A startup launched last week aims to help parents navigate the changing world of technology by creating a community of like-minded members and connecting them to topic experts.
The startup is called Camplight, and it’s the latest venture from serial entrepreneur Forest Bronzan. The platform is accessed either online or through an app, and it features events with topic experts either live or on-demand.
Topic discussions include understanding how apps are gamified to increase use and “hijack the brain,” said Bronzan. The idea is that if you understand how the tech works it’s easier to set boundaries. There are also sessions on how parents can model healthy tech use, how to navigate online bullying and insights into who popular online influencers are. With the holidays coming up there is a special session planned for parents on what to think about if they gift a smart device.
Members can talk to each other to seek advice or share their own experience as well as ask questions of the experts the company has gathered. These experts include a psychiatrist, clinical psychologists, AI and internet safety experts and influencer specialists.
“We are not anti-tech,” said Bronzan. “At the end of the day we want to leverage technology in healthy ways and ask smart questions.”
Technology, he added, can be valuable to families but it just needs to be introduced and managed appropriately.
“The narrative (today around tech) is very doomsday: Tech is horrible, AI is horrible, hide your kids,” he said. “That’s not healthy. Like it or not this is the world we live in. That narrative isn’t practical.”
Camplight is a member-based group meant to be a safe space for the adults in a child’s life to ask questions and learn. Subscriptions are $15 a month if billed quarterly or $12 a month billed annually. The startup has been funded so far by Bronzan’s other company Digital Detox, which is a more than 10-year-old company that helps people better balance technology use in their lives and runs a popular tech-free camp.
Over the last few years, Digital Detox has become a research-heavy organization and now works with 200 schools around the country. It was this work, plus his own experience as a parent that led Bronzan to the idea for Camplight.
The profits from Digital Detox funded development of Camplight. At this point Bronzan is bootstrapping the company. He has been approached by investors in his network, he said, but has decided not to raise at this point.
Bronzan moved to Lake Oswego in 2021 from the Bay Area. Prior to taking over Digtal Detox in 2020, he started, grew and then sold an agency that specialized in customer relationship management and email. He bootstrapped that company, Email Aptitude, for seven years and sold it to Tinuity in 2018.
“There are pros and cons to every road. We are fortunate our funder is Digital Detox and we have flexibility. In a perfect world we will keep investing profits,” but ultimately the question of financing depends on how the business evolves, he said.
The platform launched Nov. 14 so its membership is still small. However, Bronzan and the team are already planning for scale and how to handle community moderation. The company has clear community guidelines and company values, he said. He added that the onboarding process walks members through those values and offers tips and insights on how to approach discussions, how to give and take constructive feedback and how to comment and engage in the community.
“We all want the same thing,” he said of people he expects to become members. “We want kids to thrive in a digital world.”
But, he noted the company will boot users if they violate community guidelines or are toxic members in the community.
Camplight has five full-time employees plus about 10 contractors. The company is using off-the-shelf tools for its initial product but eventually will build its own custom tools. It’s not disclosing details on its agreements with experts but the key leadership partners have “skin in the game,” and are paid, he said.
Two of the core team members is Dr. Andrew Hughes, a Portland-based psychiatrist, and Kelly Mothner a California-based clinical psychologist.
“Camplight takes a very pragmatic approach. We look not only at the neuroscience of how tech impacts our children, but at the practical implications, as well,” said Hughes, who is also head of mental health for Camplight, in a written statement.
