Tech unicorn CoolIT traces its roots back to a basement venture started to solve gaming computer overheating woes<\/p>\n
Published Apr 27, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 1\u00a0hour ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 16 minute read<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n You can save this article by registering for free here<\/a>. Or sign-in<\/a> if you have an account.<\/p>\n Sandy Scott\u2019s house looked\u00a0like\u00a0chaos.<\/p>\n The living room in his northeast Calgary home served as an informal warehouse with rows of shelves and racks. Computers, inventory and sheet metal were stored outside one bedroom.\u00a0A bathroom became a \u201cliquids lab\u201d for his fledgling enterprise.<\/p>\n For the co-founders of CoolIT Systems \u2014 Alexander \u2018Sandy\u2019 Scott, Brydon Gierl, and Jason Myers \u2014 the small home became the launching pad of their embryonic venture in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n Advertisement 2<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Calgary Herald ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Calgary Herald ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n REGISTER \/ SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.<\/p>\n THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an Account<\/p>\n or<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cThe furnace room was the machine shop. I could literally touch the walls, sitting at a little desk,\u201d recalls Gierl.<\/p>\n FP West: Energy Insider<\/p>\n Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cStuff was just all over the place. It looked like sort of a madman\u2019s house,\u201d Myers says with a laugh.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was pretty, pretty unorganized.\u201d<\/p>\n From those unassuming beginnings, CoolIT took its initial steps. It marked the opening chapter in the unlikely tale of a tiny company that would eventually be sold for more than $6 billion this year.<\/p>\n More than 25 years ago, the Calgary startup began its quest to use liquid cooling systems to tame the issue of excessive heat generated by gaming computers.<\/p>\n In their search for answers, Gierl, who worked in a local metal fabrication shop, teamed up with his neighbour, Myers, and friend, Scott, to establish CoolIT.<\/p>\n The business was incorporated on Feb. 27, 2001, and the research, testing and manufacturing was conducted in Scott\u2019s basement, one of several unconventional steps in its improbable journey.<\/p>\n An initial patent application for CoolIT included a reference to a \u201cflux\u201d conductor \u2014 a nod to the fictional \u201cflux capacitor\u201d that turned a DeLorean into a time machine in the 1985 film Back to the Future \u2014 as they expanded their research.<\/p>\n Early board meetings were held around a\u00a0backyard\u00a0firepit.<\/p>\n What happened next were\u00a0a series of ideas and advances,\u00a0innovations\u00a0and adjustments, along with missteps and bleak times when it appeared the lights would be turned off, permanently.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n But last month,\u00a0CoolIT\u00a0Systems\u00a0was sold to Minnesota-based giant Ecolab for\u00a0an eye-popping\u00a0$6.6 billion\u00a0(US$4.75 billion) in cash, a giant exclamation\u00a0point\u00a0for a company that was cash-starved for years.<\/p>\n It marks the largest sale of a technology business in Alberta history. And it\u2019s not the end of the tale.<\/p>\n Today, the Calgary-based company finds itself in the middle of a bigger story, the quest to reduce excessive heat from high-speed computer chips, the rise of artificial intelligence and the development of billion-dollar data centres.<\/p>\n Not a bad piece of business for a company that was only 48 hours away from the CEO nearly pulling the plug a decade earlier, before a last-ditch effort unearthed a new investor.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say for many years, my mind would go from, \u2018Wow, this could be truly revolutionary, to my brain would be like, this will never work,\u2019\u00a0\u201d says Myers, who was president and chief fundraiser in CoolIT\u2019s formative years.<\/p>\n \u201cHow could three guys possibly come up with something like it \u2014 why doesn\u2019t Dell or HP or Intel, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n The company now has more than 600 employees and manufacturing facilities in Calgary, Vietnam and China.<\/p>\n Its new owner has a US$105 billion market capitalization and plans for growth as more data centres are built. It expects CoolIT will generate US$550 million (more than C$750 millionw) in sales over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I like to joke, for about 20 of those years, we were on the verge of world domination or bankruptcy,\u201d recalls Dean Prodan, an early investor and former CoolIT board chair.