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Babson Undergraduate Business: JEWELv

JEWELv

When most kids were playing with legos Sam Sternweiler ’17 was collecting precious stones. Sternweiler, a 21 year old Entrepreneurship student at Babson, is the founder and CEO of JEWELv an online fine jewelry customization platform that allows customers to personalize and create their own unique jewelry all in real-time 3D. Their mission is to change the way that people buy jewelry.

The Idea

Sternweiler’s idea for online customizable jewelry sparked when he was 17 years old and started crafting his own fine jewelry. His customers were constantly asking for jewelry that was already created but with different gemstones to customize the piece. That is when he realized that it would be a better business model to allow the customers to create their own combinations, giving them the ability to customize and be creative. Soon after that he began working on what would later become JEWELv, named after his mother Vivian.

JEWELv is the first online fine jewelry customization company to offer all of their products in 3D view. JEWELv cares about the integrity of the jewelry, which is why JEWELv only creates jewelry using natural earth-mined gemstones, recycled precious metals, and is entirely made in the United States.

Making it Personal

Sternweiler has been collecting precious stones since he was 13 years old. There is no jewelry connection in his family, but he has always been infatuated with the art form.  At age 17 he was certified by the Gemological Institute of America and began to work in jewelry retail.  JEWELv is the fruit of all of his experience.

“My favorite type of jewelry to wear on the other hand (that’s a jewelry joke) would certainly be rings,” says Sternweiler. “I’ve worn seven different rings throughout my life and currently wear two (one being a high school class ring and the other a family heirloom). Jewelry has a lot of meaning to me and these two rings especially as they represent the best four years of my life and my biggest support system, my family.”

Since coming to Babson Sternweiler has been granted many office spaces and received hundreds of dollars in seed funding. Additionally, he’s been able to participate in Babson’s Summer Venture Program and Butler Venture Accelerator Summer Community.

“Babson has dramatically improved my ability to make JEWELv into what it is today,” says Sternweiler.