Hencob Sentinel — Progress Update 2

Hey IH — wanted to share where things stand with Hencob Sentinel, the scam call blocking app I've been building.

For anyone new: Sentinel is an Android app that screens incoming calls in real time against a crowdsourced + FTC-sourced database of known scam numbers, and blocks them before they ever ring through.

What's changed recently

I spent the last stretch less on new user-facing features and more on the plumbing that lets me actually run this thing:

• Founding beta tier — early testers now get lifetime access, no strings attached, as a thank-you for helping me before launch. It's fully wired into billing so it never gets accidentally overwritten if that account ever touches Stripe.

• Internal admin tooling — I built out a small dashboard so I can manage beta access and review scam reports without hand-writing database commands every time. Sounds unglamorous, but it's the difference between "I can onboard testers in 10 seconds" and "I dread doing this."

• Report moderation — the crowdsourced reporting system (users flag numbers as scams) now has real moderation behind it. I can review individual reports, remove bad-faith ones, and override a number's status manually when needed. Important for keeping the blocklist trustworthy as more people start using it.

• Waitlist pipeline cleaned up — signups on the landing page now flow automatically into my email list, so nobody falls through the cracks between "signed up" and "got an invite."

What's next

Referral mechanics are the next big thing on my list — I want early users to have a reason to tell their (non-technical, most-scam-call-targeted) friends and family about Sentinel, since paid ads aren't really in the cards for a startup consumer security app.

If scam calls are a headache for you or someone in your life, the waitlist is open: hencob.com