Franchisee Spotlight: Abhay Shinde, Sagar Laghate and Tanmay Dharmadhikari

Three Alpharetta neighborhood friends and entrepreneurs, Abhay Shinde, Sagar Laghate and Tanmay Dharmadhikari, have signed to open two Big Blue Swim School franchises in East Cobb and Roswell, Georgia.

The trio, who operate as Athletics, LLC, plan to open in Q1 of 2021. Each of member of their teams brings a diverse set of skills to Big Blue Swim School. Abhay is an IT Executive, Tanmay is an IP Attorney and Sagar is a Finance Executive.

All three are fathers, and they told 1851 they had been looking for franchise opportunities centered around sports and wellness in the child education space. After completing their due diligence, the friends came across Big Blue Swim School, a franchise backed by Level 5 Capital Partners and based in Atlanta.

1851 Franchise: Tell us about your backgrounds. What were you doing before you found Big Blue Swim School?

Abhay Shinde: I have an MBA in Technology and Innovation from Georgia Tech. My engineering undergrad is from the University of Mumbai. I have over 22 years of global experience in IT consulting and have served customers in three continents. I am currently a Director of Cloud Advisory at a leading IT services firm where I’ve worked for the last 12 years. I lead globally diverse cross-functional teams adept at delivering on large-scale enterprise initiatives, strategic product upgrades and implementations for diverse enterprise clients. My experience has been predominantly in IT transformation programs implementing technology and business solutions. I have experience delivering strategic program objectives like application rationalization, legacy modernization, integration modernization, cross ERP migration, business process re-engineering and data conversion and migration.

Sagar Laghate: I have my undergrad from the University of Pune and Masters of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of South Florida. I am currently the VP Head of Credit Strategy for Patient Solutions, Specialty Retail, and E-Commerce at Greensky. In my current role, I head the consumer credit strategy analytics and design, and pricing analytics for all of Emerging markets verticals. Prior to joining Greensky, I was the VP of Analytics at Synchrony Financial where I lead the product strategy and marketing analytics teams. My area of expertise includes consumer credit risk management, marketing analytics, targeting and segmentation analytics, product strategy, financial analytics and forecasting.

Tanmay Dharmadhikari: I have a graduate degree from Purdue University, a JD from Indiana University and an MBA from the Kelley School of Business. My engineering undergrad is from University of Pune. I’ve been an attorney for the last seven years. I help clients understand, acquire and utilize intellectual property, such as patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets surrounding their creative endeavors. To date, I’ve advised clients regarding software and electrical hardware in the business of mobile devices, network devices, data storage devices, navigation devices, display devices and vehicle infotainment, spanning the fields of telecommunications, voice-over-IP, lighting control systems, Internet-based solutions, manufacture of devices and television broadcast to name just a few. Prior to being an attorney, I was a software developer, programmer with hands-on experience with algorithm development, parallel programming, GPUs and testing. Using high-level and low-level languages such as C/C++, .Net, x86 and x64 assembly programming.

1851: How did you learn about Big Blue Swim School?

Laghate: We were looking for franchising opportunities in the sports and health industries with an emphasis centered around children. We came across a few childcare franchises but the one that grabbed our attention was Big Blue Swim School as it was the perfect mix of sports, health and childcare. When we met with Big Blue Swim School, it was different than all the other meetings we had. It was a very buttoned up presentation and allowed us to see a path to success as first-time business owners.

1851: What about Big Blue Swim School’s model made you confident you would find success?

Dharmadhikari: The concept is appealing in many ways. The management team is superior, which makes us feel very confident as first-time business owners that they will be there to guide us in the right direction and build a thriving franchise brand in East Cobb and Roswell. In addition, we considered the unit economics and felt they were very reasonable with what we had in mind.

Another factor was their background in real estate as we knew how critical that would be to secure a plot of land in a highly trafficked community. The three of us all live in Alpharetta in the same subdivision and knew we wanted to pursue franchising in Atlanta. With L5 in our backyard, it made the decision to go with Big Blue Swim School an easy one.

1851: Why do you think the Atlanta Metro area is the right market for your schools?

Shinde: The demographics overall align well with the clientele that Big Blue Swim School strives to attract. Our two locations are in established areas with high incomes, lots of families and good schools.

1851: Do you have plans to open more locations?

Shinde: We would love to add more. As we learn the process with the first two, we look forward to pursuing future openings. We are excited for all that’s to come.