# The origin story: iTunes bills and the value of money

- **Episode:** [155](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/155.md) (2024-12-19)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** origin-story, itunes, value-of-money
- **Time:** 3:57–7:32 (start 237s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/155?t=237](https://truthliesandwork.com/155?t=237)

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[3:57] Louise Hill: My name is Louise Hill, as Al said, and I'm the co-founder and CEO of GoHenry. GoHenry's a debit card and financial education app designed for kids aged 6 to 18. We have a very simple mission to make every kid smart with money
[4:15] Al Elliott: I love it. Let's just stick with this kid thing for a second. What inspired the idea? Why did you niche down? to finances for kids?
[4:23] Louise Hill: It really wasn't a case of niching down. It was, that was the whole inspiration and reason for starting the business. I co-founded GoHenry. We launched to the public in 2012. And it was really because I'd realized that there was nothing out there that could help me as a parent teach my own children how to be good with money. And what was becoming an increasingly digital world. The trigger for it was my 2 kids had been lucky enough to be given iPods. Remember those? The tiny little square ones for, I can't remember if it was Christmas or a birthday now. My brother and sister gave them to them. And like most parents I've spoken to, I had foolishly given them the login to my iTunes account. And they were probably 7 and 9, that kind of age. And they were having a ball. They were downloading downloading songs without a care in the world. And I was trying to figure out as a parent, how do I make them understand that every time they click that download button, they were spending money? And I started talking to other parents at the school. It was actually stood on the side of a very soggy school football pitch and joking that I had started printing out the email invoices that iTunes used to send you and pinning them on the fridge. And then on a Saturday morning when my kids stood in front of me with their hands out expecting their pocket money, was having to explain to them that maybe I was going to give this, the younger child, £4 this week, but they'd only got 50 pence left because they'd spent the rest of the money on music. And Amazingly, every parent had another story. We were all having similar problems. You know, that might have been somebody shopping on eBay and spending crazy amounts of money, another child running up bills on a game box or buying their way through game levels without understanding really that that money has to come from somewhere. And that's where the idea came from. So it started with kids. It was to create a service That would empower young people with the freedom and confidence to use and understand money in a, but in a safe environment with parental oversight. And amazingly, when I started looking to see what was out there to help, there was absolutely nothing. So in launching GoHenry, we pioneered a new category, not only in kids' finance, but But in financial education too. And, and, and, uh, I guess that's something I'm, I'm really, really proud of
[7:16] Al Elliott: Just so we fully understand the difference between the old way and the new way, the old way was they asked for the pocket money. Um, you then took their pocket money, you deducted what they'd spend on iTunes and gave them the balance
[7:27] Louise Hill: Yep
[7:28] Al Elliott: Now with GoHenry, what's the now? How does it work now?