WESST Client Profiles

Parental Values provides unique and innovative tools that give parents control over their children’s Android devices; this innovative software is powered by IBM’s Watson and is the first parental control to be certified by the FTC’s “Children’s Safe Harbor” program through Privo (Privo.com). This powerful software is specifically designed to impact children’s online safety.

Parental Values, LLC founders, Jason, Malik, and Jukka, started a small business that would protect children from porn, online violence, depictions of drugs, and sexual predators: “The mobile industry has failed miserably in providing adequate protection for our children; our kids deserve better than that and it shouldn’t be the parents’ job to fix the internet before their kids discover something they shouldn’t. When people started demanding that we include certain features, that’s when we knew we were on the right track.”

Many parents have their own stories about strangers talking to their kids or having to explain web content they weren’t quite ready to discuss: their customers stories are why Parental Values, LLC exist. They needed to hear the good, bad, and the ugly about what has been missing from parental controls in order to get it right. Now they are in the business of helping parents protect their kids!

Being an Entrepreneur is a challenge every step of the way because it requires trust and support to-and-from our families and friends; for example, for the last 3 years, Parental Values, LLC didn’t know when or if their development would ever end. Getting out of the house and talking to parents has its own challenges also because parents can become very animated and upset about online safety. Once people understand that they were listening and improving their parental controls, they open-up and inform them about their pain-points regarding the web and their kids.

Parental Values can’t stop raving about their mentors at WESST, SCORE, SBA, SBDC, and PTAP! They have tirelessly sought out funding assistance through federal and state funding opportunities, and it’s really paid off! WESST mediated The New Mexico Innovation Voucher, and that really moved the needle!

An overview of their achievements are that 1) applied for voucher to the Federal Trade Commission’s “Safe Harbor Program” and larger companies started hearing their legal compliance 2) were accepted in IBM’s Small Business for Assistance Program 3) started placing in Quick pitch contests and Business Plan competitions, and 4) received two Small Business Grants to develop innovations that will impact the way parents protect their children throughout their online journey.

WESST’s experience, connections, and most importantly, their Business Organizational skills have empowered them to go to the table with some pretty influential organizations regarding some important topics. They’ve immersed themselves into a multi-billion-dollar Android market because that’s what their research indicated, and at the end-of-the-day, WESST has been a dependable partner throughout their startup.

Parental Values (ParentalValues.com) was launched in Albuquerque because it is currently dealing with some tough challenges in which we can gauge how our software is impacting children’s lives.  New Mexico actually has the right statistics to determine how their software will affect our communities because New Mexico is ranked 2nd in Child Abuse, 2nd in Physical Crime, 1st in Violent Crime, Last in Graduation, and 20% of New Mexico is in poverty.  Their software ensures that when children have questions about what opioids are, we would rather that they have that conversation with their parents instead of an unmoderated chat room.

“We know that Parental Values software is helping diverse families in many ways; we feel that when children-win, we-win also.”