In Dubrovnik, people mostly invest in tourism-related businesses, seen as the easiest and fastest, and sometimes the best investment for the southern region, but young entrepreneur Lea Perić, originally from Pelješac, decided to follow a completely different path from most of her fellow citizens. Although she herself comes from the tourism sector (she was a long-time manager in the Dubrovnik hotel group Anker), three years ago she decided to leave the security of a corporate job and start her own startup, about which, as she admits, she did not know much until then.
Little by little, Xoink was created, an educational and developmental app for parental control, or rather, to help parents with the problem of children’s excessive use of mobile devices. The goal of this software solution is not for parents to control their children, but to encourage them to use technology responsibly from a young age.
Trust Relationship
With Xoink, parents can set the daily time their child will spend on the mobile phone or within a certain app, and what distinguishes it from numerous similar apps on the market is that children can independently extend that time by answering quiz questions. It is precisely in this fact that Perić saw her entrepreneurial advantage, emphasizing that similar apps with the same purpose available on the market ‘do not have a good approach’ and ‘are not attractive’.
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—– Xoink approaches parents and children differently. We offer additional content, education, a kind of game. A child can learn something new or reinforce their knowledge through the Xoink app very briefly each day, but continuously every day. By adding elements and game techniques in the learning process, we turn passive learning into active learning. We are trying to popularize that unfortunate parental control term and show parents that it does not mean spying on the child, punishing them, and invading their privacy, but that it is possible to encourage good habits, learning, and build trust in the relationship with the child through such an app, all in a fun and educational way – explains Perić her idea, which she began to build during her maternity leave when she had more time for thinking and planning.
The period of starting her own business coincided with the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. During the pandemic, the problem of excessive use of mobile devices among children escalated, which Xoink tries to solve and support parents in upbringing.
– The pandemic somewhat slowed down the entrepreneurial side of app development and brought us all liquidity difficulties, especially for those of us who had just started building our story. Surely we all asked ourselves at least once why we didn’t stay in the safety of a regular paycheck – reflects Lea on the year 2020, but the desire for her own project that she has always had was stronger.
A Support Tool in Parenting
Like every startup, Xoink is constantly looking for investors, as everything that is done is expensive and risky. Perić emphasizes that it is impossible to grow in a startup without a large financial injection, and besides investments, she says there is also the possibility of Xoink entering into a partnership with someone who has a similar vision. Examples of companies with which she could potentially enter into such a partnership are telecoms or publishers with similar projects related to education.
And it was the Ministry of Science and Education, with prior approval from the Agency for Education, that recommended Xoink for use in primary schools. Therefore, now educators and teachers in primary schools can recommend the Xoink app to parents to help them cope with the problem of children’s excessive use of mobile phones.
– We believe that no app can, and should not, raise a child. An app can only be a tool and assistance in today’s parenting. A good example of this is the ‘Night Time’ functionality, which gives the child the opportunity to use the mobile phone even when they should be sleeping, but the time you have approved for that day will expire twice, three times, or four times faster during that period. In this way, you encourage the child to use the mobile phone more during the day. So, you haven’t forbidden them, but you have given them the option to choose – explains Perić.
What else the Xoink app enables parents, how to run a startup in Dubrovnik, and who all helps Lea Perić in this can be read in the new issue of the printed and digital Lider.
