Invest in Unpluq

Our world is struggling to balance the incredible tech we now have access to with what is healthy use of this technology. Unpluq helps people reverse unhealthy digital habits like constant phone pickups, excessive screen time, and with it a host of health and mental health problems.

With Unpluq, people tip back the scale on tech, pursuing a fulfilled life. Made for the whole family, old and young, Unpluq puts power in your hands: to decide, with full intention, when to use a dopamine inducing app, and when to enjoy life.

No paid placements—all organic and unpaid

With the proliferation of social media, mobile phones, and our always-on culture, it is increasingly difficult to resist cheap, unfulfilling dopamine hits.

We’re missing out on our own lives, and big tech wants to put the responsibility on the individual–but the cards have been stacked--and we're paying the price in rising suicide and depression rates, increased anxiety, and loneliness.

Social media and doomscrolling leaves us feeling lonely, anxious and vulnerable, and we are only starting to see the negative impact it has on the fabric of our society. Smartphone overuse has been directly linked to loneliness, depression, anxiety and increased suicide rates. 

Big tech is exploiting our children’s wellbeing for profit. Smartphones are negatively affecting the mental health, social skills, attention span and sleep of the next generation. Is this all there is for them?

You decide which apps are blocked, and when. Get up, find, and tap the Tag to the back of your phone to unlock a blocked app. Using a different part of your brain before starting to mindlessly scroll is effective habit change that hits.

The Unpluq Tag design is based on rational override theory: adding a moment of intentional friction to nudge behavior change. 

It works: people who use the Unpluq Tag reduce their phone usage by 1 hour and 22 minutes per day on average, compared to their usage before Unpluq, and more than half of them still use the Tag more than a year later.

In consumer subscriptions, this retention puts Unpluq in the top quartile of consumer subscription companies.

Unpluq customers report doing more of what they love and care about. They spend less time online and report that they are doing more of their favorite activities:

• Reading
• Cooking
• Exercising
• Time in Nature
• Seeing Friends 
• Quality Time with Family
• Daydreaming
• Studying & Learning

In 2023, we grew revenue 30% month-over-month. In 2024, we surpassed 2023's total revenue in just five months—as a team of two hyper-focused people.

Approximately 90% of Unpluq's revenue is from subscription, providing healthy contribution margins akin to typical SaaS businesses.

Combined with industry-leading retention, that’s a recipe for success. Our retention numbers for Unpluq Tag users exceed retention of the platforms we’re aiming to beat: Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Our customer retention rates are also outlier high compared to other consumer subscriptions.

There’s no denying this is an immense problem affecting many people across the world: a massive market. Unpluq estimates this market to be $15 billion just in the USA.

Immediately Addressable Market

Since it’s an early and rapidly emerging market, we’re using a bottom-up approach to determine our earliest, most addressable market size:

• 18.6% of people aged 18-40have tried at least one screen time reduction solution--but the solutions they tried didn't work for them. (Unpluq survey, n=596)
• 89M Americans are 25-45 years old
• This represents a $2.1 billion immediately addressable market

Further Addressable Markets

• 49.8M Americans in Unpluq's target age range feel addicted to their phones: a $6.25 billion market.
• 110M Americans are looking for smartphone alternatives: a $15 billion market.
• Additionally, the already established parental control market was evaluated at $2.7 billion in 2022, and is growing at 12.1% yearly (Compounded Annual Growth Rate), projected to hit $3.9 billion in market size in the United States by 2030.

Sources:

1: 2023 Study of +1000 Americans by Harmony Health

2: 18.6% of Americans have tried a screen time solution (Unpluq survey n=596, ages 18-40 in the USA)

3: 19.86% of Americans are experiencing a mental health issue

4. 89M Americans are 25-45 years old

5. 110M people looking for alternatives to smartphones (Deloitte, 2023)

Market value based on historic retention estimated LTV of $125

The established parental control market was evaluated at $2.7 billion in 2022, and is growing at 12.1% yearly (Compounded Annual Growth Rate). This market is projected to hit $7.9 billion by 2030. 

Unpluq has received hundreds of inquiries from parents about supporting the needs of children and teens. These parents love Unpluq for its simplicity and flexibility to grow and adapt with their childrens’ evolving needs. 

Half of Unpluq’s existing customers have children, providing a natural evolution and opportunity for Unpluq to expand.

We received hundreds of requests over the past year about supporting families with our technology, and are beyond excited to build Unpluq Family beyond its test phase. With Unpluq Family, we’re supporting people of all ages in making tech less addictive: from first phone onwards.

Half of Unpluq’s existing customers have school-aged children, with 25% of Unpluq’s customers having at least one child under the age of 5. This provides Unpluq a natural evolution and opportunity from our existing customer base of new parents and young professionals not yet with children.

