The Pool-Mate story

Challenge Henley

2011-09-21T03:50:00.000-07:00

Just back from Henley and a wonderful weekend. Tired but buzzing!

Congratulations to the organizers Just Racing for putting on a fantastic new Iron distance event and delighted to have sponsored the swim and been part of it.

We had put together a couple of relay teams, an elite team and a celebrity one and also had a place for Martin Hollywood who won his on our facebook site!

The elite team did us proud with Olympic swim hopeful, the lovely Ellie Faulkner leading out of the Thames by several minutes in an amazing 48 minutes. It was Ellie's first time in a wetsuit, she's more used to swimming in warmer water too but she did an amazing job- I'm totally in awe!

Ellie handed over to Kona qualifier and local bike shop owner Rob Griffiths who powered round the tough 112 mile bike course in under 5 hours. Rob stepped in to the team at the last minute and manned a stall all weekend at the expo so didn't have any rest or preparation-thanks Rob.

The incredible Adam Holland traveled overnight from Devon to finish off the run leg with a 2:52 marathon. Adam holds the record for the youngest person to run 100 marathons at only 23 years old and also has a pb of 2:39. He breaks all the rules, running without nutrition and very little training, just relying on his abundant raw talent and enjoying it so much.

With this crack team we were delighted to win the relay event in a time of 8 hours 39 minutes.

Our second team was meant to be a celebrity team but didn't quite work. Vernon Kay was all set to do the swim but unfortunately after an MRI scan earlier in the week on a shoulder injury had to pull out a couple of days before and Jean-Christophe Novelli was injured on holiday and had to pull out of the bike leg. We still had the lovely Rosie Swale-Pope to run (more about Rosie later) so it was down to myself and husband Jim to step in despite not having trained!

I had a great swim, cold water 15.5 degrees and twice as far as I have swam for a few years, but it was SO COOL to see bobbing Swimovate logos on everyones caps each time I took a breath- special moments that I will always remember!

Jim enjoyed the cycle and much to his amazement didn't blow up and took us by surprise by finishing in just over 6 hours much quicker than he thought. The wonderful Rosie Swale-Pope finished off the team with a superb marathon run to bring the team home just after dark.

Rosie is such a character, with a heart of pure gold. She ran around the world after her husband died from Prostate Cancer. Took 5 years and over 50 pairs of shoes but she made it. Spending 18 months in Siberia, running across Alaska with frostbite, Iceland and Greenland pulling all her kit behind her, she didn't do it the easy way (if there is such a thing!).

Rosie gave a stunning talk at the pasta party and had a long snake of people wanting her book at the end- one you really should read. Fantastic stories and eloquently written I highly recommend it.

Congratulations to Martin for completing the entire event and all the other 800 competitors! Roll on next year!

Looking forward to summer

2011-07-08T06:38:00.000-07:00

We are busy designing new advertising materials, marquee, flags and banners for our outdoor events this summer. We are really pleased to be sponsoring Ellie Faulkner and amazing young swimmer from Sheffield.

Ellie won the European Junior Open Water Championships in 2009, has the 400m Freestyle British Age Group record and is a rising star. She finished second behind Rebecca Adlington in last months GB champs and already has bronze medals from the 2010 Youth Olympics. Needless to say 2012 holds lots of opportunities and we hope the qualifications and selections go well. We first met Ellie with her mum at an awards ceremony in 2009 and are delighted to be working with he

r now. Those of you who have swimmers for kids can appreciate the commitment from all the family to support those 5am training sessions. I heard that swimmers are the first in their class to get their own car once they turn 17 (parents are desperate for a lie in!).

We got some amazing photos at Ponds Forge with top swimming photographer Simon Wright from GBswimstars.com. Simon is the king of underwater shots and despite time pressures and a huge audience he kept his cool and delivered just what we wanted. Some of the shots are on the website already but more will follow.

There is a buzz in the Swimovate office now and we are moving into larger rooms next week to make things easier. We can finally talk about our exciting news about our partnership with Speedo too. Press release can be downloaded from www.swimovate.com/press.html.

So all set for a great summer, I just hear we won a big award too! Can't mention it just yet until publicity shots are taken next week but it's really exciting times!

Action packed summer ahead

2011-05-26T06:56:00.000-07:00

Can't believe it's the end of May already. Had our first trip to China this month, amazing experience and great to put faces to names at last and see our watches being made.

This was going to be a jet set month as I was supposed to be flying to Iceland this week for the European Women Inventors conference where we got a special recognition award but alas Volcanos put paid to that.

