I recently went one-on-one with Jessica Reid Sliwerski, co-founder and CEO of Ignite Reading.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Jessica: I came to this work as a teacher who didn’t know how to teach kids to read until my third year in the classroom. By then, I’d already failed students who deserved better. That realization never left me.
Years later, as a mom, I found myself teaching my own daughter to read because her school wasn’t getting it done. I started volunteering there, using a science-of-reading-aligned curriculum, and it was working. Then the principal told me to stop. The school only permitted volunteers to use their adopted curriculum, which wasn’t aligned with the science of reading. I refused, and I was shown the door.
That rejection turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. It led me to one of the lowest-performing schools in Oakland, where I connected with Sabrina, a first-year first-grade teacher whose students were nearly all a year or more behind. We got to work. Kids started making real progress. And then the pandemic hit, and what we figured out together in that one classroom became the seed of Ignite Reading.
Looking back, I can see the universe had a plan. Every closed door pointed me somewhere more important.
I’m also a cancer survivor, and that experience is its own crucible. It clarified what I’m here to do, deepened who I am as a human, a parent, and a leader. It also put my passion for this work on steroids. Facing my own mortality made me fearless about fighting for children.
Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business?
Jessica: Scaling is hard. And I think a lot of companies get it wrong because they chase growth before they’ve earned it. Here’s what I believe:
First, get the model right before you scale it. We spent years obsessing over whether our program actually works, not just anecdotally, but rigorously. We partnered with Johns Hopkins University to study our outcomes. That investment in proof wasn’t just about credibility; it was about integrity. You shouldn’t scale something that doesn’t work.
Second, stay ruthlessly mission-focused. At Ignite Reading, our north star is the First Grade Promise, a vision of every child reading by the end of first grade. That clarity has saved us from a hundred shiny distractions. When you know exactly what you’re fighting for, decisions get easier.
Third, hire people who’ve seen the movie. I look for talent that is two or more years ahead of where we are; people who have already navigated the stage we’re heading into and know what’s coming. But at a startup, they also have to be willing to be a player-coach. I don’t have room for anyone who’s too senior to do the work. And frankly, they can’t be jerks. Culture compounds, and one toxic hire can undo a lot.
Fourth, be willing to say no to bad-fit revenue. This one is counterintuitive, but it might be the most important. Not every partnership is the right partnership. Chasing dollars from districts or programs that aren’t aligned to how we work or who we serve is a distraction at best and a mission drift at worst. Protecting your model sometimes means walking away from money.
Fifth, earn your partners’ trust. We don’t just sell to districts. We build lasting relationships with them. That trust is won through outcomes, through transparency, and through showing up consistently. It cannot be rushed. Growth follows all of that. Not the other way around.
Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of marketing and branding?
Ed tech is a crowded market. The strongest brand you can build is one rooted in a clear, compelling mission, not a logo or a tagline.
Know what you stand for, and say it simply. At Ignite Reading, we built our brand around the First Grade Promise — the belief that every child should be reading by the end of first grade. That’s not a marketing line. It’s a conviction. And when your brand is built on a genuine conviction, it attracts the right people (customers, partners, employees), who believe what you believe. We also chose hot pink as one of our brand colors, which in the world of K-12 education is basically an act of rebellion. That was intentional because it’s my favorite color and because we’re not here to blend in.
Know your customer deeply. I mean really deeply. Not just their job title or budget cycle, but what keeps them up at night. What do they care about? What have they tried that hasn’t worked? What do they need to believe is possible before they’ll take a risk on you? For us, that meant understanding that superintendents and district leaders aren’t just buying a tutoring program. They’re trying to solve a crisis they’ve been handed and haven’t been able to crack. When you speak to that, you stop sounding like a vendor and start sounding like a partner.
Sell the vision first. Before you sell the product, sell the future you’re inviting your customer into. We lead with the world we’re trying to create — every child reading on time — and then show how Ignite Reading is the vehicle to get there. That sequence matters. People don’t want to just buy another program. They want to buy a belief with evidence behind it.
Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?
Jessica: Leadership is something I’m constantly trying to learn about and improve upon. I’m far from perfect and genuinely invested in being the best I can be for my team, my company, our partners, and ultimately the kids we serve.
Transparency and authenticity are non-negotiable. I’ve found that the more honest I am about what’s hard, what’s uncertain, what I don’t know, the more my team trusts me. That trust is the foundation everything else is built on. You can’t lead people through hard moments if they don’t believe you’re being straight with them.
Care deeply about your people. Not as a management strategy, but genuinely. I want to know what’s going on in my team’s lives, what energizes them, and what’s wearing them down. That doesn’t mean lowering the bar. It means that when you have to hold people accountable, they know it’s coming from someone who is in their corner.
Listen more than you talk. I’ve been told that one of my superpowers is my ability to truly listen, and I take that seriously. I hire people who are smarter than me in their domains, and then I actually listen to them. Not performatively, but in a way where what they tell me genuinely shapes the decisions I make. Strategy isn’t something I hand down from on high; it’s something that gets sharper because I’m paying attention to the people closest to the work. The best leaders I know are the ones who are always learning from the room they’re in.
Hold high expectations and mean it. Caring deeply and expecting excellence are not in conflict. In fact, I think low expectations are their own form of disrespect. The kids we serve don’t have time for us to settle for mediocre. That urgency is real, and it has to live inside the organization.
Stay above the line. This is something I work on every day. I have to be so on top of myself about this because being a CEO can take so much out of me, which can then put me on a slippery slope to falling below the line. Leading above the line means taking ownership, staying curious, and resisting the pull toward blame or defensiveness when things go sideways. It’s easy to preach this; it’s harder to model it from the top all day, every day, but it’s one of the most important things I need to do as a leader.
Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Jessica: The leaders who plateau are usually the ones who stop being students of leadership. Here’s what I’d tell anyone who wants to keep growing:
Get an executive coach. This is the single best investment I’ve made in my own development, and I wish I hadn’t waited so long. It’s like CEO therapy. If you’re serious about leveling up, get a coach and make sure that they’re not going to be afraid to hold a mirror up to you, hold you accountable, and then tell you to get back out there in that arena to keep getting your ass kicked.
Seek honest feedback and actually listen to it. This is harder than it sounds. Most leaders have blind spots. You have to create conditions where the people around you feel safe enough to tell you the truth. And then when they do, you can’t get defensive. You have to be genuinely curious about what you’re hearing, even when it’s uncomfortable. And it is so uncomfortable.
Do the inner work. Leadership development isn’t just about acquiring skills; it’s about being incredibly self-aware. Why do you react the way you do under pressure? What triggers you? Where do you default to blame instead of ownership? These aren’t soft questions. They’re the questions that determine whether you lead well when things get hard. And, honestly, they’re never not hard; they’re just different degrees of hardness all day, every day. For me, learning to stay above the line, to lead from curiosity and accountability rather than fear and defensiveness, has been transformative, but it’s the result of a commitment to therapy and working with an executive coach.
Read voraciously. Every book I’ve read has made me a better leader in some way. I love Adam Grant, Simon Sinek, Patrick Lencioni, Glennon Doyle, Brene Brown, and Sahil Bloom (just to name a few). Read books for fun, too, that have nothing to do with leadership. Your brain deserves a break once in a while.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Jessica: Just three?!?
Lead with purpose, not just strategy. Strategy changes. Markets shift. What keeps you and your team anchored is a clear, unwavering sense of why you’re doing what you’re doing. When everything is on fire, and it will be, purpose. If it doesn’t, it’s a distraction.
Get comfortable with discomfort. The most important things I’ve done as a leader have all required me to step into uncertainty. Launching a company. Making hard personnel decisions. Walking away from bad-fit revenue. Rebuilding when things broke. None of it felt safe at that moment. But growth doesn’t live inside your comfort zone. It lives just outside it. If you’re never uncomfortable, you’re probably not taking the risks your organization needs you to take.