Unpluq is using part of these funds to not only further develop Unpluq Family but explore new physical iterations of the Unpluq Tag specifically for families.

We’ll achieve three main things with the funding from this round:

• Engineering: creating and improving Unpluq Family to serve parents, teens, and preteens
• Unpluq Tag's evolution: new physical formats for our patent-published NFC technology
• Growing our revenue (MRR) through existing and new marketing channels

We see our customers as our earliest supporters and evangelists: we want you to be part of the change we're making in the world and we want you to benefit from doing so!

You might have noticed that our valuation is significantly lower than many other companies that raise on WeFunder. We decided to price this round conservatively, because we care about our early supporters and we want to give you a fair valuation.

While we cannot guarantee an outcome, we are excited to make Unpluq the leading solution in this important and growing market. We believe that by pricing the company at a lower valuation, there is a higher potential upside for our early supporters when we most need that support to realize our vision of a changed, happier, healthier world.

• What’s your exit strategy?

We’re building Unpluq to be as sturdy and successful as needed for an IPO, but will explore exit opportunities as they arise along the path there, along with our investors. 

Unpluq is not a lifestyle business for its founders: we want to impact and help as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, and build real value in the company as we do that. 

As high achieving young professionals, our opportunity cost is too high to not pursue a bigger outcome for Unpluq. We hope you see this spirit and dedication in the early results we have achieved on very little resources. 

• What’s the difference between Unpluq and built-in solutions like Screen Time on iOS and Digital Wellbeing on Android? Won’t Apple and Google just make this themselves?

The built-in solutions on iPhones or Android phones rarely work for people–and our customers have told us. A huge number of people have tried these solutions, which is a great sign of the true need for a solution, but if you’ve tried them yourself, you will know they are so ineffective and easy to ignore: they give you a popup showing your limits have been reached, and in the same, you can tap to get 15 more minutes or to turn off the limit altogether. Further, it’s a conflict of interest for these platforms and related apps to offer solutions to the addictive nature they have: when they’re being used, they earn. 

Much like quitting smoking, a one-size-fits-all solution does not work for this problem. Peoples’ needs are too different, and a customizable solution, with customizable friction, is necessary to be effective. That is what we have built with Unpluq.

• Could you tell me more about your previous investment rounds?

In lifetime of the company, we have raised approximately $500,000 from angel investors and Techstars, one of the world’s best startup accelerators, where we were selected from more than 3000 companies to be one of 12 for the 2022 Seattle Techstars accelerator. 

• Why aren’t you raising a larger amount of money?

We’re very cash efficient, and have contribution margins that look just like a typical SaaS company. As we’re capital efficient, the amount we need to get to our “next big thing” isn’t excessive.  This also means we can keep our terms fair and offer plenty of potential upside for investors.

Funnily enough, we often hear how surprised investors are with the amount of progress we’ve made with “only” $500k. We make diligent decisions when it comes to expenses and know where to focus spending to produce meaningful results.

• Why did you decide on equity crowdfunding?

We’re raising our round on WeFunder for a few reasons:

1) In conducting customer interviews, we were surprised to be asked about investing in Unpluq more than a few times.

2) Champions & ambassadors: who is better positioned to help Unpluq grow and spread the word than our investors? We want to make investing in Unpluq accessible, and not require folks to be Accredited Investors (USA requirement outside of a handful of platforms like WeFunder). A bonus: more people to champion the change we’re making.

3) Win-win: we want our earliest supporters to win with us as we grow the company to an eventual exit or profitability. Our wealth is your wealth. 

4) Values-alignment: we believe keeping our customers and users close by inviting them in as investors will help us guide Unpluq and truly build it to support your best interests.

• How will I make my money back?

With WeFunder, we're offering a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE). These will convert your investment to stock at a later date if the company raises a "priced round" from major investors, most often venture capitalists. 

At that point, you become a shareholder owning equity, and you earn a return if the value of that stock goes up over time, and you are able to sell it. 

You will be able to sell your equity if/when the company is a) acquired by another entity, or b) IPO. You might also make your money back when the company is profitable, and if it starts returning dividends back to investors. 

Review our disclosures for more details - future projections are not guaranteed.

We are holding several Investor Q&A sessions to answer your questions. Sign up here to secure your spot now.

Choose from the following upcoming sessions:

Saturday, September 28 @ 6am PT/9am ET | 3pm Central European Time/2pm UK

Thursday, October 3 @ 8am PT / 11am ET | 5pm Central European Time/4pm UK

Thursday, October 17 @ 11am PT / 2pm ET | 8pm Central European Time/7pm UK