Today Mobly co-founder Zach Barney launched RealQuest AI, a gamified platform that lets teens build and run real businesses with AI coaching, CRM and marketing tools, parental permission controls, and Duolingo-style streaks. Public beta opens today.
Lehi, Utah – July 7, 2026
For the past four years, Zach Barney has been the leader and public face of Mobly, the Lehi-based event marketing platform he co-founded in 2023 with Kris Jenkins. Today he's stepping into a new chapter, one born not in a boardroom, but at his own kitchen table.
Today, Barney announces the launch of RealQuest AI, a platform aimed at teens and young adults that gamifies the process of building and running a real business with AI. Barney has handed day-to-day leadership of Mobly to Jenkins, who is now CEO, while Barney remains involved in a different capacity and pours his energy into the new venture.
A Problem That Started at Home
Barney says the idea grew out of circumstances in his own household. He and his wife have five children, two of whom are neurodivergent, and the family has spent the last several years wrestling with screen time, anxiety, and a sense that traditional schooling wasn't preparing his kids for the world in front of them.
"How do I set up my kids for success in this world?" Barney said, describing the question that has driven him for months. Attempts to simply restrict screens — pulling tablets, deleting apps, locking down the smart TV — didn't stick. "They find a way," he said. "And if it's not here, they're going to go to their friend's house."
Rather than fight the pull of screens, Barney set out to redirect it. "Instead of just banning it, make it productive and something they want to do," he said.
Duolingo Meets Vibe Coding
Barney describes RealQuest AI as what you'd get if you crossed a vibe-coding platform like Lovable or Replit with Duolingo. Users don't just build a website — they launch and operate an actual business, guided by an AI coach that walks them through a conversational intake (what they want to build, why they care about it, who will pay for it) before assembling a starter site and recommending features to add.
From there, the platform layers in the tools of a real company: a CRM, marketing automation, a social media studio, invoicing and order tracking, domain registration, and incorporation support. Payment options include connecting a personal or parental Venmo or Stripe account so young entrepreneurs can actually get paid.
The gamification layer borrows directly from language-learning apps. Users build a customizable avatar, earn "experience tokens" for completing real milestones — launching a site, landing a first customer, publishing a marketing campaign — and can spend those tokens on cosmetic gear rather than pulling out a parent's credit card. Streaks, daily drops, and a social feed where users share progress and give each other feedback round out the loop.
"I'm cool with them on it for hours on end," Barney said, "because it's taken away from the brain rot, and they're actually learning and building — and they don't even realize it."
Guardrails Built Around Parents, Not Around the Business
Recognizing that families differ widely in how much AI autonomy they're comfortable giving their kids, Barney built a parent dashboard that governs permissions rather than a one-size-fits-all set of restrictions. Parents can control whether a child can publish a website live, post to connected social accounts, or spend beyond a set token allowance — or simply grant full autonomy if they choose.
"Some parents are very, very apprehensive of letting their kids go ham. Others just don't care," Barney said. "It's very guardrailed around age-appropriate material and spending and social media."
Free to Start, Paid to Scale
The bulk of RealQuest AI is free. Every user receives 200,000 units of what Barney calls "AI fuel" each month — enough, he says, to ship a real website and still have a buffer for marketing and content generation before ever hitting a paywall. Most of that usage runs on Anthropic's models, supplemented by third-party logo-generation tools.
Paid plans unlock a custom domain and the full business-operations suite — the CRM and marketing automation — for $29 a month for an individual or $49 a month for an entire household, which also raises the AI fuel allowance to 500,000 units monthly, with the option to top off further.
A Family Affair
Barney's three daughters, ages 11 to 15, have been closely involved in building and testing the product. His oldest, Lucy, who is graduating high school a year early, serves as the company's head of QA and its social media face, appearing in short videos demonstrating the platform. Barney described her as one of his neurodivergent children, someone who has struggled to find her footing in a traditional school environment but has taken naturally to running point on the new venture. His younger daughters are also active on the platform's QA team and earn referral revenue for bringing in new paying users.
A Quiet Beta, Then a Public Launch
Barney has spent the past month building RealQuest AI at a breakneck pace — by his account, close to 15 hours a day — while quietly testing it with about a dozen beta users drawn from friends and family. When the platform opens publicly next week, it will welcome its first 100 beta testers, who will receive full access and a permanent discount on paid plans if they continue after the trial period. Anyone will be able to request access, with Barney approving beta requests directly.
Looking ahead, Barney's next milestone is building and refining collaborative features that let young entrepreneurs team up as co-founders on shared ventures.
From Event Marketing to Entrepreneurship Education
RealQuest AI marks a distinct pivot for Barney, who built Mobly into an AI-powered in-person revenue platform used by companies including Adobe and Ramp, raising a $4.3 million seed round co-led by Jump Capital and Eniac Ventures in early 2025 on top of an earlier $2.5 million round led by Peterson Ventures. Mobly is now led by Jenkins as CEO, with Barney continuing to support the company he co-founded.
"It was definitely hard walking away from what has been my baby for four years," Barney said. "But it just feels like — I've been trying to build toward this."
RealQuest AI opened its public beta today, July 7, 2026. Visit realquest.ai for more details.