Research: PoolSheet 0.1.0 beta
Customer: US solo pool-service operators who still run their week on paper, memory, or a phone camera roll of chemical receipts. They service 20–60 pools a week, buy chemicals out of pocket, and lose money when a truck runs dry of shock or tabs mid-route.
Demand evidence (public sources, checked 2026-10-04):
- Skimmer (getskimmer.com) markets itself as "America's #1 pool service software" with ~30,000 pool pros on board. Pricing starts at $49/mo plus $1 per serviced location per month — real money a solo operator feels.
- PoolOps (poolops.app), built by pool pros, offers a free tier up to 5 customers, then $29.99/mo solo (unlimited customers, route optimization, offline field app). The free tier compresses any "free" wedge — but it caps at 5 customers.
- DigiQuatics (digiquatics.com) runs about $400/year per third-party comparisons; pool-service management software since 2013.
Kill test: can a free offline kit beat free/incumbent offers? Skimmer and PoolOps own the cloud/account side; PoolOps already has a free tier and an offline mode. "Free" and "offline" alone do not win. The wedge that survives:
- Paper-first operators with more than 5 customers who will not pay $30/mo, plus owners who trust printed sheets and spreadsheets over apps.
- Zero friction: no signup, no card, no app install, no vendor lock-in, full data ownership. One weekly form → printed route card, service log, chemical-usage/inventory CSVs with restock flags, invoice CSV.
- The deterministic chemical plan is the honest differentiator: per-stop chemical usage summed against truck inventory so the operator sees SHORT/RESTOCK before Monday, not at the pool.
Risks: PoolOps could raise its free-tier cap; the addressable pool is operators who actively want to stay off route software. Demand is unproven; the kit ships as Beta · demand unproven and the free-beta lane does not claim paid proof.
Privacy floor: operator first name only; stop labels are first names or short descriptions. Emails, phone numbers, and card numbers are rejected at input. No upload, no account, browser-local.
Honest non-claims: not dispatch, not GPS tracking, not automatic invoicing, not a chemical-dosing guide, not a water-safety certification.