RankPop · family behavior economy

Your kid will hand over the iPad before you ask.

A Long Island parent of two turned a fridge points chart into RankPop, the family app where the grown-ups in a kid's life — coaches, teachers, dentists, grandparents, anyone they look up to — hand out digital stickers with one scan. Free 7-day trial, then $4.99/month or $44.99/year. Built on Long Island.

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The problem

The most common daily fight in homes with tweens is about a screen.

5½h

daily entertainment screen time, ages 8–12 (Common Sense Media, 2021)

71%

of parents of under-12s worry their child spends too much time on screens (Pew, 2020)

2×

risk of depression/anxiety symptoms above 3 h/day of social media (US Surgeon General, 2023)

Schools banned phones in 2025–26. The fight moved home. Parents are the referee every night.

Why now

Three waves at once.

Cultural: "The Anxious Generation" and state phone bans made screen limits mainstream — and made parents the enforcers.
Language: "aura points" is one of the most-searched slang terms of 2026. Kids already keep score; RankPop gives parents the scoreboard.
Technology: modern tools let one parent run a national app for pennies per family.

The product

Three things that work together.

🎮 The Aura economyTwo taps or one voice line logs a W. 80+ age-tuned behaviors, a reward shop the kid designs, ranks that never drop — so nobody quits.

📜 The Family PactA signed, printable contract generated from PBIS, CASEL and AAP guidance, in the kid's own slang. "It's in the pact, Dad."

⭐ Stickers from grown-upsAny grown-up in a kid's life — coach, teacher, dentist, grandma, babysitter — gives a digital sticker with one scan of a standing QR — no app, no account, free for them. Praise from someone who isn't Mom lands as points and a ding, with the grown-up's name on it.

How it works

Parent · Kid · Grown-up.

Parent (dark dashboard)Quick-log chips, voice logging, approvals, undo, contracts, adult passes, a ledger with fairness warnings.

Kid (neon HUD, PIN-locked)Animated avatar, XP bar, wallet, streak, reward shop, live dings, read-aloud.

Grown-up (one page)A standing Sticker Station QR for any grown-up in a kid's life — coach, teacher, dentist, grandparent, babysitter — on the bench, counter or fridge; or a one-time pass: first name, sport icon, two giant buttons. No app, no account, counts only.

See every screen · Try the demo

The science

Every mechanic has a paper behind it.

Design rule	Evidence
Small, immediate, consistent points	Token economies (Kazdin; classroom meta-analyses)
Teach, then acknowledge 5:1	PBIS randomized trials (Bradshaw et al., 2010)
Signed behavior contract	Behavior-contract meta-analysis (Bowman-Perrott et al., 2015)
Pay for self-control, never for grades	Rewards & intrinsic motivation (Deci et al., 1999; Cameron & Pierce, 1994)
Rank never drops; wallet never negative	Learned helplessness (Seligman); response-cost research
Recognition from a coach	Caring non-parent adults (Search Institute)

Business model

$4.99 a month. ~90% gross margin.

Free

7-day trial, then $4.99/mo · $44.99/yr (save 25%) · $49.99 once, first 300 Founding Families

$0.03

infrastructure per family per month at 1,000 families (card processing, $0.44, is the real cost)

revenue lines beyond subscriptions: Team Packs for leagues, school licenses, gift cards, card packs, digest sponsorships, premium AI coach

Competition

Cheaper than Joon, broader than a chore app, kinder than a control app.

Product	Price	Missing vs RankPop
Joon (ADHD quests + virtual pet)	$12.99/mo	Adult pass, signed pact, slang bridge, rank that never drops
BusyKid / Greenlight (chores → debit card)	$3.99–5.99/mo	Behavior economy, contracts, screen-time exchange
OurPact / Qustodio / Screen Time	Free–$10/mo	Motivation — they are the stick; RankPop is the carrot
ClassDojo	Free (schools)	The home; Adult Pass bridges the two

Go to market

Content + coaches + search.

Daily short video of real kids reacting to Aura taxes and rank-ups. The #AuraTax challenge.
Every customer recruits a coach, and every coach sees 15–30 families. Team Packs turn leagues into channels.
Free SEO pages for the slang every parent googles ("what does 6-7 mean") funnel into a free trial.
Long Island first: libraries, PTAs, pediatricians, dojos — then New York, then the US, then Spanish.

The plan

12 months, one routine.

When	Milestone	Paying families
Month 1	20 founding families, first videos, adult passes in 20 teams	—
Month 3	Paid launch, referral loop, trademark filed, 5 partners	~350
Month 6	Daily content engine, editor hired, Spanish version	~2,000
Month 12	League + school channel, leaderboards, native wrapper	4,500–6,000 (base) · 28,000 (viral)

Built by a Long Island parent of two — for their own kids. Try it free. rankpop.app · Contact