Things have been soaring ahead here, we have launched our PoolMate swimmer's shampoo. We did lots of research and saw a gap for a mid range shampoo that actually worked. There seemed to be cheap anti-chlorine shampoos that didn't really seem to do a lot and expensive ones imported from USA. So we set out and researched anti-chlorine agents and over the last 6 months worked on a formulation that binds with the chlorine and washes it away. It has lots of other properties too but I wont bore you with all that.

We have an exciting summer ahead, what with the Great Swim Series events (we will be at London and Windermere) and we are pleased to be sponsoring the swim at Challenge Henley triathlon in

September. This should be such a great event, we have managed to persuade Vernon Kay (swimming 3.8K), Jean-Christophe Novelli (cycling 112 miles) and Rosie Swale-Pope (running 26.2 miles) to

make up a Swimovate celebrity relay team to raise money for Tri4Japan. Will be a big challenge for the guys, for Rosie it will be a walk in the park. She is such a cool lady who set off running aged 57 dragging a sled behind her. She made it back home 5 years later having set the record for the longest unsupported run in the world. She's going to be talking at the pasta party about motivation and surviving at minus 62C!

We have just got another really cool lady on board- an Olympic hopeful from

Sheffield. We are delighted to be sponsoring her and she will be the face of the PoolMate shampoo. Cant wait to get some pictures of her in action next weekend when we will announce her name.

She will also be swimming at Challenge Henley- will be a privilege to watch!

If she can do it then I must be able to!

2011-02-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

Writing this thinking about a theme for my up and coming conference appearances next month. I was thinking back to where it all started- where the whole PoolMate thing began and what qualities are needed to make things happen in your life.

It was actually ten years ago on a Sunday morning in April. I was watching the London Marathon on TV and saw the amazing Jane Tomlinson taking part. Jane had been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer but had decided to run the marathon and raise money for charity. She was absolutely incredible, so emotional and determined and left a big impression on me. She was the same age as me, with children like me but had been hit by this terrible disease which was going to take her life.

"If she can do it then I must be able to!" so that afternoon I found some old trainers and went out running (for the first time), well run/walking! I have determination, if no athletic talent and that next year Jim and I were on that start line (I roped him into it too!) and crossed the line after the 26.2 miles together holding hands after a painful 5 hours.

After a couple of years running and although I did get better marathon times :) I realised I was never going to challenge Paula Radcliffe so looked round for something else. Triathlon looked fun and Jane Tomlinson had done one! So entered one and joined a club. Also dragged poor Jim into it too- he had to learn frontcrawl as well.

We really enjoyed the training and social aspects and gradually progressed from Sprint to Ironman over a couple of years. I remember doing our first 1/2 IM and saying I'm never going to do a full one, it's too hard. Trouble is it's like childbirth- you forget the bad bits too quickly and the next week I had signed up to IM Austria. Thinking back to my speech, I didn't know at that point if I could do it- who would. But I had the confidence to know if I trained correctly I should be able to and the determination to know I wouldn't give up. After all if Jane could do it then I must be able to!

There are no words to describe the feeling as you cross that finish line after an IM, to actually be able to stop moving! But how can you be running so well over the line but as soon as you stop you can't move a muscle without it screaming at you?

Of course the story goes on- we spotted the gap in the market for swim training aids and had the confidence to know that we could develop a product that would fill this space. We had determination to follow it through and make it a reality. It took a couple of years but we got there and things are going from strength to strength.

Unfortunately Jane died in September 2009 after so many challenges including Riding across America, cycling from London to Rome and many marathons and Triathlons but her spirit lives on in http://www.janetomlinsonappeal.com/ .Amazing.......

Cold water and other challenges

2011-02-01T12:36:00.000-08:00

Uk cold water swim meet was a hoot. Such brave people to swim in 3.5 degree water on a cold January weekend! We knew it would be full of wonderful characters and personalities (well you need a sense of humour to jump in water like that!) and we weren't disappointed.

There were the all year round lido regulars of course and those who came along for the opportunity to raise a laugh by swimming across the magnificent Tooting Bec lido wearing the silliest hat possible (believe me there were some amazing hats ranging from taxidermy animals to rubber chickens) but the bravest swimmers to me, were those who came for the team race completely unprepared. These had mostly entered for a bet or on a whim including Pamela and a team from British Gas. British Gas sponsor swimming in the UK and Pamela leads the crusade to get Britain swimming. Pamela is the tiniest girl you could meet with endless drive and enthusiasm, it did seem to be waning a little though waiting for the start of her race. To their own admission they hadn't practised or acclimatised (why would you want to) and watching the race it was obvious how painful it was but they did it and each swam their 30 metre stint in style- well done girls!

