Persistence, perseverance and passion have all supported Partpic founder and CEO Jewel Burks on her current journey. As nearly any startup founder will tell you, the road is less traveled for a reason. It’s not easy, but definitely well worth it.
The 25-year-old Howard University graduate jumped right into the workforce post graduation, landing gigs at Google and McMaster-Carr. Those positions and companies laid the foundation for the millennial exec to create the solution for finding and ordering parts. Not only did Burks meet her co-founder, Jason Crain, at Google, but she quickly learned the necessary skills to power her own startup.
“If you see something that you want to do, you can go after it."
“If you see something that you want to do, you can go after it…just the notion that I could create a startup out of the notion, and it could be something that I can actually do, came from the principles I learned at Google,” says Burks, who is a diversity evangelist at the Mountain View, California-based company.
Her time at the Tech giant and living in San Francisco has proved to be a learning experience all around.
“Going into an environment where I had to be that, I had to be aggressive,” reflects Burks. “I’ll credit my experience at Google for getting me out of my shell and also being in an environment where it’s totally different than what I was accustomed to, especially coming from Howard and going to the Bay Area.”
Burks is a go-getter who is invested in taking her company, Partpic, to the next level. It’s a drive you’ll find among many startup founders in San Fran. However, Burks doesn’t fit the mold of the typical Bay Area founder. She’s an African-American woman.
Burks is familiar with the tech landscape. But it doesn’t phase her. “I’ve had a lot of moments in meetings where I’m like, ‘I can’t believe he just said that.’ But it’s just part of the territory and I try not to take it personally when those types of things happen to me and just stay focused on what we’re doing.”
“We understand that we have a Great Business and it’s not a great business that has to do with being Black. It’s just a great business. Our color, and the fact that I’m a woman, doesn’t really have anything to do with it.”
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Parts & Passion
Techies across the globe set their eyes on the startups battling it out during TechCrunch Disrupt. Hosted by the popular tech news website, 26 startups were selected to participate in its San Francisco Battlefield in September. Furthermore, five became finalists and although there was only one winner, Atlanta-based startup Partpic emerged on the radar of many who’d watched the action on the big stage.
