October 24, 2025
Workshop recap: Turning conversations into commerce with OneText
On October 23, we hosted a live workshop with Jonathan Fudem, co-founder and CEO of OneText, to explore how leading e-commerce brands are transforming SMS from a marketing channel into a sales engine. Drawing from his experience at PayPal and OneText’s YC journey, Jonathan shared how frictionless, two-way messaging is reshaping how customers browse, buy, and build loyalty.
The idea behind OneText
Jonathan explained that the company began with a simple question: what if your phone number could be a payment method? He wanted to make buying as easy as replying to a text. The result is a checkout experience that feels conversational rather than transactional, more like a concierge service than a shopping cart. OneText lets brands use customers’ phone numbers as a secure, persistent payment method while keeping the process effortless.
From spam to conversation
Traditional SMS marketing often feels one way and impersonal. OneText flips that dynamic. Jonathan described how brands can send personalized recommendations, handle support questions, and complete transactions all through two-way text. The goal is to move beyond blasting discount codes toward genuine dialogue, helping customers find what they want, ask questions, and buy in a single thread.
Blending support and sales
Jonathan emphasized that customer support and sales are no longer separate functions. Many of OneText’s most successful transactions start as support conversations. When a shopper asks about a missing discount or needs help placing an order, the same text thread can convert into a sale. For brands, every message becomes a potential revenue moment, turning “Where’s my order?” into “Order confirmed.”
Designing a frictionless experience
Behind the simplicity of replying “yes” to buy is a complex technical system. OneText integrates inventory, CRM, and payment tools but hides that complexity from the user. Jonathan’s team focuses on guiding brands through one clear step at a time and ensuring that every setup call ends with a moment of magic. This approach helps teams see value quickly and build trust in conversational commerce.
Privacy, trust, and secure checkout
When asked about building on top of SMS, Jonathan noted that security was central from day one. OneText never requests card details by text but uses the SMS verification layer itself as part of a secure authorization flow. The company also ensures consistent branding and domain links to prevent phishing risks and is preparing for the next standard, RCS, which will bring richer but still secure experiences across devices.
The art of restraint in personalization
Jonathan likened good SMS experiences to shopping at a high-end store: attentive but never overbearing. OneText distinguishes between non-negotiables like size or color and preferences like style. By automating the essentials and limiting choice to meaningful options, the brand creates a smoother experience that helps customers decide faster without overwhelming them.
When brands are ready for conversational commerce
Jonathan shared that the sweet spot for adopting OneText is around $1–2 million in annual sales. At that point, brands have enough traffic and repeat customers to make conversational channels impactful. He encouraged founders to focus on brand voice, ensuring that every message feels authentic and consistent, and to move beyond constant discounting by adding personality, tips, and thoughtful recommendations.
The future of one to one shopping
Looking ahead, Jonathan sees one to one shopping becoming the dominant revenue surface for brands. SMS will remain important, but he expects experiences to expand into Instagram DMs, in-app chat, and other personal channels. As AI evolves, every message could soon be generated dynamically, tailored to each shopper’s history and intent. He compared this shift to how Shopify democratized e-commerce websites after Amazon set the standard. OneText aims to help every brand deliver ChatGPT-level conversational experiences, but in their own voice.
A huge thank you to Jonathan for sharing his insights, and to everyone who joined us live.