Although winter swimming is not for me I was severely tempted this week to enter the Otillo, it's advertised as "one of the toughest 1 day races in the world" so probably way too tough for me.

Craig from our South Africa distributor has entered with a colleague and will be proudly liveried up in Swimovate kit. I hadn't heard of the race before and checked out the website. It's in Sweden and starts at the outer most islands near Stockholm and you swim and run your way back to civilisation between 19 islands covering 64km with a mixture of running and swimming. It's such a different race and looks so much fun (if you like that sort of thing of course). I was put off by the potential 10 degree water and the fact that it's in the sea - a saturday morning and gale force winds in Bournemouth put me off salt water big time! It's a team race which is challenging too as you can't be more than 10m apart in the swims so the racers are mostly tethered together. You can use flippers and hand paddles though which Jim liked the sound of and have to carry/swim with all your own kit.

We will leave it to team swimovate.com.za to get the glory this year but next year maybe you will see us there......

Perhaps a more accessible challenge are the Swimathon swims in April. We are proud to be working with Swimathon this year, they raise millions of pounds for charity through their sponsored swims that take place all over the UK and get thousands of people swimming in their local pool. So hope to see lots of PoolMates in the pool on 8th to 10th April - at least the water will be warm!

2011-01-21T09:24:00.000-08:00

Hi Swimmers

Lots of developments in the Swimovate camp already this year. We have launched our new BLUE PoolMate watch and due to popular demand we have some great PoolMate Polo shirts for sale on our website in a variety of sizes. We have been amazed by the number of customers who want to help us fly the flag and tell others about our watches either by words or actions- thanks guys!

MAC software for the Pro will be available very soon now and we are so pleased with it we will be rolling it out for the PC as well! If you already have a PoolMate Pro and want to beta test the MAC software in the next couple of weeks please email us.

Our customers never fail to inspire us, I was touched by Denny Burns from Canada today, he is a loyal PoolMate user and in his own words " My PoolMate Pro has changed my life!". He is virtually swimming his way across all 5 Great Lakes and is part way through the second already. Once he hits the final 20 miles across Lake Michigan he's going to do the real thing in the lake itself! Wow! Send us some pictures Denny.

Last week I heard from a lovely lady in the US who had started swimming last year to lose weight. She has gone from 225 pounds to 202 pounds and from swimming 2 laps to 70 laps. At the start she could manage only 5 mins before having to stop, now she can manage 50 mins- way to go girl! The PoolMate helps her set goals and motivate herself.

It just goes to show the diversity of our customers and the value they can get from the watch in different ways. Speaking of diverse swimmers, we have a stand at the UK cold water championships tomorrow at Tooting Beck Lido (open air, not heated, no wetsuits and below zero temperatures!) I wont be taking my costume that's for sure!

Finally we have been keeping up with the times as well -Please sign up to follow us on twitter and facebook where you will be the first to know our news

http://twitter.com/#%21/lisapoolmate

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Swimovate-Pool-Mate/110978225599320?v=wall

Thanks to you all

Lisa

Christmas rush

2010-12-10T09:50:00.000-08:00

A busy time at Swimovate HQ at the moment, we feel like Santa every day packing up sacks full of watches for the long suffering postman to collect. It's still a strange feeling to think people will be opening their Pool-Mates on Christmas morning. I hope they like them!

We have sold more than 20,000 watches since the first product went on sale back last September, totally amazing. We had our delivery of Christmas stock arrive- 60 huge boxes which took over 2 rooms here but are selling so fast I think we may run out (we had to get the factory sending more pink ones already).

Sue and I had a fab day last week at the NatWest Everywoman awards at The Dorchester. I was nominated for the Athena award celebrating the UKs most inspirational business women. Sadly I didn't win, that went to Camilla from Higgidy Pies who are making and supplying delicious pies to lots of major supermarkets in the UK. Camilla's business is very different from mine, she has 140 staff and a 24 hour a day production line to manage so has my complete respect. No hard feelings- I have one of her pies in my fridge!

It was a fantastic event hosted by Emma Forbes in the glitzy ballroom and people struggled in from all over the UK despite the snow and ice. A once in a lifetime experience for sure. We prolonged it as long as we could, my husband Jim came over after work and we lingered over cocktails and dinner to get the most from the day.