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cI always thought that it was going to be big. I mean, I joke about world domination. But I always felt like there was this path to success.\u201d<\/p>\n An idea for computer coolers<\/p>\n It all began with a surprise visit.<\/p>\n Gierl was working at a metal fabrication shop in east Calgary when Scott unexpectedly strolled through the doors one day in 1999 with a problem to solve.<\/p>\n Could Gierl help him build a solution that would use liquid cooling to reduce heat generated when video gamers would \u201cover-clock\u201d their computer processors, speeding it up to boost its performance.<\/p>\n \u201cHe literally walked through the door one afternoon and had a box full of computer parts, and he just pitched me this idea right on the spot. He knew I was good with my hands, and had the shop and had some tools,\u201d says Gierl.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was really it. There was no major plan. We thought\u00a0we\u2019d\u00a0spend a couple weekends and hammer away at this idea.\u201d<\/p>\n Weekends turned into weeks.<\/p>\n And then months.<\/p>\n And then years.<\/p>\n It certainly\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0feel like world domination\u00a0was at hand\u00a0during the early days.<\/p>\n Gierl, who\u2019d grown up on a farm near LeRoy, Sask. \u2014 population 500, with a graduating high school class of six \u2014 had moved to Calgary in 1990, attracted in part by the city\u2019s burgeoning music scene.<\/p>\n The drummer met Scott, who sang and played bass, at a house party. The two musicians soon played in a local rock band called Nevermore; Gierl later joined another band and the two lost touch for several years.<\/p>\n So it was a surprise when Scott, an avid video gamer, showed up at the shop in the Greenview Industrial Park.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n The pair soon decided to work together on the issue and studied how to best use liquid-cooling technology in desktop computers.<\/p>\n \u201cSandy was the one that came up with the genesis, the idea,\u201d says Gierl, 55.<\/p>\n \u201cTruthfully,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0not interested in computers, whatsoever. But the problem of solving the heat thing was really intriguing to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott, who attended Western Canada High School, wasn\u2019t an engineer \u2014 he worked in construction \u2014 but he understood the problem.<\/p>\n His sister, Carol Klippenstein, recalls Scott had a mechanical mind, and would \u201csoup up\u201d vehicles he\u2019d bought to improve upon their original design.<\/p>\n At CoolIT, Scott had a slide rule on his desk \u2014 essentially a manual pre-calculator tool \u2014 that had belonged to his father, who was an electronics engineer.<\/p>\n Klippenstein says their father worked at one time for Pan American World Airways on the Apollo space missions when the company was a NASA contractor at Cape Kennedy in Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cOne day, (Sandy) just came up with this idea that computer coolers were needed for gaming,\u201d says Klippenstein, who with her husband, Benno, were among the company\u2019s first investors.<\/p>\n \u201cSandy just decided that\u00a0here\u00a0was an opportunity to invent something and make money. He was thinking that he,\u00a0Brydon\u00a0and Jason would just work on it for a year and then sell it for a million\u00a0bucks.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, it didn\u2019t quite work out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n In search of business sense and cold cash<\/p>\n It was soon apparent Scott and Gierl would require more than curiosity. They needed business acumen \u2014 and money.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n That\u2019s when Gierl\u2019s neighbour, Myers, came on to the scene.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to see him coming and going in the mornings. I saw him wearing a suit, and I knew him from backyard firepit gatherings,\u201d Gierl says.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew he was a chartered accountant, and I thought, \u2018OK, this guy (has) a business mind, and that\u2019s the kind of person we need.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Gierl made his pitch around a firepit in the backyard of Myers\u2019 house in Hidden Valley. It would later become the company\u2019s unofficial boardroom.<\/p>\n \u201cBrydon said, \u2018I know this guy and he fits the stereotypical, quirky inventor kind of persona, but he\u2019s come up with a pretty wild idea about cooling computers,\u2019 \u201d says Myers, now 55.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d never even heard of anything about cooling computers until this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n That led to a meeting among the three men.