Pinwheel CEO on Selling Kid-Safe Phones

In 2019 Dane Witbeck had a problem familiar to parents: What were his kids doing on their smartphones?

That problem became his motivation to launch Pinwheel, an Austin, Texas-based seller of Android phones with parental controls for apps, usage limits, monitoring, and more.

Fast forward to 2026, and Pinwheel is thriving and profitable. In our recent conversation, Dane shared his company’s production process, marketing tactics, economic model, and more.

Our entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for clarity and length.

Eric Bandholz: Tell us what you do.

Dane Witbeck: I’m a founder of Pinwheel. We provide Android-based smartphones for kids with parental control software. There’s a lot we can do with Android that we can’t with Apple.

I’m a dad with four kids. I started Pinwhell about five years ago to help with the smartphone problem, which most parents are aware of.

Our customers buy the phone, the actual hardware, through us, even though Samsung, LG, or Motorola makes it. We embed software deep into those devices. It’s baked in from the get-go, and so the setup is on us, not our buyers.

The phone is safe and easy for kids to use. Parents can add to it over time as their kids mature, such as more apps, content, and permissions.

We buy phones wholesale in bulk from those manufacturers. They are our vendors. We’re the customer, but we take it on ourselves to set them up for kids, closing any loopholes.

For example, we’ll buy Samsung Galaxy A17 phones and prepare them using a process capable of generating thousands of units per month. We’ll repackage them a bit with instructions. Parents can access the phones and see what’s going on with them, including the apps.

Bandholz: How do you build relationships with a company like Samsung, LG, or Motorola?

Witbeck: It’s not that hard. They’re in the business of selling phones. I’ll say, “I want to buy a thousand phones.” Generally, they’ll send a new customer to a channel partner, such as a wholesaler. It doesn’t make much difference whether you work directly with them or with wholesalers. Both offer lines of credit with net-30 terms.

We cannot dictate what they put on the phone. We get what comes with the device. A small Chinese manufacturer might have a thousand variations of Android phones. We could certainly dictate software from those companies, but in our experience, there are all kinds of bugs with the hardware. Buying from Samsung, LG, or Motorola eliminates a whole bunch of problems.

Bandholz: What are Pinwheel’s economics?

Witbeck: We’re a hybrid ecommerce model. We have similarities with ecommerce companies in how we market and sell to customers, including checkout and retargeting. But we’re also a software company. Subscriptions drive the business. That’s what investors look for and how we build value.

Initially we sold the phones and the software subscriptions. Customers chose their cellular plans separately. We did that for a couple of years before adding cellular as an option.

So now, during checkout, customers can buy the phone with their own cellular plan or ours. Roughly half use ours. We’ll provide a single bill unified across cellular and software subscriptions.

Bandholz: How do parents manage the device?

Witbeck: We provide an app for Android phones, iPhones, or web browsers. Parents log in to any of those places and access tools such as selecting apps, permissible times of day, and usage limits. Parents can send chore lists directly to their kids’ phones, review their kids’ text messages, and even set up monitoring for words or phrases.

Bandholz: You’re getting into landlines for kids, a new product.

Witbeck: Yes. We call it Pinwhell Home, a modern take on a landline. We’re very excited. As parents, we’ve given cell phones and smartwatches to a generation of kids, essentially encouraging them to communicate over text messages rather than voice.

The result is that kids do not know how to have traditional voice conversations, which is healthy for humans. We need to talk to each other.

Yet we don’t want our kids talking on a phone at 1:30 a.m. when they need to be sleeping for their test tomorrow. With our new landline product, parents can place limits on the time of day, contacts, approved inbound numbers, and more.

We’re shipping those this month. There’s a competitor called Tin Can, a great company. We’re going to focus on features that are not on Tin Can. One is scaling across ages better. Plus, ours is a two-part system with a VoIP terminal and phones that plug in to it.

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Bandholz: You mentioned investors. What is your thinking for raising external funds?

Witbeck: I try to let the market guide those decisions. There’s no need to be opinionated one way or the other regarding bootstrapping or tapping venture capital. Can you create more value with the capital? What kind of capital?

We raised some money at the beginning and stopped once we reached profitability. We’ve been profitable for two years. There’s a huge opportunity ahead of us that we cannot fully capture unless we raise more money. So we’re back to the capital markets for the first time in several years.

I’ve been on both sides of funding. I raised money, and I’ve funded about 25 startups as an angel investor. I’ve learned lessons along the way.

First, for entrepreneurs seeking capital, make sure you know the weak spots in your pitch. Know the objections and have answers for those before sitting down with VC prospects.

And don’t take rejection personally. It could be that an investor doesn’t have the money, but he’s stating another reason for not participating. It could be the sector or a bad experience with a similar investment. So be ready for “no” 100 times until you get a “yes.”

Bandholz: Where can people buy your phones, support you, and reach out?

Witbeck: Our site is Pinwheel.com. We’re also on Instagram and Facebook. I’m on LinkedIn.