I have decided to be lazy this Christmas and for the first time ever go out for Christmas dinner. I usually do the dinner with all the trimmings but I know we will be so busy and wont have the time to do it justice (well that's my excuse).

Happy birthday to Lauren and Chris from mum! Thanks for your help and support xxx

PoolMatePro is here!

2010-11-13T06:44:00.000-08:00

I watched a programme last night on TV about branding and customer experiences. One of the key messages was to look after your customers as they can be the best sales agents and ambassadors for your company. We have always tried our very best to do this from the start and have such wonderful feedback and support from Pool-Mate users we knew how important this was. We have had such kind comments from old customers and new ones. People have been asking us for Tshirts and other branded merchandise so they can spread the word for us, amazing.

It's been an incredible journey and one we thought would be so much harder in the tough global market and hard financial outlook. However the Pool-Mate has filled a gap in the market that people didn't even know was there! I get emails every day from users saying how the Pool-Mate has changed their lives (no exaggeration I promise!) which is so rewarding.

It's time for progress though and the PoolMate

Pro finally launched on 1st November and sales have been rolling out. The great new packaging design really stands out and it's so much easier to track your progress on your PC than looking through the log on the watch.

I had a bit of excitement this month with a call from Kim at Everywoman saying I was one of the three finalists in the NatWest Everywoman 2010 Athena award

http://www.everywoman.com/everywomanAwards/TheNatWesteverywomanAwards/Finalists2009/

Had to go into London for an interview with the judges and now just have to wait to find out more on 1st December for the awards dinner at the Dorchester! Been an excuse to buy a new dress though.

I was interviewed by three amazing women including Liz Jackson MBE who runs Great Guns Marketing despite losing her sight early in her career- now that's inspirational. Fingers crossed for the award but the competition is tough and it really is enough just to be there.

I'm mentoring new businesses at the British Library on Wednesday too for Womens Enterprise Day. Cool!

Will report back about the awards dinner and more exciting news from the Swimovate camp very soon.

Lisa

Expansion

2010-08-23T10:00:00.001-07:00

A really busy summer made us very aware we definitely needed more help in the office so a big welcome to Sue, our new Office Manager! She had a baptism of fire this week as we were overrun with orders after a photo and mention appeared in the Sunday Times so had to learn quick!

Still getting new shops every week and fantastic feedback from our users. It's great to do an exhibition or trade show and have people coming up wearing the Pool-Mates and singing it's praises. I had a lovely email yesterday from a guy who had knocked 10 minutes off his IM swim- all due to the watch he says- I'm sure he had something to do with it too.

We have been proud to support Greg Wellman and his swimmers for the 10K swim challenges he is organising for www.swimforthem.org. I'm sure the Pool-Mates we sent will be a great help in their training for the big day.

We have made great progress on the Pool-Mate Pro which was a major priority this summer. This is the downloadable version of the watch which is set for a later September/early October launch. It will retail at £129.99 and existing users will be able to upgrade their old watches for just £60.

Our users said they wanted something that would download their data and we have designed a special USB download pod with Infrared link to the Pool-Mate which is currently in manufacture so all on track for launch.

Look out for our new logos and branding as well, I got the new packaging back today from the designers and it looks fab, and should really stand out on the shelves. We are all looking forward to the new few months.

Team Pool-Mate had a great time in the French mountains again this summer and managed 21 mountain ascents on the bikes between the three of us (Chris managed the 3 different ascents of Mont Ventoux in one day and joined the select club of cyclists to do this- which translates as the "Mad men of Ventoux"- not bad for a 19 year old). We also entered the L'Alpe D'Huez Triathlon as the Pool-Mate relay team which was great fun and allowed us to show off the new Pool-Mate cycle jerseys all day long! Daughter Lauren did a fantastic job of holding the fort back at home too- couldn't have done it without her.

I so hope the weather improves again, we have had a pretty wet August here in the UK. We are exhibiting at the Great North Swim in a couple of weeks in the Lake District. I know we will get wet in the water but it will be a bit damp in the Marquee all weekend if it rains. Fingers crossed!

Lisa

A buzz about the place

2010-05-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

There is a buzz about the place this week with an interview in Triathlete's World following our story over the last couple of years. I wasn't too keen to get in the pool for the photoshoot but they did a great job considering the model!

We had another nice surprise this weekend when a flurry of orders came in saying they heard about the watch from a newspaper. A bit of digging later and we found the Pool-Mate top gadget in the Independent's 50 Fitness Essentials (beating all the usual suspects). The paper was very popular locally and at 5pm that afternoon it took visits to 5 shops before we found a copy for our press cuttings.

