I built Pixie to help parents employee their kids and fund retirement

Hi HN,

I’m an anesthesiologist and YC alum. I built Pixie initially for my own kids.

There’s a little-known but completely legal tax rule in the US:

If a child has legitimate earned income, you can contribute to a custodial Roth IRA for them. And you can start as early as 5-6 years old.

But when I spoke with my friends, everyone was confused and concerned about compliance.

Most parents:

• Don’t know what qualifies as legitimate work

• Don’t know how to document it properly

• Are nervous about audit risk

• Or give up entirely

Pixie helps parents:

• Log real work performed by their child such as family business tasks, content creation, etc.

• Track hours and compensation

• Generate structured documentation

• Keep everything organized in one place

• Issues W2 and get EINs (I recommend getting an EIN by yourself - cheaper/faster and easy)

Why I built it:

I ran the math for my own kids. Even small early contributions compounded over decades become meaningful. But I realized most people either don’t know this exists or are too intimidated to execute it correctly.

Built during nights and weekends.

Would love any feedback!

Happy to answer questions or share details.

Amit

For a discount - https://friends.trypixie.com/?q=hn