Transparent communication, professional development propel the brand’s rapid growth
Andrew McCuiston, right, with his colleagues at a recent Liniger Center on Franchising event.
In March 2020, the Daniels College of Business Newsroom spoke with alumnus Andrew McCuiston (BSBA 2006) about co-founding Goldfish Swim School Franchising with his brother and sister-in-law. At the time, the company’s 103 award-winning swim school locations were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
McCuiston wasn’t worried about the company’s survival. He had goals: to reopen with increased safety protocols, to rehire laid-off employees, to double the franchise locations.
Six years later, the company’s growth is going, well, swimmingly. Goldfish now serves 230,000 children each week across 208 locations in the U.S. and Canada, delivering 11 million lifesaving swim lessons annually.
Central to Goldfish’s growth is a laser focus on people, culture and intentional scaling.
For customers, “the relationship is everything,” said McCuiston, who earned a degree in finance. “We try really hard to know people by name. We know their kids, we know their families.”
Inside the company, that philosophy begins with hiring. “The most important thing we do is get the right person in the right seat,” he explained. “We hire really, really good people—that’s been the biggest driver of our success.”
It continues with investment in talent, including company-paid professional development courses through Daniels’ Liniger Center on Franchising, where team members can pursue their Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) designation.
Every person who has gone through the program is still a member of the Goldfish team.
“It’s really a force multiplier,” McCuiston said. “When you invest in people at this level, you’re improving the entire system.”
That system includes more than 5,500 employees.
“It gets our team outside of our bubble to learn from other franchising experiences,” he said. “It gives them confidence to walk into a franchisee’s business and lead.”
According to Liniger Center senior executive director Kevin Betts, “less than 16% of franchise brands ever reach 100 units, so they’re in the top 10% of franchise systems—probably in the world.”
McCuiston says internal communication is key to maintaining brand cohesiveness and consistency. When the company had only a few locations, they started weekly calls to connect corporate leaders and franchise owners. Now, those calls include more than 300 people.
“That’s a big thing for us, over-communicating to the point where people just understand the path that we’re on,” McCuiston said, emphasizing the priority he and his team place on organizational clarity. “When things are unclear, that’s when the wheels fall off.”
Betts says that level of transparent communication and accountability is rare among franchise systems overall, but consistent among brands that successfully navigate rapid growth.
The Goldfish Swim School franchise just marked 20 years in business, demonstrating that thriving through uncertainty requires both long-term vision and short-term goals.
“There’s no ceiling. You climb one mountain, then you look around and find the next tallest one,” McCuiston said. “The real magic is in the 1-, 3- and 5-year plan—and in the 90-day ‘rocks’ we focus on every quarter.”
That same focus shows up in the pool, where instructors emphasize “the next right thing” to effectively teach children water safety and swimming skills through 13 levels of proficiency.
“If a child can do one small thing—like blow bubbles—they build confidence on day one.”
McCuiston admits that building a business from scratch and expanding it into a rapidly growing franchise is challenging. “There’s no easy button” to bypass the commitment, sacrifice and hard work it takes. But the positive impact on swim families and their franchise community makes it all worthwhile.
“We hear stories where our program has helped save a child’s life. It’s scary, but incredibly rewarding,” he said. “We’re very fortunate to be part of a business that can impact human beings on this Earth in a positive way.”