The watch is still going from strength to strength and more shops and retailers coming on board every day. Watches have been going to some very far flung places. We sent one to a Gold mine in Botswana and got our distributor in Brazil up and running this month.

Things are going great in the US this month too and got a fantastic review in the latest US masters swimming magazine and will be giving prizes in their national events this summer. We have our first advert coming out in Triathlete mag next week.

The triathlon season is now up and running and we are looking forward to having a presence at some events this summer inc London Tri and the Great North Swim which has 8500 swimmers braving lake Windermere in the stunning Lake District. Hope it warms up a bit soon though it was freezing out cycling this morning. Needs to be a bit warmer before I jump in the lake!

We have met some amazing people over the last 6 months and I have been totally overwhemed by the support and enthusiasm we have encountered. They love it when you give you dream a go and take on the world. People are really nice!

February- Trade show excitement

2010-02-17T08:33:00.000-08:00

Back home at last, just had 2 expos in a week and need to get some rest in. Pool-Mates went down a storm though, there is a real buzz developing around them. Fantastic responses and feedback- couldn't ask for more.

First was Munich and ISPO, the largest sporting goods trade fair in the world. We had our own stand and were finallists in the Bluetooth Innovation World Cup so had space on their stand too!

It was great to meet our European distributors including Emiliano from Italy who travelled 9 hours by train to meet us and Martin from swimovate.de who showed us the sights in Munich and translated the menu for us at the Hofbrauhaus one evening. Also made lots of new contacts from all over the world and had some really interesting talks with some other parties (no names yet).

Alas we were runners up in the competition, no win this time :(, but we met some fantastic people and contacts that will be really useful in the days ahead. Low Energy Bluetooth has really got us excited and it will be such a fantastic platform for sports and fitness technology- we want to be first on the scene! Got a nice glass trophy to add to the collection too.

I'm getting better at presentations now too, I presented to the Wearable Technology conference 2010 and did a press conference the next day (wow)- glad I did the talk at the British Library last month to give me some confidence!

Then was TCR show in Sandown Park, UK- lots of public this time. It was fantastic to speak to existing users who without exception loved the Pool-Mate! We can't believe how many people came up to us and said it was amazing and had really made a difference to their swimming. Swim For Tri , Jog Shop and Mailsports believed it too and all took stock back to sell. What could be better than having people come to your stand wearing your product and singing it's praises!

We have loads of press this month, a great review in Stuff magazine, competition in Swimming Times, interview in Triathlete's World, filming for the British Library Business Centre and reviews coming out in Triathlete USA, Cycling Weekly and many more. Things are really moving now and we are having the most fun ever (and working the hardest!).

..............We got another addition to the household last night, a beautiful little gremlin who will no doubt be helping pack watches before too long :)

2010 off with a bang

2010-01-19T07:25:00.000-08:00

The big freeze meant I couldn't get to the pool as much as I wanted over the last couple of weeks but running in deep fresh snow in Windsor Great Park was a joy. I'm afraid I'm not as committed as one of my shop owners though in the USA who goes out running at 5am in the dark every morning (minus 8 and snow, no deterent). I only managed once!

Daughter Lauren had fun in her Christmas break in the garden :)

2010 has set off to be no less exciting than 2009, Swimovate have been selected from over 250 entrants to be one of the 4 finalists in the Low Power Bluetooth Innovation Worldcup. This is an international competition to find exciting new applications for this growing technology. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at ISPO, the worlds largest sporting goods trade fair on 8th February.
Part of the prize is space on the Wearable Technology stand in the main hall so we will have double the presence- we already have our own stand there too! Press conferences have been booked and amazing times to be had....

February will be a busy month, we have a stand at the TCR show in Sandown Park which is the UKs biggest triathlon exhibition. We will have a prize draw for all customers to win a signed Rebecca Adlington T Shirt. So please come along and meet us.

We have also been delighted to join with Swim-Log to offer software analysis for the Pool-Mate data. The Swim-Log software is fantastic, comprehensive and really good value. The Swim-Log team are committed to providing a quality product with free upgrades and support, you can even try it free before you buy. Loads of our users are analysing their data and this is a great solution to offer.

Best get back to work, more watches are arriving soon and I have my talk next week at the British Library to inspire other entrepreneurs. Hope the snow stays away a little longer!

Wow what a year!