<\/p>\n \u201cSandy, the inventor, started giving us a bit of a tutorial about why you would want to even introduce liquid cooling into a computer, and that chips are getting hotter,\u201d says Myers.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom that evening, pretty much right there and then, we decided, \u2018OK, well let\u2019s start a company.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n After that point, Scott dealt with testing and researching technology. Gierl worked on building prototypes, along with fine-tuning the tech. Myers, who became the president, handled the finances and setting up the business.<\/p>\n An early investor presentation from July 2001 titled, \u201cDon\u2019t let the heat slow you down!\u201d captured the company\u2019s task.<\/p>\n \u201cOur mission statement: To provide a solution for computer cooling that can be mass marketed,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n The founders ran the business on a shoestring budget and kept their regular jobs until the early 2000s.\u00a0They raised seed capital \u2014 about $25,000 \u2014 from families and friends.<\/p>\n \u201cBrydon and Sandy and I didn\u2019t have two pennies to rub together,\u201d says Myers. \u201cRelying on little, small investments from some friends, some family, that didn\u2019t get us very far.\u201d<\/p>\n Gierl, the only founder still with the company, lost his daytime job at the fabrication shop \u2014 he wanted to devote more time to CoolIT rather than take that business over \u2014 which helped push him in the direction of going all-in on the new venture.<\/p>\n At the time, Gierl and his wife, Jennifer, had two children, with another on the way.<\/p>\n \u201cI went home and told my wife, \u2018We\u2019re in this \u2018cool-it adventure.\u2019 And that\u2019s what we called it back in the day,\u201d says Gierl.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was CoolIT.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We were on a tightrope\u2019<\/p>\n The name came out of a meeting held in Myers\u2019 backyard at a picnic table.<\/p>\n \u201cCoolIT, because we\u2019re cooling something, but it also is a secondary play on technology because of the IT part. That\u2019s how the name came to be,\u201d says the accountant.<\/p>\n After incorporating the company, they applied for patents, with an early application referring to a \u201cflux\u201d capacitor.<\/p>\n \u201cThe flux capacitor was just kind of a goofy thing. We didn\u2019t know what to call it. It was just basically a protrusion\u201d in the cooling system, explains Gierl.<\/p>\n The group kept working away and eventually secured a meeting with executives from tech giant Intel in Portland, Ore., on Sept. 4, 2001, to discuss their novel idea.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Hopes of an early payday ended with a reality check of how much work was ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had these ridiculous suits on and we\u2019re all decked out,\u201d recalls Gierl.<\/p>\n \u201cThese (Intel) guys come waltzing out in flip flops and shorts, and they\u2019re looking at us like, \u2018What are you guys doing?\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n The CoolIT presentation was written on lined paper, about 15 pages long. Myers soon launched into reading what he now calls \u201cthe worst presentation I\u2019ve ever done in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so silent, you could hear a pin drop. And everyone sitting around that table was just staring at me. And\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0like, \u2018Oh my God. I felt like I was inside of a vacuum.\u2019 It was super uncomfortable,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Part way through the monologue, one of the Intel officials declared he wanted to take a break. He asked Myers to join him in the parking lot, where the two began to talk.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said, \u2018You know, you guys actually have your hands on something that\u2019s pretty amazing. This is very, very interesting stuff and it really has potential,\u2019\u00a0\u201d Myers says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was our first moment of,\u00a0OK,\u00a0this\u00a0actually feels\u00a0real. But very quickly we came to realize it\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0far enough developed that anyone was going to\u00a0purchase\u00a0it from us at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea of putting liquid into computers also puzzled many people who considered the idea of mixing electronics and fluids anathema.<\/p>\n Yet, the concept intrigued the Intel officials, and later led to a meeting with Apple in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n Among those intrigued by CoolIT were Calgarians Rahul and Ravi Sood, who founded VoodooPC, which made high-performance gaming computers in the city. The company was later sold in 2006 to Hewlett-Packard.