Jewel Solomon

Early Life and Education

Jewel Burks Solomon is from Nashville, Tennessee. Her mother, Valinda Burks, ran an insurance agency for 25 years, while her father, William Burks, owned and managed real estate properties, convenience stores, and a laundromat. Jewel began working at a young age for the family businesses. She studied business at Howard University, graduating in 2010.1

Career

Burks Solomon began her career at Google in Mountain View, California as a BOLD intern in the summer of 2009. She was a full-time enterprise sales associate for Google Enterprise from 2010 to 2012.

In 2013, Burks Solomon co-founded PartPic, a startup that allowed people to use smartphones to search for parts using computer vision technology. PartPic raised over $2 million in seed funding and integrated its software into mobile apps/websites of large parts distributors and retailers. The company was acquired by Amazon in 2016, and Burks Solomon led the integration of PartPic's technology into the Amazon Mobile App, launching it as PartFinder to over 150M Amazon Mobile Shopping App users in 2018.24

From 2014 to 2016, Burks Solomon served as the Google entrepreneur in residence for diversity markets. In January 2020, she became the first head of Google for Startups in the U.S., creating initiatives that deployed over $45M in non-dilutive capital to Black and Latino-led businesses since 2020.3

Burks Solomon is currently the Managing Partner of Collab Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm she launched to close the funding gap for Black entrepreneurs. Collab Fund I was $51M and has invested in 36 promising Black-led companies across the U.S. She is raising Collab Fund II to continue investing in Black-led innovation companies.34

Accolades and Boards

Burks Solomon has been featured in notable publications such as Forbes, Wired, TechCrunch, Essence, Glamour, and Business Insider. She was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016, one of Ebony Magazine's Power 100 in 2018, and one of Atlanta's 100 Most Influential People in 2020.25

Burks Solomon serves on the boards of The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Endeavor Atlanta, JP Morgan's Advancing Black Pathways, the Center for American Entrepreneurship, and the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project. She is a member of the 2019 Class of Henry Crown Fellows within the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute.23