We Didn’t Mean to Start a Store

It all began with something simple — just a chat about earbuds.

One evening, I was talking with friends about TWS headphones. It was a casual, ordinary conversation.

But the very next day, every app on my phone was suddenly flooded with earbuds ads.

Even worse, when I opened a shopping app to look for camping gear, there they were again: earbuds, earbuds, and more earbuds.

The strange thing? I didn’t even want to buy earbuds.

What I actually wanted was something entirely different.

At that time, I wanted to try camping.

I wanted to explore new gear, fun tools, and things that could make that first trip more exciting.

However, there was a problem: I didn’t even know what some of these items were called.

I couldn’t search for what I didn’t even know existed.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the apps just kept pushing what they thought I’d buy — not what I might actually love.

That’s when we realized something important.

We weren’t just looking for products anymore.

Instead, we were searching for discovery — for that spark of curiosity.

We longed for objects that felt different, creative, and personal, rather than the same mass-produced things that filled every other page.

Over time, that thought became something bigger.

We imagined a place that felt less like a store, and more like a friend.

A friend who might say, “Hey, look at this. You might like it.”

A friend who would surprise you, who would keep your curiosity alive.

We never really set out to open a store.

At first, we only wanted a place where we could keep exploring the things that sparked our curiosity.

We shared them with each other, and that sharing made us happy.

Eventually, we wanted more of that joy — so we decided to share with more people.

And that’s how Maktone was born.