Lootlock founder Nick Pompa is an avid gamer and software developer working for Fintech as it is an app that prevents children from running game bills that are not permitted on their parents’ credit cards.
As a father of two under the age of 2, he looks forward to sharing his passion for the game with his children when he grows old enough to play. He started the game at the age of six, he told TechCrunch. LootLock was selected as TechCrunch’s 2025 Startup Battlefield 200 and will be on display at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco from October 27th to 29th.
When he gabbed about games with other parents or simply read the news, he kept hearing the horrors that his children were cutting their parents off with surprise credit card bills.
The gaming industry has a notoriously slimy aspect of its use of “design tricks,” as explained by the Consumer Financial Protection Agency last year. They often target children and seduce them to unlock paid gaming features that seduce them. Other agencies, such as the FTC, have issued similar warnings.
“The gaming industry is encouraging children to spend more money while playing, using clever design, social engineering and player tracking,” Pompa said. “I’m an avid gamer, so I’ve seen first hand the dramatic shift to micromobility in the industry over the past eight to nine years.”
The FTC forced people who filed their claims earlier this year to refund $126 million, but that’s rare. Parents generally do not rely on anything but to pay.
The typical advice is to use device-level parent controls that block in-app purchases. However, according to Pompa, many of his parents’ friends are fine with their children spending a little money on such purchases under the right conditions.
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He urged the story of a friend named Joe to create a root rock for Pompa. Joe is a dad of three children and is all avid gamer. Joe gave each child a allowance every month, and the children spent the money buying gaming products, set up a stupid system to hand over the allowance, and handed it over to pay their credit card. And he had to closely monitor their purchases.
LookLock allows parents to automatically load digital prepaid credit cards issued by Lootlock’s partner Transcard.
Parents can automate a set amount of allowance added to their cards, weekly or monthly, for example, with some of them not immediately available. Children can unlock more, for example, as they complete their chores. Parents can approve card increase via text message.
“We provide parents with super creaking control over how their children can use it and when they can,” Pompa said.
LootLock has an upcoming feature called “Bounty Boards” that will be available in October. Parents set up these boards, essentially a list of children’s chores. Once the kids complete them, they clean their rooms, pet care and more. They win a “prize.” And when the parent set prize threshold is reached, the app unlocks adding additional spending.
There is also a gaming financial education component. When children practice good spending habits, such as choosing an avatar and checking predatory dashboards that communicate account balances, they earn points to add to the avatar equipment: swords and armor.
“We tie all financial concepts to the concept of video games,” Pompa said.
Rootlock balances are limited to spending only on gaming products and cannot be used for other purchases on the Internet. Therefore, parents do not need to closely monitor the types of items their children are purchasing online. For now, the idea is to focus on teaching responsible games.
The startup currently employs seven people and is fully bootstrapped.
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