Onlook
YC W25San Francisco, US · Founded 2024 · 4 employees · Hiring · 6 known investors
Onlook builds developer and design tools that bridge the gap between creative teams and implementation, using AI to enhance the creative process.
Also known as Onlook
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W25)
Onlook was founded in 2024 by Daniel Farrell.
Investors · 6
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Onlook is a design and development tool positioned as "Cursor for Designers." It allows teams to design collaboratively inside their real codebase rather than in a separate mockup file, combining a visual canvas with direct access to the underlying code.
The product presents an infinite canvas workspace where users can craft, preview, and iterate on websites and prototypes with AI assistance. The interface exposes conventional design-tool constructs — layers, pages, assets, elements, brand settings — alongside live preview and code views, so that visual edits correspond to components in the project source (for example React/TSX files). An embedded chat assistant responds to natural-language requests such as fixing responsive layout behavior or adding new features, and applies the resulting changes to the code.
Business model
Onlook offers a software product for design and development teams, with sign-up and demo-booking as the entry points to the product.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market
Market position
Onlook markets itself as "Cursor for Designers," placing it among AI-assisted tools that connect visual design work to production code.
Technology
A browser-based design environment layered over a real web codebase, pairing an infinite canvas and layer/element inspector with live preview and code views. An AI chat assistant interprets natural-language instructions and edits project source files (e.g. React/TSX components), including responsive-layout fixes and new feature scaffolding.
Go-to-market
Self-serve sign-up combined with a "Book a Demo" motion for teams, promoted through the company website.
Design and product teams that work alongside engineers and want to make design changes directly in a live web codebase.
Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Competitors · 2
by search overlap
Companies competing with Onlook for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
▸Research sources · 1
primary sources listed
- Onlookonlook.com · web
1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Onlook do?
- Onlook is an AI design tool that lets teams design directly in their real codebase on an infinite canvas.
- Who founded Onlook?
- Onlook was founded by Daniel Farrell in 2024.
- Who are Onlook's investors?
- Onlook's investors include DG Daiwa Ventures, gener8tor, Leonis Capital, Lobster Capital, Transpose Platform Management, Y Combinator.
- Where is Onlook headquartered?
- Onlook is headquartered in San Francisco, US.