Building the future of Parenting in the Internet Age — Why we’re backing unGlue

We’re thrilled to announce that Alon Shwartz and the unGlue team are joining the Amplify family! unGlue is a software solution that controls the amount of time and content their children consume on any screen and device, both at home and away.

I have known Alon for many years, starting when we were both growing DocStoc and TrueCar at the same time in Santa Monica. Alon, as co-founder and CTO, built DocStoc over the course of a decade and led the company to an impressive exit to Intuit. TrueCar has since gone public and I now serve as Managing Partner and Chief Technologist at Amplify.

As a parent it is apparent that now is the time to solve the young generation problem of device addiction. To solve the problem requires true technical innovation, top-notch excellence in consumer productization and innate marketing understanding. The unGlue team is one that is uniquely worthy of the task.

For as long as I’ve known Alon, he has always had the ability to collect and inspire an impressive technology team — and then execute with the team at magical levels. When Alon first shared unGlue with us, we were confident about the team’s technical and leadership abilities, but as prudent investors, we took a deep look at the new market they were tackling.

When we dug into the opportunity, we discovered three key technological and generational shifts that make legacy parental control solutions severely outdated. These shifts make a modern solution more necessary today than ever before:

I: Proliferation of Internet Connected Devices.

When you look at existing software in the “parental control” space, much of it was built for the PC age when families owned one or two home computers that were shared by the entire family. Technology today is much more ubiquitous — in Mary Meeker’s most recent Internet Trends Report, she points out that Millennials use two screens at once, however, Gen Z’ers (those under the age of 20) are using 5 screens at once. With unGlue’s solution, parents can filter dangerous content and limit entertainment time regardless of what device their child is using.

II: Smartphones have taken Internet usage outside of the home.

With the proliferation of smartphones, Internet usage has moved outside the home the home in a big way (just look at Pokemon Go!). According to a report published in March, American kids now get their first phone at an average age of 10.3 years. That means that existing PC-based solutions, or Wi-Fi/router-based solutions that work only inside your home aren’t enough to meet current needs. unGlue’s innovative software-only solution is a subscription service that works seamlessly whether you’re at home on Instagram our outside chasing Pokemon.

III: The Internet now powers the majority of digital entertainment.

Nearly all entertainment has an Internet component — gone are the days when you could play serious video games without an Internet connection. It’s not TV anymore, but YouTube, Netflix & Snapchat, that kids are watching these days. It’s not iPods, iTunes & MP3s, but Spotify and SoundCloud. With so much of current media consumption controlled by the Internet, you can now turn one faucet to limit almost all digital entertainment — something that wasn’t available in the age of separated TV, phone, MP3 player, video game console, and Internet.

unGlue comes at a time when the needs and pain points are more acute then ever before, but timing alone isn’t enough to make a company “Amplify-worthy”. What excited us most about unGlue was how their unique solution was not only technologically impressive, but also met current needs.

Unlike legacy parental control solutions that are often either unnecessarily restrictive or easily circumvented, unGlue’s elegant solution, bridges the gap between what parents want and what their children need. unGlue recognizes the importance of the Internet as a utility in children’s lives and will never shut off internet access completely. At the same time, unGlue gives parents the ability to set responsible rules on internet usage across all devices, both at home and away.

All told, we’re excited to continue working alongside Alon and his all-star team to realize their mission, and we couldn’t be more excited for what the future has in store!

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