Shopping for jewelry is brutal. Dealing with crowded stores, overpriced items, and pushy jewelry store employees all make for a stressful gift buying experience. And there's no guarantee that your significant other will even like the gift in the first place.
Chicago startup Heirlume looks to not only eliminate that stress, but also help you pick the perfect piece of jewelry thanks to the company's algorithm that narrows down your choices based on a set of questions you answer about the gift recipient.
"The idea really generated just from the fact that I have seen my husband struggle sometimes trying to find gifts every time a holiday comes around," said Elaine Russell, CEO and founder of Heirlume. "And I usually end up helping a lot of my husband's friends as well, trying to find gifts. And that, coupled with jewelry is the No. 1 gift that men give women, and yet it's usually a space that men find themselves pretty lost in as well ... we decided to really dive deep into the jewelry space."
Russell launched Heirlume at the end of 2013, just in time for the holiday season. The company, which works out of 1871, began quickly catching steam and was featured in GQ and Fox and Friends. The website works by asking the gift buyer a series of seven questions like, "What's her favorite type of date night," "What celebrity style does she relate to the most," and "What's her typical jewelry style," and Heirlume's algorithm spits out nine selections based on the responses. The buyer can then ask friends to vote on which one she would like the most, and then purchase the jewelry from the site.
Heirlume has a selection of 300 to 400 pieces of jewelry and works with up-and-coming designers from across the country to source unique items that aren't found in department stores, Russell said.
"We're bringing together a more artisanal selection of jewelry," she said. "We work with designers that are pricing their jewelry below the normal prices than you would find from more established jewelry players ... That way we are able to bring better prices to our customers."
Heirlume has been bootstrapping so far and has remained break-even or profitable since the launch, Russell said. She added that the company is focused on reaching more gift buyers and adding more designers in the future. And so far Heirlume has avoided selling engagement rings, but may add it down the road.
"That's something that we sort of veered away from in the beginning just because we want to focus more on design for other occasion-based jewelry giving. The engagement ring is a whole other beast in itself," she said. "But we definitely hope to see a great summer, and we'll hopefully be partnering for some local events and just growing as much as we can."
Photo via Heirlume
