Hugues: He Ran a Law Firm. Then Built a $3M-Per-Location Swim School Empire.

Laid Off To 8 Figures with David DiNardo · Aug 19, 2026 · 1h 12m

He spent 20 years as a business lawyer, flew to Australia for a client who then backed out, and kept the idea for himself. Ten years later he opened Kids Can Swim in Kanata — six weeks before COVID. They closed and reopened eight times. Today: three Ottawa locations, 175 team members, thousands of kids a week, and a plan to go national.

In this episode:

→ Why the pools are shallow and heated like a hot tub — and the "active learning time" metric that took kids from 4 minutes of practice per class to 18

→ Opening six weeks pre-COVID, and not knowing where the next payroll was coming from

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