Lockup began in my dorm bedroom as part of a weekly meetup that Cillian, Carlos, and I called "Coding Thursdays", where we tried to build a full product in one night and ship it. Lockup took longer. I worked on it as CTO until September 2026.
Lockup puts every phone in a room away with one code. Whoever is running the session starts it from the web, chooses how long it lasts, and reads out five letters. Everyone else types them into the free iOS or Android app and their phone stays locked until the session ends. Calls always get through, and any single phone can be released with one tap. It works for a classroom, a study group, or a dinner table, and it is free to start.
Lockup for Schools swaps codes for the school timetable. Students check in and are marked into the right class automatically, and teachers see live compliance, attendance, and tamper reports from a web dashboard, with staff unlock codes and preset breaks for when phones are allowed.
Much of our approach is proprietary, and the space is competitive, so I cannot go into too much detail. Most of our development happened at the Alpine Valley accelerator in Austria, which we joined in summer 2026. We are an AI-native company and, as a small team, we use AI agents heavily during testing to keep the experience smooth for customers.
When I left in September 2026, Lockup was running in three schools, serving over 350 students. If any of the above interests you, please get in touch.