2009-12-21T12:01:00.000-08:00

Wow what a year, thankyou so much to all our customers all over the world for your purchases and fantastic feedback. We are delighted and overwhelmed by the success of 2009 and really looking forward to 2010.

Unfortunately demand far exceeded our supply in the run up to Christmas and we apologise if you haven't been able to get your watch yet. The limited edition pink watches sold out in just 2 days!

We have had some great publicity the last couple of weeks with a fabulous press release from Texas Instruments, our IC provider, who broadcasted the Pool-Mate story to the electronics press all over the world. We also were delighted to secure the endorsement of Nick Gillingham MBE, double Olympic medallist, former World, European, Commonwealth Champion and World Record Holder!

Nick is now a renowned coach and is keen on promoting the Pool-Mate to the swimmers in his swimming camps and courses. He's done a great video for us in the pool- why can't I swim like that? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb7Kr4r7yMo

Nick says "Based on my experience, I have no hesitation to recommend it’s inclusion into your training. If the Pool-Mate had been available when I was breaking records and developing into an Olympic swimmer it would have saved me a lot of time and would have been part of my programme..."

I was also approached by Cally Robson of www.shesingenious.org who had heard about my Enterprising Women award, to give a talk to new entrepreneurs next month at the British Library about our experiences! It's a terrifying prospect, I haven't done any public speaking before and those of you that know me will know this is way out of my comfort zone. But after going up in front of the Dragons, I can do anything! Cally did say I would be talking for a hour- my goodness. I can't believe people will be paying to hear me talk but it's an amazing story that even we find hard to believe and if I can help inspire someone else to give it a go then it must be worth it. If you are there please be kind.

We are pulling out the stops to increase supply in the next couple of months, we have some big events coming up in February- TCR show in Sandown park and the huge ISPO trade show in Munich so please come and see us if you can. We will have a fabulous prize draw for customers at TCR show and Nick has promised he will be there on our stand at least one of the two days!

Looking forward to getting the kids home for Christmas and eating the 2 year old Christmas pudding we found at the back of the larder last month!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year

Lisa

One last thing- We have been shortlisted for the 220triathlon most innovative product of 2009. Please vote for us at www.220triathlon.com!

Awards......

2009-11-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy few days at Swimovate HQ. Sales are going off the scale now the holiday season is approaching and keeping us very busy indeed.

We've had a whirlwind few days starting with a trip to the Splash Awards for Britains best swimmers, courtesy of Olympic medallist Karen Pickering and Mission Sports Management. Held at a top Knightsbridge hotel we joined elite swimmers from all over the country in this glittering event. Clare Baldwin was a fantastic host and Sharron Davies was stunning in sequins, winning the lifetime achievement award. We were flying the flag for the Pool-Mate and totally in awe of the award winners and their amazing success. The GB synchronized swimming squad monopolized the dance floor much to the delight of Justin Lee Collins who was surrounded by them!

I also travelled to Cambridge yesterday to attend the annual Enterprising Women Awards dinner. I was up for an award and met lots of very inspirational women who had travelled from all over the country to be there. Emma Harrison did an amazing, inspirational talk. You might have seen her in many TV programmes including Secret Millionaire. Speaking of which..........I got an email last week from Channel 4 asking if I would be interested in taking part in the programme! Not quite there yet but maybe next year!

Anyway to my delight I won the award- I'm officially Enterprising Women Innovator of 2009 and have the trophy and bouquet to prove it (first time I have won a trophy!). It's great to have recognition after working so long on our own to get to where we are today.

We are waiting for the next batch of watches again and presold 80% of these already, we can't get them quick enough. We still can't believe how quickly things are happening. We have got in some very large shops in the US and signed up more distributors around the world so the future looks very rosy.

We are about to reveal a very sexy hot PINK version for Christmas so watch this space!!!!

38 countries and rising!

2009-11-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

Sales have been going through the roof here, last count we had sent Pool-Mates out to 38 different countries all over the world and we now have the manual in several different languages. We will be in all 30 Sweatshop stores in the UK next month including Harrods- how cool is that.

The challenge in on now to keep up with demand. We did think things would start slowly and gradually but the internet has taken a grip and interest has begun to rocket. Our trusty manufacturer is on full alert and we will have a couple more batches before Christmas. By popular demand we are hoping to have special, limited edition, hot pink watches too- watch this space for a sneak preview soon!