Play the long game. We live in a culture that rewards speed and overnight success. But the most meaningful work, building something that actually lasts, changing something that actually matters, takes time. There will be moments when progress feels impossibly slow. Stay in it anyway. At Ignite Reading, we’re trying to end a reading crisis that has persisted for decades. That’s not a sprint. That’s a commitment. It’s what Simon Sinek would call an infinite game. The leaders and entrepreneurs who make a real dent in the world are the ones who have the resilience to play the infinite game. It is what gets you back up. Every decision I make runs through a simple filter: Does this serve the mission?
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
Jessica: Start with the right people. Everything flows from this. I hire for expertise, for humility, and for heart. I want people who will roll up their sleeves and do the work, not just direct it. And I will not compromise on character. One bad hire can poison a culture that took years to build. But even when you do everything right, sometimes you still get it wrong. The hire that looked perfect on paper doesn’t work out. That happens. What matters is that you’re honest with yourself about it early and willing to act. Letting the wrong person linger in a role out of hope or avoidance is one of the most expensive mistakes a leader can make.
Create the conditions for people to do their best work. That means being honest about where we are, what’s hard, and what I don’t know. It means making sure people feel safe enough to raise problems, disagree with me, and take risks without fear of being penalized for it. Psychological safety isn’t a perk; it’s a performance strategy. Teams that feel safe speak up. Teams that speak up catch problems early and solve them faster.
Hold high expectations and follow through. Caring about your people and holding them accountable are not in tension. I have high expectations because I believe in what my team is capable of. When someone isn’t meeting the bar, the most respectful thing I can do is tell them the truth and give them the chance to rise. Letting things slide isn’t kindness. It’s avoidance.
Celebrate people loudly and specifically. It’s easy to get so focused on what’s not working that you forget to honor what is. I try to recognize people not just for outcomes but for the effort, creativity, and character they bring to the work. A team that feels seen and appreciated will run through walls for you.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Jessica: The best advice I’ve received isn’t about strategy or scaling or building teams. It’s about taking care of myself, and I say that as someone for whom that lesson has been deeply personal.
As a cancer survivor, I was reminded in the most visceral way possible that nothing — no conference, no deliverable, no urgent Slack message — is more important than your health. Skip the conference if you need to. Go to the doctor’s appointment. The work will be there. Your health might not be.
Someone once asked me: if you were on your deathbed at the end of this year, what would you regret? The document you didn’t review or the yoga class you skipped to review a document that could have waited? That question reoriented me. It still does.
Here’s what I know about myself as a CEO: when I’m not sleeping, when I’m not moving my body, I am a worse leader. I’m less patient, less visionary, less able to hold it together when my team needs me to. So I protect my sleep and my exercise the way I protect my most important meetings because they are my most important meetings. Everything else runs better when I do.
Self-care isn’t optional. For me, it’s the foundation of effective leadership. And I think that’s true for most leaders, even if they haven’t admitted it yet.
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Jessica: Just this: I am acutely aware that my time is limited.
That’s not a morbid thought. It’s a clarifying one. Having faced cancer, I don’t take for granted that I have unlimited runway to do this work. And that awareness has become one of my greatest gifts as a leader, because it keeps me focused on what actually matters.
I have given myself fully to this mission. Not because it’s my job, but because I genuinely believe that the reading crisis in this country is one of the most solvable problems we have and one of the most consequential. Every child who doesn’t learn to read on time pays a price for the rest of their life. That’s not acceptable to me. It never will be.
So when people ask me why I do this, the honest answer is: because I can’t. Because when you’ve stared down your own mortality and come out the other side, you stop waiting for someone else to fix the things that are broken. You stop playing small. You show up fully and fearlessly for the work you were put here to do.
For me, that work is making sure every child learns to read on time. And I’m not done yet.