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cTheir abilities to just adapt and innovate, and pivot\u00a0was\u00a0remarkable,\u201d says Ravi Sood.<\/p>\n \u201cAny problems we were trying to solve or trying to make better, Brydon and Sandy, those guys would just never take no for an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2003, Prodan became an early investor after hearing about the tiny technology firm from friends. A former Canadian oil and gas sector portfolio manager, the company\u2019s thesis about cooling piqued his interest, as he was looking to diversify his own investments.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an interesting concept,\u201d says Prodan.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were early \u2014 way too early \u2014 for them to get proper market acceptance, because no one really wanted to have liquid in their computer.\u201d<\/p>\n Prodan later joined the CoolIT board and remained on until the company was initially acquired in 2023 by U.S. investment firm KKR, which bought out the original investors.<\/p>\n By 2005, Myers began looking for a CEO to grow the company, while he\u00a0remained\u00a0as president, until he left the company around 2010.<\/p>\n They hired Geoff Lyon,\u00a0who\u2019d\u00a0helped build another Canadian tech firm that had been sold within four years of starting up. Lyon, who has\u00a0a degree in aerospace engineering and was living in\u00a0Calgary, joined the\u00a0founders\u00a0and they began to secure customers, generate revenue, and hire staff.<\/p>\n Lyon was impressed that the group was able to secure key meetings with Intel and Apple.<\/p>\n He was struck by Myers\u2019 ability to raise funding \u201cand knock down doors,\u201d Scott\u2019s ingenuity and inventiveness, and the talent of Gierl, who was referred to as \u201cthe metal magician\u201d for his ability to turn white-board ideas into prototypes by the end of day.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n The beginning years were meagre with a small office near Marlborough Mall in northeast Calgary.<\/p>\n In 2006, they garnered attention in the New York Times for developing a beverage chiller powered by a USB hookup, to keep drinks cool. It was later sold in Walmart and other retailers, and helped garner CoolIT attention at trade shows.<\/p>\n Lyon, who remained at the helm for 14 years, recalls the team were having a few beers and talking about the business when the idea arose.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018It\u2019s a shame we don\u2019t chill beer because we might make more money and we all had a good laugh,\u2019 \u201d he says.<\/p>\n Scott later went to the company\u2019s shop and promptly designed one.<\/p>\n \u201cHe came down and said, \u2018Here\u2019s your beer chiller,\u2019 and we\u2019re like, maybe we should make this for kicks,\u201d Lyon adds. \u201cIn the end \u2026 I think we sold maybe 60,000 to 80,000.\u201d<\/p>\n The company also sold its computer cooling system and added more employees, but ran head-on into economic turbulence, such as during the global\u00a0financial crisis.<\/p>\n By 2008, the company had grown to more than 25 workers; it was forced to cut the payroll to just 14 people, which led to Scott\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole economy just took a big wobble\u00a0there\u00a0and we had to downsize,\u201d says Gierl.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t even understand that (there) was a mechanism that would happen where a founder could get pushed out. But then I realized, well, there\u2019s company survival.\u201d<\/p>\n During his time at the company, Lyon says one reoccurring theme was\u00a0CoolIT\u00a0being cash-strapped and needing to raise more money. During his 14 years as CEO, the company did 21 separate raises and had close to 150 shareholders.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cIt was non-stop. We were scrounging up nickels and dimes from everywhere,\u201d says the former CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were on a tightrope.\u201d<\/p>\n Early investor Bruce Williams, who put money into CoolIT in 2008 at $4 a share in a financing round \u2014 and later invested at a lower valuation \u2014 liked the idea of supporting a Calgary company and its ideas of how to deal with excessive heat from computer chips.<\/p>\n \u201cI never really knew that we were on the precipice of something great until it happened, quite frankly,\u201d Williams says. \u201cEvery year I would say, \u2018Should I write it off or not?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n There were times where Lyon needed to write cheques to cover the payroll, sometimes on the line of credit of his home.