Team Pool-Mate is doing well, although there is not enough time to train these days. Here's a picture of us at the recent Rough Track Triathlon where we managed a fab second place.
We welcome new team member Fitness Instructor Pete Frost from Marlow. Pete is training, with his Pool-Mate of course, to swim the English Channel next summer. Pete will be sharing all his swim training and the big day itself with us on the website over the next year.

We are also delighted to receive an endorsement from Paralympic Gold medalist, Claire Cunningham. Clare wanted the Pool-Mate to help her with her training. Although now retired from professional swimming, Clare has entered the sport of triathlon and is doing astoundingly well. She's won gold medals this year at the World, European and British Championships- can't do any better than that!

Clare was born without her left forearm and wears her Pool-Mate on this arm but strapped above the elbow. We must admit we were not sure if it would be 100% accurate worn in this way- but it works perfectly for her and she finds it invaluable for efficiency evaluation and stroke counting. Thanks Clare.

Anyway, more orders to send out so best get on.

P.S. We would love to win "Most Innovative Product Award" in the 220 Triathlon 2009 awards so please spare a minute to vote at www.220triathlon.com!

Pool-Mates are shipping

2009-09-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

We have the first couple of weeks of shipping behind us now and half have gone already! Rajan in the post office is now used to seeing us several times a day as we keep filling up his sacks. Don't think the people of Wraysbury are quite as happy to see us as though as they wait behind us in the queue.

Starting to get some feedback too which is invaluable and allows us to continue developing the Pool-Mate and making it better. We have had some great comments and reviews from our customers which is fab and great to know the public actually like it. Seems people really do want a downloadable version (we have prototypes already working) and open water functionality, so that gives us some focus. There also seems to be a big market for funky colours- pink in particular was a often heard request. 220 triathlon have their review coming out tomorrow which should be great news for getting the word out in the UK. I heard on the grapevine we had "Editor's Choice" hope it's true.

We spent Sunday on the Tri and Run stand at the Rough Track Triathlon at Eton showing the Pool-Mates and competing. Team Pool-Mate- myself, Chris and Jim entered the relay and stormed home in second place (well the boys did, I was the weak link as usual- will really have to improve my swimming, no excuses now!). The Pool-Mates got a great reception too, gave one to Will Clarke and Mens Fitness to review as well.

It is so exciting at the moment, we never know what the next phone call or email will hold. Shops are starting to listen now and international sales have really kicked off. So glad we took the plunge and gave it all a go. I expect there will be tough times ahead but it's so much more fun than working for someone else. Those dragons will be sorry.....

Pool-Mate in the Den

2009-08-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Just heard they wont be showing my spot on Dragon's Den :(

Last April I went up in front of the Dragons for the BBC TV programme. It was every bit as scary as you would imagine. I applied back in November and got the first call soon after Christmas. After answering lots of questions on the phone I heard I had made it to a screen test at BBC TV centre in three days time. I had to learn a pitch and prepare and learn our business plan over a weekend. The screen test was in front of an assistant producer but I'd not been filmed before and it was still daunting. About 5 takes later they were happy and I had completely forgotten everything I had said- I could have been talking about washing powder for all I remember!

I waited for a few weeks then got the call to say I'd made it to filming at Pinewood Studios. I had to put together a huge folder of information and they did weeks of due dilligence. What the Dragons' get before them are companies who have been thoroughly checked out so they can be assured the claims, patents, competition and figures have been checked and verified by the BBC so some of the risk has been minimised.

Finally the day arrived............

I had to arrive at the Studios at 7.30am. What you don't see on TV is that they keep you waiting all day in the Green Room with the other entrepreneurs, not knowing when you are going to be on. You can't even go to the toilet without a chaperone in case you see the other companies who have already been filmed or you bump into any of the Dragons. This really builds the tension and keeps the nerves on edge. The first day they ran out of time and along with another company, I had to go home again without being filmed. Back the next week for another shot and I did get on this time.

The set is nothing like it appears on the TV, the main thing that struck me waiting to go on was how cold it was- I almost felt sorry for the Dragons sitting there all day. The stairs you walk up are just part of the set and dont actually go anywhere. The bricks on the walls are all plastic but look great on camera. Finally I got the call to go, and had to find my mark on the floor to stand on- not easy in a dark room. There are about 20 other people in the room and the cameras, so it really is a bit different from how it appears on the TV. If it was just me and the Dragons perhaps I wouldn't have been so scared.

