Some founder stories follow a straight line.
Geoff Hartman’s looks more like a river.
His career has moved through telemarketing, water treatment, music, coding at Neopets, real estate, venture capital, and eventually back to water through Apex Water Systems. On Legacy Launchers, Geoff explained how those seemingly unrelated chapters ultimately became the foundation for the business he is building today. FinalRobertoExegesis
It Started With a $100 Lead
Geoff first entered the water industry in 1985 while he was still in high school.
After realizing he was good at telephone market research, he took a job setting appointments for Culligan. He became good enough at generating qualified leads that salespeople competed for them—and occasionally paid him directly for a strong appointment.
For a teenager in the 1980s, a $100 bill was memorable. More importantly, it taught Geoff something that stayed with him for decades:
A qualified opportunity has real value.
He later worked with RainSoft and learned more about how water-treatment companies sold, installed, and priced their systems. Those early lessons eventually helped shape how Apex would approach the industry differently. FinalRobertoExegesis
When Water Became Personal
Years later, water stopped being just an industry for Geoff.
His sister survived leukemia. His father later died after living with two blood diseases, and Geoff described other leukemia cases among neighbors on the same street. After his father’s death, Geoff says his family investigated the water at the home and found an elevated level of benzene.
That finding does not establish what caused any individual illness, but it permanently changed how Geoff thought about environmental exposure and the water families use every day. FinalRobertoExegesis
Importantly, Geoff does not frame municipal water agencies as villains.
His position is more practical: public water systems have to disinfect and distribute water safely across huge networks, while individual homeowners may still want to understand what is reaching their specific property and decide whether additional treatment makes sense.
That distinction matters.
Fear is not a water strategy.
Education is.
What Homeowners Should Actually Understand About Water
Geoff breaks the conversation into several broad areas: hardness minerals, disinfectants and other chemicals, and dissolved substances that may require more targeted filtration.
He also explains the difference between treating water for the entire home and using reverse osmosis specifically for drinking water. FinalRobertoExegesis
One particularly useful point is his discussion of TDS—total dissolved solids.
A TDS reading tells you the amount of dissolved material in water, but not necessarily what those substances are.
So a single number should not automatically become a reason to panic.
The smarter approach is to look at actual water-quality data, use appropriate testing when necessary, and understand what problem you are trying to solve before buying equipment.
Apex Is Using AI to Run Lean
One of the most interesting parts of Geoff’s story is how small the operating team is.
Geoff and business partner Rob are using AI across the business for website work, sales graphics, print advertising, automated lead response, and follow-up.
According to Geoff, their Facebook and Instagram advertising was generating about 12 leads per day. That created another problem: making sure every lead received a fast response. FinalRobertoExegesis
So they began implementing voice automation and decision-tree systems to qualify inquiries before sending the right conversations to the founders.
This is a much better example of practical AI than simply putting a chatbot on a website.
AI is being used to solve an operational bottleneck.
That is the point.
Good automation removes friction.
AI Can Change the Economics of a Traditional Industry
Geoff argues that some comparable systems from larger water-treatment brands can cost substantially more because customers are also paying for layers of traditional overhead.
Sales commissions.
Warehouses.
Management.
Advertising.
Administrative staff.
Apex is attempting to operate with fewer layers and manufacture systems to order in Irvine, allowing more of the customer’s money to go toward the actual equipment and skilled installation. FinalRobertoExegesis
This is where AI becomes especially interesting for small businesses.
The technology does not necessarily need to invent an entirely new industry.
Sometimes it simply allows a much smaller company to compete with a much larger one.
What Neopets Has to Do With Water
Before Apex, Geoff was also a touring musician.
Eventually the demands of touring began putting pressure on his family, and he faced a decision about what came next.
Technology won.
Geoff joined Neopets during its growth and learned coding on the job. He worked with server-side scripting and analyzed user behavior across the platform’s games.
When major brands wanted to advertise within the Neopets ecosystem, Geoff helped create the reports showing where users were spending their attention. FinalRobertoExegesis
That experience matters because it explains something about his approach to AI today.
Technology is not separate from the business.
Technology is part of how the business operates.
That mindset is increasingly important.
Building a Business Where Everyone Wins
Apex originally began as a proof of concept.
Geoff and Rob wanted to demonstrate that they could identify a viable opportunity, execute on it, and build an asset as part of a broader investment strategy.
Water was not necessarily the predetermined destination.
But opportunity kept pulling them back toward the industry.
They found mentorship, recognized problems in the traditional model, and decided to build something around them.
Geoff says the company has been profitable from the beginning. His philosophy is that a good business should create a situation where the customer, installer, founders, and families involved can all benefit. FinalRobertoExegesis
That philosophy matters.
A business is healthier when value is not created by making someone else lose.
Starting Again at 57
One of the strongest parts of Geoff’s interview had very little to do with water.
It was about age.
Geoff is building this chapter of his career at 57.
He has five daughters, four grandchildren, and another grandchild on the way. Part of his motivation is creating a financial foundation that expands what future generations of his family believe is possible. FinalRobertoExegesis
But he does not want the legacy to be only money.
He wants his children and grandchildren to understand that a difficult period does not have to define the rest of your life.
His message is essentially:
You can rebuild.
That may be more valuable than any company he leaves behind.
The Bigger Opportunity in Water
Water is one of those industries that entrepreneurs often overlook because it does not feel glamorous.
That may be exactly why it is interesting.
Everyone needs water.
Homes need treatment systems.
Infrastructure ages.
Consumers increasingly care about what they are drinking.
And much of the industry still operates through traditional sales and service models.
That creates room for companies willing to combine:
industry knowledge + technology + better customer experience.
Geoff happens to have accumulated all three across different chapters of his life.
The Legacy Launcher Lesson
Geoff’s career looks scattered only when you examine each chapter separately.
The teenage telemarketer learned lead generation.
The water salesman learned the industry.
The musician learned when success was costing too much personally.
The Neopets developer learned technology and data.
The investor learned how to evaluate opportunities.
The father and grandfather found the reason to bring everything together.
That is the lesson.
Your previous career does not have to look anything like your next business.
It may still have been preparing you for it.
Sometimes the skills that create your next chapter are hiding inside experiences you assumed were unrelated.
🎙️ Featuring: Geoff Hartman
💧 Company: Apex Water Systems
📈 Topics: Water, AI, entrepreneurship, investing and reinvention
🎧 Podcast: Legacy Launchers
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