Hi! My name is Thomas and this is why (and less importantly how) I started LOUP - a child-safe phone for the Anti-Screen Age.
At the start of the year, my daughter, Ridley, wandered into my office. She found an old phone sitting on the floor—one of those heavy, plastic relics from before everything had a screen. She picked it up and started pretending to call people. For weeks after, she’d play the same game, dialing imaginary friends, telling imaginary stories, lost in her own world of pretend.
A few weeks later, we gave her a pair of walkie-talkies. She handed one to a friend down the street, and the game became real. They were talking every day, sharing everything:
"My dad stepped in 💩 today."
"There's a blue car parked outside."
"I saw Goonies last night."
"Want to come over to play?"
It was simple, playful, real.
At the same time, I kept seeing headlines about kids and screens—anxiety, distraction, lost sleep.
Parents everywhere were trying to balance connection and protection. I felt it too. Ridley’s friends were already getting tablets and smartphones, and it was hard not to feel the pressure.
I’m not against screens—cartoons on the weekends, we watch movies and play video games together—but I didn’t want her first experience of independent connection to be through something designed to keep her scrolling.
Or the threat of bullying, spam, body image, perfection and that list, as we know, goes on and on.
So I started building. I wanted something small and safe, but still beautiful. A way for kids to talk and stay close, without being pulled into feeds or apps. That became Loup—a screenless, SIM-free voice device that lets kids connect while parents stay in control. Freedom for her. Peace of mind for me.
The name started as loop—a safe circle of connection. But Ridley said it should be written as Loup, the French word for wolf. “Because wolves howl to stay close to their pack,” she said. And that just made sense.
Loup isn’t another smartphone for kids. It’s something new—a smarter first phone. With your support, we can help kids grow up connected in the ways that really matter.