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had several instances where we were effectively writing the presentation to give to the employees to let them know that we were going to shut the lights off. We ended up with a Hail Mary, every time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember\u00a0one in particular. I jumped on a plane to Philadelphia, did a presentation, and walked away with a cheque for a million\u00a0bucks. And (we\u2019d\u00a0previously planned that) two days after that, we were going to tell everyone it was over.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018A scrappy, scrappy startup\u2019<\/p>\n There were new products and growth ahead, as the company made a prescient decision to consider providing cooling solutions for server racks and data centres early on.<\/p>\n By 2006 and 2007, the company\u2019s business plan identified that workstations and servers were going to be, by far, \u201cvolume opportunities\u201d for CoolIT, instead of just selling systems for desktop computers, says Lyon.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n A 2006 investor presentation noted the liquid-cooling market was expanding beyond gaming to mainstream PCs, and other areas were being targeted for growth, including laptops and servers.<\/p>\n \u201cCoolIT can reduce data centre power consumption,\u201d it declared.<\/p>\n Current company president Patrick McGinn, hired in 2012 as a product manager for the engineering team, recalls being asked to spend time to research cooling in data centres, to understand how these facilities with racks of servers operated.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a scrappy, scrappy startup,\u201d says McGinn.<\/p>\n \u201cYou settled things with beers downstairs, and Nerf guns kind of thing. It was fun. We travelled together; everyone went to the trade shows, shared rooms \u2026 Christmas parties were held in people\u2019s houses, not at the Westin.\u201d<\/p>\n CoolIT\u2019s\u00a0cooling technology was used in supercomputers; the business also developed a direct liquid cooling (DLC) modular architecture for data\u00a0centres.<\/p>\n These facilities became increasingly important as the sector evolved with more powerful chips that generated more heat, and the development of large AI-focused data centres for hyperscalers.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n According to\u00a0CoolIT, Dell began selling servers with factory-installed DLCs from the Canadian company in 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew when Dell, the biggest computer company in the world, said \u2018Hey, we\u2019re interested. Let\u2019s start running some prototyping,\u2019\u00a0\u201d says McGinn.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought, OK, people will buy this \u2026 We knew we had enough that it was going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Others were noticing as well.<\/p>\n In 2023, CoolIT was acquired by U.S. investment firm KKR for a reported US$270 million. The new owners invested and scaled up the business.<\/p>\n Since that point, the company has seen its revenues expand by four times; EBITDA has grown 10 times, and CoolIT has almost tripled its staff.<\/p>\n In March, KKR agreed to sell the business \u2014\u00a0 generating approximately 15 times its initial equity investment \u2014 to Ecolab, with CoolIT joining the ranks of Calgary\u2019s billion-dollar tech unicorns. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cNever would I have thought that it would get all the way up to US$4.75 billion. I was astonished,\u201d says Lyon.<\/p>\n For those involved with the company over the years, the news was\u00a0validation of\u00a0their ideas and effort.<\/p>\n \u201cJaw-dropping,\u201d says Myers, who is now CFO at a Calgary tech company.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was amazing to\u00a0us\u00a0and it gave us so much pride in Sandy, to hear that it had happened,\u201d adds Carol Klippenstein, whose brother died from cancer last year at the age of 65.<\/p>\n A sale to celebrate<\/p>\n At a lively employee gathering after the sale was announced in March, KKR leaders unveiled a sizeable cash payout program to all workers for their ownership in CoolIT.<\/p>\n It was a memorable celebration inside a large tent set up on a company parking lot outside its new liquid lab in Quarry Park, with employees about to get news of some life-altering money coming their way.<\/p>\n Payouts began with a full year of salary for employees\u00a0who\u2019d\u00a0joined this year, with a minimum amount of $35,000.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Those who started at CoolIT before 2016 will receive eight times their annual wage, and a minimum $490,000. The average payment is $240,000, says McGinn.<\/p>\n \u201cJust seeing the emotion in that room and the noise, it was like a jet engine taking off every time we announced something,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll\u00a0never forget that. You could feel the shake in the tent.