Josh Burwick: How Belief, Staying Close to Customers & Surviving a Hack Built CaratX Into a 50,000-Product Jewelry Marketplace | One Thing That Worked

Josh Burwick

Founder of CaratX — on believing in the mission until everyone around you believes too, staying close to customers every day, surviving an early hack and Bitcoin ransom, and starting an e-commerce business you actually love

Watch on YouTube CaratX
16 minutes
Belief & Mission · Customer Obsession · E-commerce & Marketplaces

About the Guest

Josh Burwick — Founder of CaratX

Josh Burwick is the founder of CaratX, an operating system for the jewelry space that helps jewelry brands go to market through its technology and platform

He started before CaratX even had a name — just buying diamond engagement rings and bridal jewelry from his first supplier and reselling them to customers — and grew it into a marketplace connecting manufacturers with businesses and consumers, minus the toilet paper and bug spray

Launched 2020
now in its sixth year, CaratX helps jewelry brands buy, sell, and mostly go to market through its platform and technology
50,000+ Products
tons of sellers and over fifty thousand products on the platform — with new sellers, tools, resources, and AI added every day
Like an eBay for Jewelry
a marketplace — think eBay or Etsy, but only for jewelry — where sellers reach both other businesses and everyday consumers
Started as a Reseller
it began with Josh buying from his first supplier and reselling diamond engagement rings and bridal — a business he loved from day one

Key Quotes

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The one thing that really worked for us was we believed. I believed in myself, I believed in our mission, and I gave myself to that mission as a founder and kept showing up.

Josh Burwick
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You have to believe in yourself, otherwise no one else is going to. But you also have to do the work. You have to keep showing up every day, even when you don't want to.

Josh Burwick
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Do something that you love first. If you're passionate about it and you have the skills, just start. You're probably already doing it, you just don't know it.

Josh Burwick

Episode Chapters

0:00 Intro 1:14 About CaratX 2:52 What Determined the Success 4:59 Sustaining the Belief 6:02 A Story When Things Were Ugly 8:30 The One Main Hiring Rule 10:06 How to Acquire Customers 11:12 Processes & Systems 11:57 How to Get Started 13:45 Starting an E-commerce Business

