Nick Pompa, founding father of Lootlock — an app that forestalls youngsters from operating up unauthorized gaming payments on their mother and father’ bank cards — is an avid gamer and software program developer working in fintech.
As a dad of two beneath two, he’s trying ahead to sharing his ardour for gaming along with his youngsters once 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 mother and father, or just learn the information, he stored listening to horror tales of children shackling their mother and father with shock bank card payments, typically unwittingly operating up 1000’s of {dollars}.
The gaming trade has a notoriously slimy aspect of utilizing “design tips,” because the Client Monetary Safety Bureau described final yr. They typically goal youngsters, attractive them into unlocking fee-incurring sport options. Different businesses, just like the FTC have issued related warnings.
“The gaming trade makes use of intelligent design, social engineering, and participant monitoring to encourage youngsters to spend more cash whereas taking part in,” Pompa stated. “I’m an avid gamer, so I’ve seen firsthand the drastic shift to micro-transactions within the trade over the past eight to 9 years.”
Though the FTC did pressure Fortnight earlier this yr to refund $126 million to individuals who filed claims, that’s uncommon. Dad and mom typically don’t have any recourse however to pay.
The everyday recommendation is for fogeys to make use of device-level parental controls that block in-app purchases. However, Pompa stated, a lot of his guardian associates are advantageous with letting youngsters spend somewhat cash on such purchases, beneath the appropriate circumstances.
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He informed the story of the buddy named Joe that impressed Pompa to construct Lootlock. Joe is a dad to 3 youngsters, all avid avid gamers. Joe offers every child an allowance each month, and the children 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 mother and father mechanically load a digital, pay as you go bank card, issued by Lootlock’s associate, Transcard, that children add to their machine’s digital pockets.
Dad and mom 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. Dad and mom can approve will increase to the cardboard by way of a textual content message.
“We’re giving the mother and father tremendous granular controls on how their youngsters can spend and when their youngsters can spend,” Pompa stated.
Lootlock is gamifying chores, too, with an upcoming function that shall be accessible in October referred to as “bounty boards.” Dad and mom arrange these boards that are primarily lists of the kid’s chores. As the children full them — cleansing their room, pet care, and so on. — they earn a “bounty.” And once they hit no matter threshold of bounties a guardian units, the app will unlock extra allowance to spend.
There’s additionally a gamified monetary training part. Children select an avatar and as they apply 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 so on. Their avatar is persistent throughout wherever Lootlock integrates into, like its Discord servers.
“We’re tying all the monetary ideas right into a online game idea,” 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 mother and father don’t must carefully monitor what sorts of things the kid is shopping for on-line. The concept, for now, is to give attention to instructing youngsters accountable gaming.
The startup presently employs seven individuals and is totally bootstrapped.
If you wish to be taught from Lootlock firsthand, and see dozens of extra pitches, helpful workshops, and make the connections that drive enterprise outcomes, head right here to be taught extra about this yr’s Disrupt, held October 27 to 29 in San Francisco.
