Swimming is big business for Tom Fristoe, CEO of TeamUnify, a Bend-based company that makes and sells software for managing swim teams.

More than 20,000 seasonal and year-round swim teams exist in the U.S. alone, outside of high school and college teams, Fristoe said. Another 500 exist in Canada, 1,000 in Australia and 1,500 in the United Kingdom. TeamUnify already provides its services to 3,500 U.S. teams and is making inroads in the other countries.

He likes to say that many of his clients are volunteer parents whose children are involved in the sport, he said. His business is helping them cope efficiently with a big investment in time and effort on their part.

“It’s vibrant; it’s huge; it’s a complicated business. Not in a million years could I have ever told you that our billing systems would process nearly $750 million worth of dues a year across these teams,” Fristoe said, referring to the amount processed by teams using his company’s software.

TeamUnify, which started business in Bend in 2007, moved in January from its former home on Lower Meadow Drive to a new, 12,500-square building the company erected at the same address. Fristoe said he values work-life balance and encourages his employees to embrace a healthy mindset, which is why the building basement has a workout area and locker rooms. And, he said, TeamUnify is hiring in its sales, support, marketing and engineering departments.

“We solve business problems,” Fristoe said. “They just happen to be swim teams’ business problems.”

The basic software platform, SwimOffice, creates the team website, tracks billing, allows volunteers to sign up for team tasks and runs and records the results of swim meets, among other tasks.

TeamUnify got its start in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Fristoe had already built a software business, Sellpoints.com. A lifelong swimmer, Fristoe competed in the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials. In California, he joined a local swim team and eventually became president of its board of directors.

He saw that the team’s billing and administration software could be improved, so he and his Sellpoints.com colleague Ming Lee went to work. What started out as a hobby blossomed into a full-fledged business after Fristoe and his family relocated to Bend for a slower lifestyle.

Even though TeamUnify sprang up within the Great Recession, the company grew as much as 30 percent year after year. It went from a group of 13 employees working in the Fristoes’ home to the 35 people it employs in its own building today. In October, TeamUnify is expecting to release a new product, Mainset, a workout and practice management software.

“The way we’ve engineered the product is with an eye toward moving past swimming,” he said.

Track and field, gymnastics, soccer and baseball are sports where Mainset could apply. The software will come with a new feature: a videography application to allow coaches to analyze their athletes’ performance, Fristoe said.

TeamUnify is also sponsoring a virtual swim meet fundraiser, the Crazy Big Swim, to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital‘s efforts to treat children with cancer. Fristoe said he hopes to sign up thousands of teams and make the Guinness World Records for the largest event of its kind. He hopes to raise $500,000 or more.

“Personally, I’m very proud of it,” Fristoe said. “It’s children helping children.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com

Q: Are you a swimmer?

A: Tom Fristoe: I go to Juniper (Swim & Fitness Center) when I’m in town here. Swim for fitness, mostly. I’ve been personally, over the last 10 years I’ve been doing a lot of open-water marathoning. In 2012, I swam around Manhattan, 28 miles. I wouldn’t recommend it, by the way. Pretty disgusting water.

Q: Swimming itself, has it gained in popularity?

A: In terms of club count, it’s pretty flat. But growth within the existing clubs is absolutely up. Swimming has absolutely seen a growth phase over the last “quad,” between each Olympics; it’s up 15 percent since the last Olympics. I think it’s a combination of things. It’s largely injury-free … Swimming allows for a more healthy kid in the end, less beat up.