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In 1989, Jim Riggs was a starting tight end for the Cincinnati Bengals. In the offseason, he delivered hot tubs out of the back of a Ford Ranger in Greenville, South Carolina. His teammates thought he was crazy. Some of them told him he'd never make it and that he should go buy a Subway franchise instead.
Thirty-seven years later, Hot Springs Pools & Spas has four locations across the Carolinas with a fifth on the way, more than 100 employees, roughly 400 pools built every year, and an e-commerce store, PoolGoods.com, shipping to 48 states.
This week, the next generation of that story, Jake Riggs and Stuart Lockhart, sat down with Edgar De Jesus and Ryan Morrison on the Pool Nation Podcast, one of the most listened-to shows in the pool industry, for an episode titled "How to Build a Pool Business That Does It All." The conversation was recorded in Dallas as part of Hayward's Power of Us campaign, and it's one of the most complete telling of the Hot Springs story we've ever put on record.
It Started With a Hot Tub Prescription
The company exists because of a doctor's advice. Jake's grandfather had diabetes, and his doctor suggested a hot tub would help his circulation. He bought one, loved it, and struck up a conversation with a Hot Spring vendor at a golf tournament in North Carolina. His son was tired of corporate life; could the family buy a franchise? The only territory available was Greenville, South Carolina.
Jim and his brother Matt took it. Jim put up money from his second NFL season and treated offseason hot tub deliveries as training. Customers still walk into the showroom and point him out: that man delivered mine by himself.
"Was There a Master Plan? The Answer Is No"
Today Hot Springs runs nearly every vertical in the pool industry: hot tub retail, pool and hot tub service, custom pool construction, commercial work in multiple states, and e-commerce. The hosts wanted to know how a company ends up doing all of it when most pool businesses pick one lane.
Jake's answer was honest:
"You ask me, was there a master plan? Did we want to do all those things? The answer is no. It's just good people trying to do right by everyone in your ecosystem. That's really where we are today."
The verticals feed each other. The retail stores drive the service department. Every hot tub delivery includes PoolGoods.com literature. Construction customers become service customers. As Jake put it on the show, "We just like to say we're here for the life of your pool." He wasn't exaggerating: last year the team serviced a hot tub the company sold in 1990. Still running. Still the same customer.
The Wake-Up Call: Nobody Knew Who We Were
For decades, the business ran on reputation. Jim Riggs was a known name in Greenville, and word of mouth did the marketing. Then COVID reshuffled the Southeast. Stuart described what happened next:
"A lot of people started moving to the Southeast, and almost overnight, nobody knew who Hot Springs was. We'd build a pool for somebody and they'd say, wait, you guys sell hot tubs? People would get their water tested in our store and ask who we'd recommend for service. And I'm thinking, we do service."
That realization changed how the company operates. A 37-year-old business started acting, in Jake's words, like "a startup, just a new old company."
The $25,000 Hot Tub That Came From ChatGPT
The liveliest stretch of the episode is about how customers actually find pool companies now. Stuart walked through the attribution system behind Hot Springs marketing:
"If somebody fills out a form, clicks a Facebook or Instagram ad, or they call, we have twelve different phone numbers we own, each attributed to a different source. If somebody calls us, we know exactly where they came from."
And that data is showing a shift:
"People aren't Google searching as much anymore. We're actually getting a lot of leads AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude. A guy came in and bought a $25,000 hot tub, and I asked him, how'd you hear about us? He said, I asked ChatGPT."
AI assistants aren't a future marketing channel for pool companies. They're already producing customers today.
From a Dumpster to 30,000 Products
PoolGoods.com has its own origin story, and it didn't come from a consultant:
"We're at our dumpster, throwing trash off a dump truck, and I looked at Stu and Zach and said: we're going to do an e-commerce company. We're going to call it PoolGoodsDirect.com." Jake said jokingly, "At the time it was the only domain we can afford".
The reasoning was simple. The next generation of pool owners wasn't going to drive to a store for chemicals; they were going to buy from Amazon or Walmart. Hot Springs had introduced thousands of customers to pool ownership, and the family wanted to keep serving them rather than lose them to a marketplace. Today PoolGoods.com carries more than 30,000 items, and the product data behind it powers the retail stores' point of sale too.
What We Want to Leave Behind
The episode closes with the hosts asking Jake what he wants the legacy to be, 40 or 50 years from now:
"That I made an impact in my employees' and coworkers' lives and our customers' lives. That we built a genuine product that made people happy and built long-lasting memories. If you look at your life, it's short, and whatever you do, you need to do it to the best of your ability."
Listen to the Full Episode
Hear the whole conversation, including Jim's NFL stories, the advice Jake and Stuart would give the next generation coming into a family business, and where Hot Springs goes next. You can listen on Podbean, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or watch on YouTube.
And if the episode leaves you with questions about a new hot tub, pool service, or building a pool in the Upstate or Lowcountry, stop by one of our four locations or get in touch.