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“We accelerated our growth by paying attention to Reddit — finding a community of first movers looking for the type of advice we offer.”
When Devin Jones, a hedge fund manager from Michigan, went shopping for an engagement ring, he was frustrated by the chaos of the diamond market. So he and his business partner downloaded diamond inventory data from top online jewelers and built an algorithm to price each stone like a value stock — finding the best cut, quality, and carat within his budget. The diamond he eventually bought was underpriced by nearly 30%.
Friends heard about it and asked for his help. He and his partner taught themselves to code, built a website, and launched StoneAlgo in July 2018 — a free tool that shows users which diamonds offer the best "bling for their buck."
After initial paid ads underperformed, they shifted to SEO and — crucially — to Reddit. Devin found r/Diamonds, a community of people asking exactly the questions he'd asked when building his algorithm. He started answering them. Traffic grew, and something shifted in September 2018: $50,000 in sales that month. Double that in October.
StoneAlgo earns an affiliate fee paid by online jewelers (it's part of their marketing budget) — and because diamonds are expensive, even modest percentages add up. Total startup cost: $12 for a domain name. Monthly earnings: over $5,000 in affiliate commissions on $100,000+ in sales.
"The best advice I can give is to learn to be self-sufficient. At the very worst you learn new skills; at best you understand your business far better than you would otherwise."
