Nick Pompa, founding father of Lootlock — an app that forestalls children from operating up unauthorized gaming payments on their dad and mom’ bank cards — is an avid gamer and software program developer working in fintech.
As a dad of two below two, he’s wanting ahead to sharing his ardour for gaming together with his children after they develop sufficiently old to play. He began gaming at age 6, he informed TechCrunch. Lootlock was chosen for TechCrunch’s 2025 Startup Battlefield 200 and shall be exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt, October 27 to 29 in San Francisco.
As he gabbed about gaming with different dad and mom, or just learn the information, he saved listening to horror tales of youngsters shackling their dad and mom with shock bank card payments, generally unwittingly operating up 1000’s of {dollars}.
The gaming trade has a notoriously slimy aspect of utilizing “design tricks,” because the Client Monetary Safety Bureau described final 12 months. They usually goal kids, attractive them into unlocking fee-incurring sport options. Different companies, just like the FTC have issued comparable warnings.
“The gaming industry uses clever design, social engineering, and player tracking to encourage kids to spend more money while playing,” Pompa stated. “I am an avid gamer, so I have seen firsthand the drastic shift to micro-transactions in the industry over the last eight to nine years.”
Though the FTC did pressure Fortnight earlier this 12 months to refund $126 million to individuals who filed claims, that’s uncommon. Mother and father usually don’t have any recourse however to pay.
The everyday recommendation is for folks to make use of device-level parental controls that block in-app purchases. However, Pompa stated, a lot of his mum or dad buddies are superb with letting children spend slightly cash on such purchases, below the suitable circumstances.
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He informed the story of the pal named Joe that impressed Pompa to construct Lootlock. Joe is a dad to a few children, all avid avid gamers. Joe provides every child an allowance each month, and the youngsters have been utilizing the cash to purchase gaming merchandise, establishing a ridiculous system the place he handed them allowance money they usually handed it again to pay the bank card. And he needed to monitor their purchases carefully.
Looklock lets dad and mom routinely load a digital, pay as you go bank card, issued by Lootlock’s associate, Transcard, that children add to their machine’s digital pockets.
Mother and father can automate a set quantity of allowance to be added to the cardboard, say weekly or month-to-month, and may then make any portion of that not instantly accessible. The child can unlock extra as they, as an example, full their chores. Mother and father can approve will increase to the cardboard by means of a textual content message.
“We’re giving the parents super granular controls on how their kids can spend and when their kids can spend,” Pompa stated.
Lootlock is gamifying chores, too, with an upcoming function that shall be accessible in October referred to as “bounty boards.” Mother and father arrange these boards that are primarily lists of the kid’s chores. As the youngsters full them — cleansing their room, pet care, and many others. — they earn a “bounty.” And after they hit no matter threshold of bounties a mum or dad units, the app will unlock further allowance to spend.
There’s additionally a gamified monetary schooling part. Youngsters select an avatar and as they observe good spending habits, like checking their Lootlock dashboard which tells them their account balances, they earn factors that add as much as gear for his or her avatar: swords and armor, and many others. Their avatar is persistent throughout wherever Lootlock integrates into, like its Discord servers.
“We’re tying all of the financial concepts into a video game concept,” Pompa stated.
Lootlock balances are additionally restricted to spending solely on gaming merchandise and may’t be used for different purchases on the web. So dad and mom don’t should carefully monitor what sorts of things the kid is shopping for on-line. The thought, for now, is to deal with educating kids accountable gaming.
The startup at the moment employs seven individuals and is absolutely bootstrapped.
If you wish to be taught from Lootlock firsthand, and see dozens of further pitches, precious workshops, and make the connections that drive enterprise outcomes, head right here to be taught extra about this 12 months’s Disrupt, held October 27 to 29 in San Francisco.
