Behind the Brilliance 166 Jewel Burks on Building A Startup
Jewel Burks was the founder and CEO of Partpic, a company she sold to Amazon in 2016. During our chat, we talk about what she learned, how she grew, and why winning requires laser focus.
Behind Her Brilliance: God and Her Mom
Say hi to Jewel on Twitter: @jewelmelanie
Get tickets for XX here THE GUESTJEWEL BURKS |Jewel Burks is an advocate for representation and access in the technology industry. As co-founder of Partpic, a startup designed to streamline the purchase of maintenance and repair parts using computer vision, Jewel and her team built groundbreaking technology poised to change the way people everywhere locate products. Partpic raised over $2 million in seed funding from notable investors like AOL co-founder, Steve Case, and Comcast Ventures, and integrated its software into mobile apps/websites of large parts distributors and retailers. Partpic was acquired by Amazon in late 2016 and the technology now powers visual search for replacement parts in the Amazon Mobile Shopping app. Currently, Jewel serves as Team Lead for Visual Search at Amazon. In addition to this role, Jewel is a proud board member at Goodie Nation and the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, and spends much of her free time advising startups and angel investing. Jewel has been featured in notable publications such as Forbes, Wired, TechCrunch, Essence, Glamour, and Business Insider. Prior to founding Partpic, Jewel served in management, enterprise sales, and strategic diversity roles at McMaster-Carr Industrial Supply and Google, Inc. Jewel is a native of Nashville TN, and graduate of Howard University.
TOPICS COVERED
Jewel's early days and path into tech
How Jewel adjusted to the culture shock of Silicon Valley
The brilliant way Jewel discovered the idea for Partpic
Lessons Jewel learned raising $2 million
The aftermath of selling a company
And more!
STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Excuses Be Gone (Lisa Likes)
The Four Agreements (Jewel's book pick)
Start With Why (Jewel's book pick)