How Hawking Pool Chemicals On Subscription Led To An Offer From An Industry Giant

ConnectedYard took an old idea and brought it into the 21^st century. When they started looking for new funding, they found a buyer instead.

Mark Janes co-founded ConnectedYard in 2015. The company developed pHin, a sensor that monitors the water chemistry of your pool or hot tub and sends notifications to your smartphone when your chemicals are out of whack. Coupled with a subscription model that sold pre-packaged pool chemicals and maintenance services, ConnectedYard started to disrupt the pool and hot tub services market. And that’s when Hayward Industries, one of the world’s largest suppliers of swimming pool gear, approached Janes about buying his company.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The pros and cons of giving up equity through venture funding rounds
• How to build your pitch to funders to avoid ‘aging’ your deal
• Why venture funding can be a great way to find unexpected buyers
• The importance of ‘staring your acquirer in the eyes’
• Key tactics to protect yourself as you structure an earn out

Janes gave away the pHin monitor in exchange for a subscription to the chemicals needed to rebalance your pool. It’s the latest example of a savvy entrepreneur applying the subscription business model to a new industry. How about you? Have you figured out your subscription model yet? If not, you’ll love Module 5 of The Value Builder System™ which includes a tool designed to help you identify a subscription model in any industry.  Start The Value Builder System™ free right now by completing Module 1.

Check out our article on How To Get The Attention Of An Acquirer.

Check out our full M&A Glossary

About Our Guest

Mark Janes loves building successful companies through unique products, great branding, and amazing teams.
He is tenacious, without horizons, and having started his first business aged 12, never looked back.
He has a broad skill set, from operations, sales/marketing/bus dev, strategic partnerships, investor relationships, product roadmap, hardware/software development.
Janes’ life philosophy is to enjoy each day by building things that inspire, change lives and set the standard for others to follow.