When you think nuts and bolts, you probably don’t think innovation. Not so for Jewel Burks, co-founder and CEO of Partpic. She managed customer service for a parts distributor and dealt with the calls from frustrated customers who had been sent the wrong part or couldn’t identify the part they needed because the product name or number was partially rubbed off.

Again and again, customers asked if they could send a photo of the part so the distributor could match it. The last straw was when Burks’ grandfather, a farmer in Alabama, had to delay harvest because a part for his tractor broke, and together they had trouble identifying and replacing it. There had to be a better way, she thought.