Bringing Change & Collaboration

In 2013, an epic tragedy happened when I was working in the wholesale diamond industry. My computer died. There was no coming back for my critical partner-in-crime. I lost all bookmarks, saved files, contact information, everything that made my job run like clockwork.  Sometimes, however, disasters have silver linings. Getting a new computer is always somewhat exciting, isn’t it? I couldn’t have been more wrong. “Look on eBay,” my boss suggested. “You need to find to a computer that runs on 16-bit.” I responded with a shockingly, “Wait what?” Needless to say, I ended up with an older computer than what I previously had and to top it off, it had to be modified just to RUN! It was a nightmare that just wasn’t sustainable. That was the first sign that something had to change.

 

A few years later, I switched from wholesale diamonds to retail jewelry. I took a position as someone who wore a million hats:  sales, marketing, inventory, and the list goes on. The software we used was so complicated, it had to have a training manual thicker than largest dictionary I’d ever seen. NO person could get through it. The jewelry industry doesn’t have time for that. Heck, no industry has time for that. I was lucky if I got an hour of training on the software, if at all. I was on my own with software that wasn’t user-friendly. That was a second sign that something had to change.

Soon after, I left that retail store to work at a private retail office that functioned without software specialized for the multi-billion-dollar jewelry industry. In fact, I was stuck with a patchwork of eight software programs all trying to do what one simple software program should accomplish. We had one just for repairs, one for sales, three for marketing, and a few more that I can’t even remember why we had them. They all, of course, had different user names and passwords, making it even more complicated to navigate. What a mess!

 

When we started up a wholesale division, I started to see former clients. After catching up, I started getting the question, “Natalie, have you used this software before? How about this one? Which do you prefer? Would you take some time to train me on this one if I got it?” By now it was clear there was just no software out there that is user-friendly, simple, all-encompassing, and made just for the jewelry industry.

 

Fast forward to right now. I left the jewelry industry for a software company. Here I met Richard. We got to talking one day about our entrepreneurial endeavors. He about his app, and mine, a program made just for jewelers, by a former jeweler. Something that worked for everyone, whether it’s a large enterprise or a smaller venture. He turned to me and said, “Let’s do it!” I said, “Really? Because with your business acumen and my knowledge of the industry and its needs… we could do something pretty great! You sure?” “Yes!”  And that is when Jewelr was born. We hope you’ll join us on our journey.

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Natalie Whitmore   

CEO & Co-Founder of Jewelr