10 Years!? 🤯 Where did the time go?
Most people can’t swim 10 laps of the pool and most businesses don’t make it past a decade so I’m especially grateful to share that MySwimPro, Inc. has just crossed that BIG decade milestone!!
When Michael Allon, Adam Oxner and I launched MySwimPro back in 2015, we weren’t thinking about scaling globally, landing features from Apple, or raising money from 600+ investors. We just wanted to help people take the guesswork out of swim training. Since that time and now, we’ve had
- 🏊♂️ 2M+ app downloads
- đź’° $10M+ in lifetime revenue
- 🌍 20B+ meters logged
- 🌟 10K+ App Store reviews
- đź‘Ą A global team, and community in 180+ countries
We’re officially 10 years old. 🎉
It’s been an honor to lead this journey—and while the path hasn’t always been smooth, it’s been filled with excitement, frustration, and many lessons learned. Here are just 10 things I’ve gathered from serving the swimming community and building MySwimPro over the last decade:
1. You Can’t Outsource VISION
We’ve worked with incredible consultants, hired great talent, and brought on advisors who’ve made a real impact. But none of them can define or carry the vision for the company. That responsibility lives with the founders and especially the CEO. The minute you outsource direction, the mission starts to drift—and so does the culture.
2. Resilience Isn’t Built in the Good Times
Winning awards and celebrating milestones is energizing—but it’s not where your real character forms. Our most defining moments came during the hard times: cash crunches, product delays, and a global pandemic that shut down every pool in the world. Those setbacks made us stronger, taught us to be more thoughtful about product decisions, cash-flow, and reminded me that short-term pain builds long-term strength.
3. Remember Why You Started
It’s easy to lose sight of the original mission in the noise of growth. Meetings, KPIs, investor pitches, and ideation can pull you in a thousand directions. But every time we veered away from our core problem and persona, it cost us—time, focus, and money. Stay close to the problem you set out to solve, and stay loyal to the people you serve. A business only exists to solve a problem(s), so that needs to remain a priority.
4. If You’re Not Swimming in the Deep End, You’re Not Growing
Comfort is the enemy of innovation. The Apple Watch didn’t exist when we launched—and now it’s a centerpiece of our user experience. The world keeps changing: AI, wearables, new platforms, shiny objects. You can’t cling to what worked 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. To grow, you have to swim into uncertainty, test, iterate, and evolve—fast. I’m constantly pushing myself and our team to think bigger, be more nimble and ask how something can be done more efficiently.
5. Your Brand Grows at the Speed of Your Storytelling
People don’t buy what you do—they buy why you do it. That’s why online education and storytelling has been the most powerful growth engine of our content marketing machine. By creating value, sharing our journey—and the stories of our members—we’ve built something bigger than an app. It’s a global community that aspires to be better in the water. The more real and relatable the story, the faster trust builds. And in this era, trust is the ultimate currency.
6. Don’t Get Caught Up in Your Own Success
In the beginning, you’re doubted. Then after you make progress, suddenly, you’re praised—and if you’re not careful, that praise becomes your achilles heel. Success can blind you to changing conditions or biased assumptions. It’s easy to be around a bunch of “yes people”, and your ego will cloud judgment. I’ve always wanted to celebrate our wins, yet remain grounded, self-critical, and willing to question my own ideas—especially when they seem to be working. It’s also important to bring people in who can give unbiased feedback.
7. The Team, The Team, The Team
You go faster alone, but farther together. The people you surround yourself with shape your culture, your speed, and the company’s ceiling. We’ve had amazing teammates help build MySwimPro into what it is today, and I’m proud of the culture we’ve created and the experiences we’ve shared with our team. It’s fun to go on exotic retreats around the world, but I can confidently say that anyone who has ever worked with us over the years left an impact on the company. Our business has also been a positive impact in our team member’s personal and professional journies too. Talent follows energy, so keep yours high and your purpose clear.
8. Data Tells You What. Intuition Tells You Why.
You can’t scale on gut alone, but you also can’t let dashboards make every decision. Some of our most important moves were based on intuition supported by limited data. You have to be willing to act without perfect information—because you’ll never have it. Maybe it’s 70%, but in business, that’s enough. Be decisive, take smart calculated risks, and learn fast.
9. The Best Marketing Is a Transformation
You can say your product is great—or your customers can show the world. Our most impactful growth has come from word-of-mouth, user-generated content, and success stories. We have over 11k App Reviews in the Apple App Store. There’s nothing more authentic than someone saying, “This app changed my life.” Empower your community to speak for you, and the message will carry further than any ad spend ever could. This is something I wish we documented better earlier on, and it’s something we continue to share both internally and to our community.
10. Profitability Is a Strategy, Not a Destination
Chasing growth without a sustainable model is a recipe for burnout. I learned this the hard way. We hit revenue growth, but we were not always running a healthy business under the surface. The pandemic amplified this, and we’ve finally brought things back to profitability. Building a company that lasts requires discipline—managing expenses, optimizing for cash flow, and knowing when to stabilize, when to re-structure, and when to step on the gas pedal. Profit isn’t just survival—it’s peace of mind and it’s freedom.
After 10 years, I’m more grateful than ever—for the journey, the people, the lessons, and the impact of what we’ve built. We’ve helped millions of people swim with more confidence, seen thousands of life-changing stories, and built a community that I’m proud to be part of.
The journey is not over, and it continues stronger than ever. We have so much more to do and so many more people to help swim for life. Happy 10th Birthday, MySwimPro. And to everyone reading this—thank you for being a part of it.
On to the next lap. 🏊♂️
