How startup BriteCo is streamlining jewelry appraisals and insurance

Dustin Lemick, a third-generation jeweler and gemologist based in Evanston, Ill., has done his fair share of appraisals and insurance-based replacements. The twin services once comprised a sizable slice of his business.

But at some point, his frustrations with the appraisal process, which he viewed as unnecessarily cumbersome for both jewelers and consumers, began to build.

“The appraisal process can be so manual,” he tells JCK. “And customers don’t know much about appraisals, so the policyholder ends up paying too much for insurance.”