Dive into Change: MBA Alum Shares Career-Switch Advice After Launching Pool Service Business

The year was 2021, and the COVID-19 pandemic was making it hard for Leslie Elliott, MBA ’07, to get reliable service for her backyard swimming pool. Elliott, who had been an executive at several companies, was also looking for a new challenge in her career. She had looked at several opportunities but kept coming back to pools. That year, she took the plunge and bought a small Austin company.

“Most companies in the space tend to have names that are fairly similar, and I wanted to create something that would stand out,” she says. “My husband and I were driving back from a road trip and spent hours tossing around names until the name Poolie was born.”

In December of that year, she started with three employees and 180 pools. By the time she joined with Unity Partners in September 2023, she had grown the company to 850 customers in the Austin area. Since then, Poolie has grown to 170 workers and 4,500 customers and spread to Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and College Station. The company provides pool cleaning, repair and renovation services to residential and commercial customers.

“Our goal is to be the biggest service company in Texas,” Elliott said in Pool Magazine. “It’ll take some time to get there.”

In the beginning, she worked in every position except repair technician. “I really got my hands dirty and feel like I got a good understanding of the different levers and opportunities in the business,” she told Pool & Spa News.

For those considering such a career switch, Elliott offers these three tips:

• Go for it! Sometimes you need to just dive in.
• Don’t disqualify yourself from opportunities or think you don’t have the right experience to do something new. Always take the chance to keep learning and be open to new experiences.  
• Use your network and make the time for talks with colleagues. Weekly “working lunches” with a fellow McCombs peer and business owner were invaluable. Having someone to push you, challenge your ideas, and give you different perspectives is always great.