The pitch went well however and I remembered everything including the figures, phew. I was infront of them for over an hour and got a good grilling and scared I was. The Dragons kept saying I looked nervous but it was a good presentation. Without exception, they all said the Pool-Mate was a really good product, they liked it a lot and thought it would sell, however they couldn't see how they could make money out of it too. I think I should have been a bit more forceful when I spoke about the size of the potential market and lack of any competition but it's easy to think of these things with hindsight. Deborah was kind and made sure I got all my information across including some good letters of intent from distributors but one by one they bowed out.

I was disappointed of course, as the thought of failure never once crossed my mind before stepping on set. I totally believe the Pool-Mate is a fantastic product and a huge leap forward for swimmers but looking back I think we were already doing everything they would have suggested. Obviously the publicity would have been good if we had got investment but we really didn't want to give away a large percentage of the business.

I just heard that we wont be shown on the TV series, I guess I wasn't silly or exciting enough for good TV. I knew I should have taken Richard "the fish" Stannard (top UK Triathlete) up on his offer to come on with me in his Speedos! It's been great fun doing things on our own and I know this will continue and we get to keep all the profits and plough them back into the company to develop more lines in the range.

Would I do on the Den again? In one word- no. Still it was a huge experience and we have got to work hard now to prove them wrong!

Production samples are in!

2009-08-21T03:54:00.000-07:00

They are here.

They look fab and work like a dream. I took a couple down to the pool yesterday and gave them a good workout- one on each arm! We are doing some more tests in the lab but everything seems spot on. The packaging looks great and really strong so should stand up well to shipping all over the world.

Great news is that the rest of the batch will be shipped from our manufacturer at the end of next week, so we will be able to start sending out Pool-Mates very, very soon. All being well the online store will open on Tuesday 1st September.

Thankyou all for your patience, it's great to be getting so close now. Don't forget to reserve your watch as well over half the first batch has been reserved already and I wouldn't want you to miss out.

Had some more great news this week, our son Chris passed his A levels much to his relief, and got in to Loughborough Uni to study Sports Technology (we are hoping he can give us some help next year!).

Really looking forward to those big boxes arriving from China!

Waiting for watches

2009-08-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first blog from Swimovate Ltd.

We are itching to get the Pool-Mate out to our customers now. Unfortunately we will have to wait until the end of the month as tooling took a little longer than we expected and the watches are still in manufacture.

We have been amazed by the interest so far and have reservations from all over the world from Brazil to Italy and Dubai to Poland. We have an amazing distributor in Germany who has been taking orders by the bucket full and have already increased their first order. Thanks as well to TriathlonZone in St Albans who have been advertising the Pool-Mate in their shop window and have also increased their first order to cope with demand. It’s fantastic to have such support and belief after a couple of years of developing the watch on our own. We knew there was a market for the Pool-Mate but it’s great to finally get some feedback and realise we were right and it looks like it will be worth the development time and costs. Consequently over half the first batch is spoken for already and we are getting stock together for a second batch to we don’t run out.

It seems to have been worth me eating my pride and making the YouTube videos. I’ve never done anything like it before and it wasn’t easy and really was completely embarrassing, but they have had over 3500 views between them already- incredible or perhaps they are just looking to laugh at me. Some retailers even want to display the videos on their flat screens in their shops! Glad I don’t have to watch them on repeat all day long.

The internet really is a fantastic thing and completely responsible for the interest we have to date. Our press releases have been translated into many different languages including Japanese, Portuguese and Russian. There are a couple of weird ones though that have obviously been translated into some language then back into English and are complete garbage.

We also need to get samples out to reviewers so you all can see the watch actually works! We have loads of magazines all over the world lined up to test the watch. It’s just so frustrating at the moment as we haven’t got enough samples at all. Guess we will just have to be a little more patient. 220 Magazine have the review sample at the moment so looking forward to their review soon.

We had a couple of weeks break in France recently with the Tri club before the stock arrives and managed to get our campervan decked up in Pool-Mate livery before setting off. Tried to get on the TV coverage of the Tour de France but I don’t think anyone spotted us. Anyway we advertised the watch all the way down to the Alps and back. A few people have asked about the watch from seeing the van so it’s doing it’s stuff.

We took part in the Alpe D’Huez triathlon whilst we were there- not an experience we are keen to repeat. It really is a brutal race, mind you a chest infection, 35 degree heat and lack of training really didn’t help Jim or I. Our son Chris did it as his first triathlon (baptism of fire). The mass start swim was freaking him out a bit but he fought back and he’s amazing on the bike and flew up the mountain and finished the run before I’d even got off the bike! Got a photo of him checking his Pool-Mate as he came out of the water too.

Can't wait to start sending out those watches now, hope everyone will like them.