After watching teens at bar and bat mitzvahs stay glued to their phones, Karen Silberman built The Phone Valet—a service that takes phones at events, offers an emergency contact number, and even gives a camera option. She says the most surprising part has been
When Karen Silberman walked into her son’s bar and bat mitzvah world, the milestone celebrations were beautiful in every way—except for one detail she couldn’t unsee.
Kids arrived with phones “glued to their hands,” she said, and the devices stayed there all night. Whenever there was a lull, the default move wasn’t conversation or dancing. It was the screen. And for parents who had poured “so much time and effort into these events. ” the outcome was painful: the entertainment was there. the moment was there—but their children seemed to miss it.
Silberman didn’t start with a business plan. She started with dread. “As my son’s bar mitzvah approached. ” she recalled. she worried about what would happen when the friends arrived—because she couldn’t imagine asking her own son to hand over his phone without creating a scene. But she also knew she had one advantage: she wouldn’t have to ask him.
When the event came. she intercepted his friends and told them. “Hey. guys. I’m going to need your phone.” Because she was a third party. they listened and handed over their devices easily. In that moment. the idea snapped into place: “I would pay to have someone do this.” Over the next year. she developed the business idea that became The Phone Valet.
The service is built to feel less like a punishment and more like an upgrade. Rather than forcing guests into a lecture about screen time, Silberman wanted an elegant approach. When clients book. she provides an emergency number and a way for parents to reach their kids through The Phone Valet if needed.
Cameras were another sticking point she designed around. Parents, she said, often worry about photos and videos. The Phone Valet offers clients the option to have staff hand out digital or disposable cameras when people check their phone into the valet.
Silberman also provides language for clients to share with their guests ahead of time. The message encourages guests to set expectations for a phone-free event in the days leading up to the gathering. And it includes one practical promise: anyone can access their phone at any time during an event by coming over to the valet station.
She first tested the business in Southern Florida near her home in Miami, and later in New York. From there, she began expanding to other markets this year. The events she’s worked at include bar and bat mitzvahs, school events, weddings, and even celebrity parties.
The feedback, she said, has been startling. Teens, she found, are not just tolerating the service—they’re asking for it. They see how engaged their peers become when there’s no constant phone distraction. And because they don’t want to be the ones to tell friends to put devices away. they still want the benefits of a more present room.
One success story she described didn’t sound like a dramatic turning point. She was working at a quinceañera when two boys were playing catch with a water bottle, laughing the whole time. She said that moment “wouldn’t have happened if they’d had their phones.”
To Silberman, that’s the point. “It might seem like nothing—you’d hardly even notice it—but those are the moments that make all the difference.” She keeps the same message for her son: there’s a time and place for the phone, but when you’re with people, your attention should be on them.
In a market that’s crowded with ways to keep teens entertained, The Phone Valet has carved out something different: not removing technology entirely, but changing when it shows up—and letting the room, finally, breathe.
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