About Onton

At Onton, previously known as Deft, we're transforming the online shopping experience. Our platform is dedicated to providing everyone with a seamless and efficient way to find high-quality products without the clutter of junk items, intrusive ads, or manipulated search results. We started in home decor and furniture, but our mission is much broader; to create the best place on the internet to find and research products.

From high-quality products to user-friendly tools, we ensure you can effortlessly find the perfect product among the billions of products out there—no more decision paralysis. At Onton, we prioritize integrity and transparency. This is a shopping search made to help you, not sell you junk. We hope we can make your shopping experience not just efficient, but genuinely enjoyable again.

Our story

Onton was founded to revolutionize online shopping. In 2019, Alex Gunnarson, frustrated by endless searches for the perfect piece of furniture, realized there had to be a better way. With a background in engineering and linguistics, Alex had the skills to turn this vision into reality. He developed early prototypes of what would become Onton, aiming to create a platform free of junk products and misleading ads.

Around the same time, Zach Hudson was working on Rcmmd.com, a platform for authentic product reviews. With over a decade of experience in product management for major e-commerce brands, Zach was tackling the challenge of trust and authenticity in online shopping. The two met at a startup event, and recognizing their complementary skills, began collaborating.

Zach and Alex decided to combine their efforts, merging their projects into what is now Onton. They shut down Rcmmd and focused entirely on creating superior shopping search. Their dedication and innovative approach quickly paid off. They gained early traction, became Pioneer winners, On Deck Founders, and received investment from experts and innovators across e-commerce, AI, search, and more.

A breakthrough came when Alex developed a new database technology that outperformed existing solutions by 700x, significantly enhancing Onton’s search capabilities. This technical innovation, along with their shared commitment to integrity and transparency, has shaped Onton into a robust, user-friendly platform dedicated to transforming the online shopping experience.

Meet our team

Alex Gunnarson

Co-Founder & CTO

Alex's expertise in engineering and linguistics led to the creation of Onton. Frustrated with traditional search engines, he envisioned a new type of search that could parse the web and allow him to communicate freely to find the perfect product.

Gemma Schrum

Staff Engineer

Gemma is a seasoned engineer with a rich background in software development and system architecture. Her technical expertise and innovative approach play a vital role in advancing Onton’s technological infrastructure.

Kasia Tulwin

Data Analyst

Kasia brings a keen analytical mind to Onton, leveraging data to drive insights, train ML models, and improve user experience. Her goal is aggregate and shape the cleanest set of e-commerce data in existence to create a 10x experience for our customers.

Zach Hudson

Co-Founder & CEO

With a decade of e-commerce experience, Zach joined Alex to enhance trust and authenticity in online shopping. A generalist at heart, he currently leads Onton's growth efforts and pushes innovation forward.

Mission statement

At Onton, we strive to revolutionize the online shopping experience with a focus on transparency, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Our platform is designed to provide high-quality products without the clutter of ads and junk items.

Core values

Our mission and values drive us to continuously enhance the shopping experience, ensuring every user finds exactly what they need with confidence and ease. At Onton, we are committed to setting new standards in online shopping excellence.

Integrity

We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of honesty and transparency

Customer Focus

Our users are central to everything we do, and we strive to meet their needs with exceptional service

Innovation

We leverage cutting-edge technology to continually improve our platform

Quality

We feature only the best products to maintain excellence

Simplicity

We aim to make the shopping experience straightforward and hassle-free