The Pool Zapper

The Pool Zapper

SURVIVAL/ENTREPRENEURS by Jean Gruss | Editor Lee/Collier

It's hard to persuade people their backyard pools are germ buckets. Entrepreneur Jon Laliberte

says he's got a better way to kill the toughest germs using ultraviolet light.

America's obsession with cleanliness and war against germs is about to jump into the backyard swimming pool. Add in a little "green" marketing and you've got a recipe for a business that promises to zap the toughest bugs in the pool.

At least that's what Jon Laliberte is hoping. His company, Naples-based PureTech Pool Systems, has developed a home-pool system that uses ultraviolet technology to kill germs that are resistant to chlorine or salt systems.

The technology is not new. Some states require municipalities to treat public swimming pools with intense ultraviolet light to kill the toughest bugs such as cryptosporidium. But no one has designed such a system for home use that was reasonably priced, says Laliberte.

But just because a technology is better and less expensive than what's available doesn't mean it will be an easy sell. For example, the pool-maintenance companies haven't embraced the new technology because they make money marking up pool chemicals. Laliberte's ultraviolet system only needs once-a-year maintenance.

There have been other challenges too, such as impatient investors, a homebuilding downturn, manufacturing delays and personal tests such as a divorce.

Still, Laliberte has that never-quit personality that is a special trait among all successful entrepreneurs.

Laliberte has big dreams for the ultraviolet technology and the pool is just the start. "I want to build a whole house water treatment," he says.

Water buckets everywhere

Laliberte, 50, is not new to entrepreneurial ventures. From 1992 until 2005, he was president and chief executive officer of Sampling and Analytical Management Inc., a Cleveland-based environmental-testing laboratory he founded.

The company benefited from work in the clean-up of aging rust-belt areas of Ohio and neighboring states. At its height, Sampling and Analytical Management reported $3.75 million in annual sales and clients such as Firestone and Goodyear.

Laliberte wasn't afraid of striking out on his own. "It's more exciting than it is scary," he says. He even shrugs off failure. Another company Laliberte started in 1994 called Halcyon Technologies developed wastewater treatment systems using special clay called bentonite. But bentonite became a prime ingredient in products ranging from toothpaste to diapers and its price quickly rose more than 10 times, dooming Halcyon's product.

Meanwhile, Laliberte had sold Sampling and Analytical Management to his wife for $1 to benefit from contracts set aside for minorities, including women. The couple separated in 2002 and divorced in 2005. She kept the company.

During his divorce, in 2004, Laliberte was watching the Olympic games when he got his next big idea.

He learned a British company was treating the water in the Olympic pool using intense ultraviolet light instead of chlorine and other chemicals. Laliberte remembers jumping out of his chair: "How the heck did they do that?" he wondered.

He discovered that the cheapest model available for a residential pool cost $16,000. Most manufacturers only targeted large municipal pools and theme parks where the water quality was more intensely regulated.

Laliberte was still living in Ohio at the time and began experimenting in his basement to replicate the ultraviolet system on a smaller scale. "I had water buckets all over the place," he recalls. "I didn't invent the science; I just sized my unit."

He tested his system using different sizes of pumps. He sent water samples to testing firms to verify the purity of the water. Through golfing buddies in Ohio, he found investors in Naples and moved to the Gulf Coast in January 2005.

Spreading the word

Laliberte and the initial group of three investors spent $425,000 to develop and test the prototype.

"We were grossly under funded," he says.

For example, to obtain National Safety Foundation certification, the gold standard for equipment the industry, it costs $60,000 just to begin the application process.

But PureTech's system worked and it cost $1,595 at retail, much less than the competition. The least expensive residential unit at the time cost $16,000, though German-based Siemens is now working on a $4,000 model.

Things were looking good when Bonita Springs-based homebuilder WCI Communities gave PureTech the opportunity to sell his system in all the new homes it was planning to build at Artesia, the new "green" community. But of the 600 homes it planned to sell, WCI has sold only 10 so far, a victim of the housing downturn, Laliberte says.

Laliberte's original investors became impatient and disagreed with his strategy of selling the eco-friendly aspect of the system. Finding new investors hasn't been easy. "I've met more snakes than you can shake a stick at," Laliberte says.

Finding manufacturers has been a challenge too. For example, a shipment of 250 systems was defective, setting the company back six months. "We had orders we couldn't deliver," Laliberte says.

The episode also scared potential investors. The units are assembled in Muscle Shoal, Ala., but Laliberte is considering switching to Chinese manufacturers.

The pool-maintenance companies aren't big fans of PureTech pool system. While you still have to regularly clean a pool even with his system, there's no money to be made on pool supplies such as chlorine where the markups are substantial.

Laliberte says his biggest challenge is getting the word out among consumers. He's sold 300 pool systems so far, but the market is potentially huge. There are over 1 million residential pools in Florida alone, he says. "The consumer will drive the product," he says.

Still, a recent mailing campaign touting PureTech's eco-friendliness shows how hard it is to persuade people to buy his system.

In February, Laliberte mailed out 9,000 glossy brochures to homeowners in Collier who own a backyard pool and reported at least $75,000 in income. He expected the mailing campaign to generate 50 pool sales. Instead, he got six phone calls and zero sales.

Laliberte has a tough road ahead, considering PureTech's system costs about three times more than a conventional chlorine-based system and equal to a salt-water system. He hopes the promise of dead cryptosporidium and chemical-free water will overcome the higher price tag.

But despite these obstacles, Laliberte is sure the technology will eventually gain approval by consumers worried about chemicals and germs in their pools. "If one person told me it wouldn't work, I would have quit," Laliberte says.

REVIEW SUMMARY

Company. PureTech Pool Systems

Industry. Water treatment systems

Key. Green technology is sometimes a hard sell.