as Franchisor business plan has potential for additional Enterprise Value of $100-500M
  

Our Benefits

• "You Build It, They will Come" model (Brick & Mortar 10,000+ sq. ft.)
  
• Absentee Investor model
  
• Turnkey site selection, real estate, and construction management
  
• New pool marketing launch automation
  
• Turnkey general management training/support
  
• Lesson Buddy: a cloud-based, mobile-operating management system
  
• Incredible Item 19, 30% or higher average EBIDTA ($744,762 – $1M+)
  
• Artificial Intelligence at all pools: franchisee will never have to chemically balance a pool or deal with malfunctioning equipment, as this is handled by the Franchisor’s facilities team, leveraging technology built into the equipment