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.
Jewel Burks, co-founder and CEO at Partpic, was ecstatic when she found out the visual search platform was selected to be among the Battlefield companies. It was a month before her team was to participate and they immediately kicked things into overdrive to ensure they were ready to demo their product live.
“We had to do a lot of work to make sure that whatever we showed on stage was going to be perfect."
“We had to do a lot of work to make sure that whatever we showed on stage was going to be perfect,” says Burks. She spent the month connecting with former finalists such as fellow Atlanta startup, Monsieur, a robotic bartender that shook up Disrupt in 2013, to assist in making sure Partpic was ready to debut in Silicon Valley.
Once the team arrived, they were well received. “The judges were giving us great feedback and it went really well, so we had a good feeling about making it to the finals,” says Burks about the first day. The following day was a bit more nerve-racking, the young CEO admits, because they were pitching before several Tech heavyweights.
“It turned out really well,” confirms Burks on the encouragement they received in person and across social media. “We didn’t win the Disrupt cup, but we did win an award [Best Enterprise Disrupter] from Accenture , which turned out to be another amazing thing for us because now we’re actually partnering with Accenture to work with some of their large clients, so that’s awesome.”
The Partpic story started long before the team stepped on stage this fall. Burks had a light bulb moment when her grandfather, a farmer from Alabama, called to ask for her help in finding a part for his tractor. The 25-year-old couldn’t find the part despite looking everywhere. This coupled with her on-the-job experience working as a sales manager for a big industrial distributor in Atlanta fueled the creation of Partpic, a visual search for replacement parts. After listening to numerous complaints and seeing firsthand how inefficient the current search system is, she committed to providing a solution.
The enterprise-level app works when a focused photo of a part, which often times doesn’t have an exact name or part number, is taken using the app. The image is reviewed and referenced with Partpic’s database. Once the item is found, sales representatives can place the correct order.
It wasn’t hard to enlist her now co-founder and COO, Jason Crain, into the vision. The duo met while at Google, working closely on their “20% time” projects and racking up awards from the tech giant.
The team has grown since its 2013 launch and taking on its first pilot customer, National Builder Supply. They’re also in talks with several enterprise clients and looking to fundraise to support the growth of Partpic.
“We’re on a journey,” says Burks. “It’s not easy, but it’ll be worth it in the end.”
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