Full Transcript

BTW: This episode of One Thing That Worked is produced by Beverly Media. Featuring entrepreneurs and podcasters who share the one decision, strategy, or habit that had the biggest impact on their business.
0:00 Intro
Host If I remember correctly, the initial idea was born for you when you pretty much noticed that there's an opportunity, there's a gap.
Josh Yeah, that's very, very true. When CaratX first started, it was like — I mean, even before it was called CaratX, it was just me buying and selling diamond engagement rings and bridal, you know, just reselling to customers. I bought from my first supplier and I resold them here. And then it evolves over time. But I loved it. I loved it from day one. And if it's something you'll love…
Host Hey everyone, welcome to One Thing That Worked. Today my guest is Josh Burwick, who is a founder of CaratX. Josh, welcome to the show.
Josh Thank you. Thanks for having me, man. It's always good to see you. Always good to be here. I appreciate it.
Host Same here. So tell us a little bit about your company, CaratX.
1:14 About CaratX
Josh Sure. So CaratX is an operating system in the jewelry space. We help jewelry brands go to market through our technology and through our platform.
Host Nice. Any interesting stats that you can tell us about CaratX? How you guys are doing?
Josh Yeah, oh yeah, man. So we launched in 2020. We're going on — what year is this? — we're in our sixth year. It's been amazing. We've got tons of sellers. We've got over 50,000 products on the CaratX platform, which I'm really proud of. We're adding new things every day: new sellers, new tech, new tools, new resources, new AI stuff. We're just focused on our customers and helping them grow. All about it.
Host So in layman's terms, you help the manufacturers, the producers of the jewelry, to connect with who exactly?
Josh With consumers. So we help those businesses buy and sell, but mostly we help them sell through our platform. So they sell to other businesses, and they also sell to people just like you and I.
Host So it's like an eBay in a way, but for the jewelry business?
Josh Yeah, that's great. Yeah, the marketplace side, exactly. So we're like an eBay or an Etsy, but just for jewelry. I will never have flat screen TVs, toilet paper, or bug spray on the CaratX platform ever.
Host Well, 50,000. That's really cool.
2:52 What Determined the Success
Host So here's the signature question of my podcast, of the show. What was one thing that significantly boosted your business, Josh?
Josh Definitely. So the one thing that's really worked — and I'm going to talk about two sides, but it's really the same thing. The one thing that really worked for us was we believed. I believed in myself. I believed in our mission. I gave myself to that mission as a founder. I kept showing up. We just believed. Our teammates believed. Our suppliers believed. Our customers believed.
Josh And on the business side, what really started to make it successful was we stayed really close to those customers. We talked to customers every day, both retail customers and wholesale customers, and we just keep that mission going. We keep focus on them because we all believe. But that's the big takeaway — that's what definitely worked.
Host And how exactly did it work? How did this belief show itself over the years?
Josh Well, when we started, obviously we started at zero, right? So we had nothing. We had no products, no software, no anything. And as we started growing, started getting more customers, more jewelry brands, more sellers, it just — a snowball effect happened. And I realized that, okay, this is where we're going to stay, and these are the customers we're going to help. And that translates into everything. It translates into more revenue. It translates into happy customers. It translates into better technology, better software, better everything. Better founder — I get better as we grow. That's what it turns into.
4:59 Sustaining the Belief
Host But the belief in and of itself won't work without, I'm guessing, persistence and some data analysis. So can you elaborate more on how you guys were able to kind of sustain the belief?
Josh Yeah, for sure. You're right. So belief is a big deal, and you do have to believe. You have to believe in yourself, otherwise no one else is going to. That's a big deal. But you also have to do the work. You've got to put all the pieces together. You have to hire the right people, hire the right team. You have to keep showing up every day, even when you don't want to. Even if you can't give 100% every day, give what you can. You have to be there for your team, you have to be there for your customers. You have to pick the right technology. I mean, there's so much. But if you believe, you can do it. You will find the answers if you really believe in the mission.
6:02 A Story When Things Were Ugly
Host I need a story here. Something practical, something real, man, where the odds were against you or you were going against the grain but you kept believing. Give us something — name the names or give the numbers. Some red meat, man.
Josh Yeah, for sure. So I'll tell you a software story. Now, most every software company is going to go through this, and when it happens — not an if, it's a when — when it happens it can be really discouraging. So the first version of CaratX that we launched, we launched with a couple manufacturers. It was really — what's the word — really buggy. It just had the basics there. It was our start.
Josh About a week into launching this first version, we got hacked. Somebody got into the servers and they basically just took everything, and then tried to do a Bitcoin ransom on us. So our developer team was like, “Well, this happened.” And I was like, “Oh my god.” And they're like, “That's it. It's done. We're not going to recover it.” And I was like, “No, guys. No, no, no, no. Can't be. We've got to keep going. There's a backup somewhere of the code and we've got to find it.” And we searched heaven and earth, and we found a backup. We picked a new server. We upgraded our security. And we were back online in like two weeks. But when it first happened, man, it felt like the end. Felt like there was no recovering from that.
Host Oh man. Did you spend some money at that point that you think you lost?
Josh Yeah, for sure we had to. We had to spend money that we didn't plan on spending. We had teammates that were frustrated. Our engineering team was frustrated. It was just the perfect storm of all things bad. But we got back up, and we kept going. It sure didn't feel like it at the time.
8:30 The One Main Hiring Rule
Host You strike me as someone who can give us one thing that works in almost every possible vertical of business. Therefore, I'm going to use my right of adjusting the format a little bit, and I'm going to ask you the question regarding every area of your business. So what is the hiring decision, or the hiring religion, that you have in your company?
Josh So we look for people that have that hunger and that fire and take ownership of their position. I also look for people that have gone through their own journey — that have been up against problems, up against the world, suffered immensely. I think going through your own journey brings out a certain character in people, and I think those of us that have suffered, we have a deep empathy for not just humanity but for the journey itself. Those are the kind of teammates that I want.
Host So your hiring secret is to hire someone who's gone through adversity, who has suffering. Wow, man. This is not your usual perspective.
Josh No. And skills are important of course, always. You've got to be good at the position, but you can grow into those skills. But if you have that character, skills can be taught.
10:06 How to Acquire Customers
Host How about going to market? How about acquiring first customers? What was one thing that worked for you? What is the one thing or the main thing that's working now?
Josh Well, very different approaches back then versus now. When you first start — and you know better than anyone — the thing that works is you keep going until you get a yes. So you have to talk to a thousand people to get that first yes and to really understand who you're marketing to. You have to put a lot of educational content out there. You have to put lots of stuff out there for people to read and review, and you have to talk about your mission and be in front. It just takes sheer force of will to get those first customers.
11:12 Processes & Systems
Host But in terms of known marketing techniques, what works for you the best?
Josh Yeah. Well, now — you know what I always tell founders is start thinking early on about processes and systems to put in place. So get a CRM. Have some place where communication is kind of semi-automated. Have somebody that's in front. Have something that can manage your sales pipeline. So tools, technology, systems, processes, and people.
11:57 How to Get Started
Host From your stories we can derive lessons, but in your own words, what do you think is the main lesson here from the things that you've told us that people can relatively easily apply in their own journey? Maybe next week already, without much preparation. Give us something that people can actually already do.
Josh Yeah, good question. For sure. I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that are just thinking like, how do I do what I do to get started? Where do I begin? There's a lot of noise out there and it can be really hard to start. So what I would tell them, the one thing that you can do, is do something that you love first. And just start. If it's something you're passionate about and you have skills and you think you can do it, just start. You're probably already doing it, you just don't know it. So do something that you love. Start small, start there, and you'll be off to a good start.
Host And the first customer, obviously, is a bunch of unsuccessful attempts. Maybe you get lucky right away, but you'll have to prepare that things will be disgusting and ugly in the first spurt. But what if someone wants to start an e-commerce business? What lesson would you give them from the perspective of an owner of a big e-commerce business?
13:45 Starting an E-commerce Business
Josh I mean, if you wanted to start an e-commerce business, I would start with real, real simple market research. Use Google Trends. Use SEO and keyword tools to kind of research what's trending, what's selling, what's out there. And again, sell something that you love and that you're about, that you can get behind. So if you want to start an e-commerce business and you love leather bracelets, look up different leather bracelets that are out there — different colors, different styles. Start doing videos, start getting in front. Hey, check this out, look, I found this — get out there. Make sure you're passionate about it. Definitely.
Host And a lot of success in e-commerce is predetermined, like your ability to find this gap. Because I remember, if I remember correctly, the initial idea was born for you when you pretty much noticed that there's an opportunity, there's a gap.
Josh Yeah. That's very, very true. When CaratX first started, it was like — I mean, even before it was called CaratX — it was just me buying and selling diamond engagement rings and bridal, you know, just reselling to customers. I bought from my first supplier and I resold them here, and then it evolves over time. But I loved it. I loved it from day one. And if it's something you'll love, you'll figure it out for sure.
Host Yeah. Right, man. Thank you. That was gorgeous. That was one thing that worked with Josh. Me, and people for sure.