Rancho Santa Margarita-based online auction company MyDiamondAuction.com recently opened to individuals to give those who own diamonds access to what it says are the world’s largest diamond-buying companies. Previously the company operated on a pure business-to-business model.
Those companies typically will pay two to three times more for diamonds than pawn shops, gold buyers, jewelry stores and other online auction sites, said co-founder Cesar Meyer.
He said MyDiamondAuction.com’s platform gives diamond owners a hand by bypassing middlemen, who typically are involved in such transactions. Anyone can sell their diamond to a professional buyer through his company.
The goal is to help people liquidate their diamonds for a reasonable price, Meyer said.
“People typically only sell diamonds after suffering a deeply personal loss, such as death, divorce or a broken engagement,” Meyer said via email. “That’s why it is so important that a simple, painless diamond selling option exists—one that doesn’t take advantage of people during life’s most vulnerable moments.”
The process begins on the company’s website with a questionnaire. A diamond, once received by the company, is professionally cleaned, graded and photographed so that buyers have all of the information they need to bid. It’s then placed in an auction. Owners, once bidding closes, get an alert disclosing their diamond’s highest bid. They can accept the bid and receive a check for that amount, or reject it and get their diamond back at no cost.
The auctions are blind, so competing buyers increase bids by large margins rather than incremental bids, Meyer said. Bidders are motivated to make “attractive” offers because sellers can reject offers, even after the auction ends, he added.
Meyer also founded Crown Gold Exchange, also in Rancho Santa Margarita, which specializes in purchasing precious metals, such as gold, silver and platinum in any condition.
Latest Incubator Entry
Integra Devices is the newest addition to incubator EvoNexus in Irvine. The spinout from the University of California-Irvine has developed technology to manufacture “micro” devices for sensing, and affecting aspects of the physical world.
Its goal is to supply devices to companies engaged in the Internet of Things segment, in which everyday objects are connected through a network, allowing them to send and receive data.
One example of these devices is a miniature, electro-mechanical, micro-relay for the next generation of “5G base stations.” These stations, which have traditionally been known as cell phone antenna towers, will soon relay data for anything connected to the internet, such as home appliances and wearable sensors.
“We value the opportunity to work with the high caliber of startups, mentors and partners that are affiliated with EvoNexus to help us bring our premier technology to the Internet of Things and 5G markets,” Chief Technical Officer Mark Bachman said via email.
5G connotes the fifth generation of mobile networks and wireless systems, the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards after the current 4G standards. 5G is faster than 4G.
“We look forward to cultivating strong relationships with the EvoNexus sponsor community and strategic funding partners as we begin accelerated growth in 2017,” Bachman said.
EvoNexus is a pro-bono, nonprofit technology incubator designed to expedite startups’ growth. It’s supported by free office space from Irvine Company, so it doesn’t charge startups rent, and it’s backed financially by global technology and life science corporations. The relationships make it possible for EvoNexus to avoid taking equity in or charging fees of the startups.
Company Shifts Focus
An Irvine company with a line of instant quinoa cereals for infants and toddlers is shifting its e-commerce focus from Asia to the U.S.
WutsupBaby recently started selling its organic, vegan and gluten-free cereals through Amazon Prime, Buyer’s Best Friend and Direct Eats.
The company was formed by the husband-and-wife team of Sheryl Tsao and Kasier Pan, who emigrated from China. They targeted Asia first because they said they saw a need to familiarize consumers there with quinoa, a grain that’s recently gained popularity in the U.S. because it doesn’t contain gluten—an attractive trait to those allergic or sensitive to gluten.
The couple started the company because they believed strongly that parents all over the world should have “trustworthy” baby foods to choose from.
“Unfortunately, there have been several publicized incidents of baby food contamination in China and this impacted how [we] approached parenthood,” Pan said via email.
They now have a 2-year-old daughter and a baby on the way.
Their cereal line recently gained “Ashley-Koff” certification from celebrity and award-winning nutrition expert Ashley Koff, whose “AKA” stamp confirms a product has been evaluated and approved as “a better quality and healthier choice,” according to Koff’s website.
WutsupBaby has more recently been working with Mom’s Meet, an online community that connects moms to healthy products, to get WatsupBaby products on the radar of moms across the country.
“Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” Pan said. “Parents are really happy to have an alternative to rice-based baby cereals and enjoy how the individual packets make it easy to transport and to provide to babysitters [and] caretakers.”
