Nick Pompa, founder of Lootlock — an app that prevents kids from running up unauthorized gaming bills on their parents’ credit cards — is an avid gamer and software developer working in fintech.
As a dad of two under two, he’s seeing forward to sharing his passion for gaming with his kids when they grow old enough to play. He started gaming at age 6, he informed TechCrunch. Lootlock was selected for TechCrunch’s 2025 Startup Battlefield 200 and will be exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt, October 27 to 29 in San Francisco.
As he gabbed about gaming with other parents, or simply read the news, he kept hearing horror stories of kids shackling their parents with surprise credit card bills, sometimes unwittingly running up thousands of dollars.
The gaming industest has a notoriously slimy side of utilizing “design tricks,” as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau described last year. They often tarreceive children, enticing them into unlocking fee-incurring game features. Other agencies, like the FTC have issued similar warnings.
“The gaming industest utilizes clever design, social engineering, and player tracking to encourage kids to spconclude more money while playing,” Pompa stated. “I am an avid gamer, so I have seen firsthand the drastic shift to micro-transactions in the industest over the last eight to nine years.”
Although the FTC did force Fortnight earlier this year to refund $126 million to people who filed claims, that’s rare. Parents generally have no recourse but to pay.
The typical advice is for parents to utilize device-level parental controls that block in-app purchases. But, Pompa stated, many of his parent friconcludes are fine with letting kids spconclude a little money on such purchases, under the right conditions.
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He informed the story of the friconclude named Joe that inspired Pompa to build Lootlock. Joe is a dad to three kids, all avid gamers. Joe gives each kid an allowance every month, and the kids were utilizing the money to purchase gaming products, setting up a ridiculous system where he handed them allowance cash and they handed it back to pay the credit card. And he had to monitor their purchases closely.
Looklock lets parents automatically load a digital, prepaid credit card, issued by Lootlock’s partner, Transcard, that kids add to their device’s digital wallet.
Parents can automate a set amount of allowance to be added to the card, declare weekly or monthly, and can then create any portion of that not immediately available. The kid can unlock more as they, for instance, complete their chores. Parents can approve increases to the card through a text message.
“We’re giving the parents super granular controls on how their kids can spconclude and when their kids can spconclude,” Pompa stated.
Lootlock is gamifying chores, too, with an upcoming feature that will be available in October called “bounty boards.” Parents set up these boards which are essentially lists of the child’s chores. As the kids complete them — cleaning their room, pet care, etc. — they earn a “bounty.” And when they hit whatever threshold of bounties a parent sets, the app will unlock additional allowance to spconclude.
There’s also a gamified financial education component. Kids choose an avatar and as they practice good spconcludeing habits, like checking their Lootlock dashboard which informs them their account balances, they earn points that add up to equipment for their avatar: swords and armor, etc. Their avatar is persistent across anywhere 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 also restricted to spconcludeing only on gaming products and can’t be utilized for other purchases on the internet. So parents don’t have to closely monitor what kinds of items the child is purchaseing online. The idea, for now, is to focus on teaching children responsible gaming.
The startup currently employs seven people and is fully bootstrapped.
If you want to learn from Lootlock firsthand, and see dozens of additional pitches, valuable workshops, and create the connections that drive business results, head here to learn more about this year’s Disrupt, held October 27 to 29 in San Francisco.
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