\u201d<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n At the gathering, McGinn also paid tribute to Gierl, the lone co-founder who remains with CoolIT.<\/p>\n \u201dHe\u2019s\u00a0dedicated himself to this company,\u201d the company\u2019s president told the crowd.\u00a0\u201cBrydon, we owe\u00a0so much to you. Thanks for letting us do it with you.\u201d<\/p>\n Gierl considers himself an individual who doesn\u2019t get too high or too low, noting Myers used to call him \u201cSteady Eddy\u201d when they worked together.<\/p>\n That spring day, he went home with his wife after the event ended, and reflected on the impact of the sale and what the payouts would mean to his colleagues and friends. (His son, Quinn, also works at the company.)<\/p>\n And it all sprung up from an innocuous meeting with a friend more than a quarter-century earlier to help solve an intriguing technical problem.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I had it all together \u2026 just watching that unfold the other day, it was very, very emotional and happy \u2014 but very emotional,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just opened a bottle of wine and just chatted about the day, just thinking about what all happened and how cool it was.\u201d<\/p>\n cvarcoe@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n \u2666 \u2666 \u2666<\/p>\n Bookmark this website and support our journalism: Subscribe now<\/a> so you don\u2019t miss the news you need to know and sign up for our free newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Share this article in your social network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breadcrumb Trail Links BusinessLocal BusinessTechnologyTech-Biz Tech unicorn CoolIT traces its roots back to a basement venture started to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-631792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Cool](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CoolIT-coolant-distribution.jpg\")
Rows of Coolant Distribution Units are shown on the floor at CoolIT\u2019s Starfield manufacturing facility in Calgary. Courtesy CoolITArticle content<\/p>\n![\"Calgary](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/21.0.2\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-ch-new.svg\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n![\"FP](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/21.0.2\/websites\/images\/newsletters\/logo\/FP-West.svg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"CoolIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/coolit-brydon-gierl-2001.jpg\")
Then and now: Brydon Gierl, co-founder of CoolIT Systems, at his workstation in the home of co-founder of Sandy Scott, circa 2001. In main image at top, rows of coolant distribution units are shown on the floor at CoolIT\u2019s Starfield manufacturing facility in Calgary. Supplied photo\/Courtesy CoolIT<\/p>\n![\"CoolIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CoolIT-Systems-Starfield-building.jpg\")
An image of CoolIT\u2019s 40,000 square foot Liquid Lab Innovation Centre in Calgary. Courtesy CoolIT<\/p>\n![\"CoolIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/coolit-brydon-gierl-dean-prodan-patrick-mcginn.jpg\")
Brydon Gierl, founder and SVP of CoolIT Systems, moderator Dean Prodan, board chair Platform Calgary and Patrick McGinn, president and COO of CoolIT Systems during a fireside chat at Platform Calgary in Calgary on April 16, 2026. Darren Makowichuk\/Postmedia<\/p>\n![\"CoolIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/coolit-group-2006.jpg\")
CoolIT execs in April 2006, from left, president and chairman Jason Myers, VP R&D Brydon Gierl, CTO Sandy Scott and CEO Geoff Lyon, posing with their self-contained CPU cooler that combines a century-old cooling technology with modern know-how. Steve Makris\/Postmedia file<\/p>\n![\"COolIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CoolIT-CPU-cooler-2006.jpg\")
CoolIT liquid cooling for computer systems, top left, and other cooling systems circa 2006. Steve Makris\/Postmedia file<\/p>\n![\"CoolIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/coolit-former-office.jpg\")
CoolIT\u2019s original office space in Calgary. Courtesy CoolIT<\/p>\n![\"CoolIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CoolIT-beverage-cooler.jpg\")
CoolIT\u2019s USB beverage cooler generated buzz at trade shows. Courtesy CoolIT<\/p>\n![\"CoolIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CoolIT-Systems-process.jpg\")
Calgary-based CoolIT Systems Inc. was purchased by U.S.-based Ecolab Inc. for $4.75 billion, Ecolab announced on March 20, 2026. Photo courtesy CoolIT Systems Inc.<\/p>\n![\"CoolIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CoolIT-Systems-celebration.jpg\")
CoolIT Systems co-founder Brydon\u00a0Gierl celebrates with Calgary employees at a company event following the company\u2019s March 2026 sale to the U.S. firm Ecolab for US$4.75 billion. Courtesy CoolIT\/John Gaucher<\/p>\n