From rolling a Bobcat at 14 to building Los Angeles’ most concierge-level pool company, Pure Swim’s founder, Rich Gallo, has a mantra: bend over backward for people—and teach them to win.
When Rich Gallo thinks back to the moment the pool industry grabbed him for good, he’s 10 years old, standing at the edge of a raw backyard in Los Angeles, eyes wide as a Bobcat carves a perfect curve out of earth. “You’re watching something being created,” he remembers. “It’s an art form.” Years later he’d get a turn behind the controls—“I rolled it,” he laughs—then spend the next three decades mastering a different kind of shaping: people, culture, and a company that treats customer care like a luxury sport.
Today, Gallo is the founder and CEO of Pure Swim, a concierge-level pool service in the L.A. area known for a jaw-dropping promise: same-day, same-hour responsiveness. It’s the kind of standard most businesses call impossible. Gallo calls it Tuesday. “Happy people refer us,” he says simply. “So we designed our days with ‘pockets’—45 to 90 minutes of built-in flex time—plus well-stocked trucks and cross-trained techs. When a problem pops, we’re already moving.” The system was conceived by his right hand, Adam—“the GOAT,” Gallo insists—and embraced by a crew who saw the ripple effect instantly.
His approach to service comes with a signature slogan—one he jokes nearly made it onto the trucks: “Anytime, anywhere, we’ll bend over backward for our customers. We’re just not going to bend over forward.” Translation: Pure Swim will go to extraordinary lengths for good-faith clients, but it won’t mortgage its team’s sanity for the unpleasable. “Personalities are hard to change,” he says. “If we truly can’t make someone happy, we’ll gracefully bow out. Life’s too short.”
A Second-Generation Start, a Day-One First Client
Gallo’s roots run deep. His father and uncle were pool builders; he grew up studying excavations the way other kids studied box scores. The day he graduated high school, he went into business for himself at 3 p.m. with his first client—a client he still has, decades later. It wasn’t a fairy tale. “People say it takes three years to make a profit,” he says. “They lied. It took nine.”
Then at 21, he became a father. “That changed everything,” he says. “You’re not just living for yourself anymore.” Now in his early 50s, he’s a proud young grandfather—“the happiest I’ve ever been,” his son told him recently—and he hires with that same sense of purpose. “I look for people building families,” he says. “Folks with meaning and responsibility. It costs more—benefits, pay—but you structure pricing, take care of everyone, and make it work.”
Paying People What They’re Worth—Every Year
In an industry where underpricing can be a badge of honor, Gallo is a vocal outlier. “I take care of people who take care of me,” he says. The proof? “In 34 years, everyone who’s stayed more than a year has made more money every year—including me.” That track record spans recessions, fires, earthquakes, even a recent blaze that wiped out 20% of Pure Swim’s accounts in eight months. “You just keep going,” he says.
His sales philosophy is equally direct: know your demographic and set a process that runs counter to the bargain-hunting script. “We’re not for every pool,” he says. “But give me five minutes to explain the value, and it becomes a yes or no—no ‘let me think about it’ limbo. If it’s a fit and they have the budget, they can feel why it’s different.”
The Basement Flood That Became a Masterclass
Ask for a war story and Gallo offers a humbling one: a decade ago, two of his “best guys” diverted a drain line into a landscape drain that—unbeknownst to anyone—emptied straight into a basement. The home? A registered California historic landmark. The homeowner’s wife? A former child star—Tabatha from Bewitched. By morning there were six-plus feet of salty water downstairs.
“I showed up ready to own it—insurance, damage control, whatever it took,” he says. “He took the hit. Said it was his fault for not telling us about the broken pipe. Kept us on the job.” The lesson wasn’t luck; it was leadership. “We trained harder. Communicated better. And I never forgot his grace.”
Building Winners (and Letting Go So They Can Fly)
Gallo doesn’t hoard talent—he creates it. He’s famous for helping employees buy starter routes, feeding referrals, and cheering as they build their own businesses. His second ever employee worked a decade, bought a route, and still serves many of the same families. “Treat people like assets—until they act like…well, you know,” he grins. “Most don’t. Most want to win. My job is to move A players to A-plus: initiative, judgment, ownership.”
That coach’s mindset comes from his mentor and close friend, the late Greg Garrett, a towering figure in pool finishes and water chemistry. “Greg made me feel like I was his only mentee,” Gallo says. “He taught me the law of reciprocity—give back, lift others, make the industry better.” Gallo pays it forward through apprenticeship programs, board service, and one-on-one mentoring—after he vets for authenticity. “Competitor down the street? Take a walk,” he quips. “But genuine people? I’m in. Some of them have compressed what took me 34 years into five.”
The Hard Changes He’d Make Sooner
If he could rewind and rebuild one system, Gallo points to California’s AB5 pivot to W-2 employees. “I did it—just not early enough,” he says. “I worried about costs—payroll tax, workers’ comp. But margins held. We covered it. I’d make that move Day One.”
He’s equally clear-eyed about the boom in roll-ups and franchises. “I’ve seen waves come and go,” he says. “If you chase the whole market instead of your market, the math stops working. The people who last decide this is a long game. They get passionate about doing the work right, network hard, and learn fast—including AI.”
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The Mindset That Outlasts Everything
Asked what he hopes people carry from Pure Swim long after they move on, Gallo doesn’t hesitate. “Reciprocity,” he says. “Do good, teach what you know, elevate others.” It’s a value he now introduces in the interview, along with a steady dose of real talk about sacrifice. “Owning a business means giving things up,” he says. “Time, sleep, sometimes moments with your family. You don’t get those years back, so you’d better build something worthy—and keep it fun.”
Fun, for Gallo, isn’t frivolous; it’s fuel. “Wake up excited,” he says. “Even with opposition. Especially with opposition. Decide you’re going to make it happen—and enjoy it.”
It’s the arc of a life shaped by dirt and steel, chlorine and chemistry, a few hard knocks and a lot of heart: a kid who watched pools get carved from nothing, a young dad who built a company on purpose, and a mentor who measures wealth not just in revenue, but in the people who win because you believed they could.
