History
Pool Geek evolved from a traditional “mom and pop” swimming pool store in Brighton, Michigan. Founded in 1974 John Austin Pools, Inc. installed inground swimming pools, serviced swimming pools, and operated a retail store. In 2007, we launched our first website spa-geek.com to try our hand at internet sales. We built the site 100 percent in house and shipped orders out of our backroom.
Business Size
In 2011 we shipped over 25,000 orders. We ship all of these orders from our own inventory, with all of our own employees. Pool Geek sold over $4,000,000.00 in total sales during that period. We have 5 full time employees. We hire up to 10 additional employees during the warmer months. Our business is incredibly seasonal! We are a small business. We take pride in being very efficient and having low overhead.
Philosophy
We don’t think it takes a complicated philosphy to run a successful company. We do the right thing for our customers even if it costs us a little more. We ship orders very fast. We communicate clearly with each other and with our customers. We boostrap all of our projects and avoid debt. We think coupons are silly and over complicate the buying process. We price products the best we can for everyone. We keep our business simple, straightforward, and deliver what our customers ask for. That is it.
Real People
Kristi Pappas
kristi@poolgeek.com
Kristi is our full time bookkeeper and customer service chief. She is from the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, making her our resident “Yooper”. She has two dogs and loves watching movies. She is super friendly on the phone and we get many compliments about her customer service.
Will Riley
will@poolgeek.com
Will makes sure that we don’t run out of products and that your orders go out on time. He also handles any items that you need to return. He is a big University of Michigan fan and tends to get the wildest at our quarterly company gatherings. He enjoys playing with his son and grew up in a very small town.
Jacob Shaulis
jacob@poolgeek.com
Jacob is the Operations Managing Partner at Pool Geek. At a small company like ours, that means he does a little of about 50 different jobs. He played the Marimba at Michigan State University, has ridden motorcycles, and likes to fish. He is employee number 2 at Pool Geek and started out filling orders in our, then, unheated warehouse in the dead of a Michigan winter.
Matthew Austin
matthew@poolgeek.com
Matthew is our CEO. He started Pool Geek from a laptop in his spare time. He has three young boys to wear him out when he is feeling a little too energetic. He is a big fan of technology, likes the outdoors and having a date night with his wife. He is constantly thinking about how to make Pool Geek better faster, and more useful to our customers.