Building Tech to Help Kids Learn to Read: Janessa Farrell's QuestRead Journey

Welcome to another episode of the Small Tech Podcast! Today, we have Janessa Farrell, an inspiring guest who has turned her passion for teaching into a tech startup.

Janessa is the co-founder and CEO of QuestRead, a fun reading game for kids that helps improve their reading skills. Questread was recently accepted into the Ocean Programs Accelerator Cohort 10, a big step for the app's growth.

Janessa taught in Title I schools in Chicago for 15 years, working with kids who struggled with reading. She noticed that motivation was key to their success, so she created QuestRead to make reading more engaging.

Her journey into tech began when the pandemic stopped her plans for further education. Instead, she volunteered at Simbi, a reading platform, where she eventually became the head of product. This role gave her the skills she needed to build QuestRead.

Janessa's story shows the power of perseverance and adaptability. Her commitment to helping kids read better through technology is truly inspiring.

Janessa's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/questread/

QuestRead - https://www.questread.com/

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Creators & Guests

Host

Raphaël Titsworth-Morin

Trying to do good in the world with tech and design. I also take the occasional photograph. Co-founder of Éphémère Creative. He/him.

Guest

Janessa Ferrell

Co-founder and CEO of QuestRead

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Raph: Hey folks, and welcome to the
latest episode of the small tech podcast.

We have another amazing guest today.

She has been a teacher for many years.

She was also the head of product
at Simbi and is a founder

member of Parenthood Ventures.

And is co founder and CEO of Questread,
an engaging reading game that increases

motivation and achievement for elementary
aged children, which just got accepted,

into Ocean Programs Accelerator Cohort 10.

She is Janessa Ferrell.

How are you, Janessa?

Janessa: Hey Raph, I'm doing well.

Thank you.

It's great to be here.

Raph: Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you.

For context we both were at Simbi, so I
did some work with Simbi a few years ago,

as did Janessa, and that was a reading
platform, and Simbi is no, no more, and

Janessa has gone on to build another
reading platform and so I'm curious to

learn Like, how did you end up at Simbi?

I feel like I might know a little
bit about that, but not a whole lot.

So what was your journey from educator,
from teacher into this tech world?

Janessa: Yeah.

It was quite the experience actually.

So I spent most of my career, about 15
years or so teaching elementary school

in various classrooms as a reading
teacher in Title I schools in Chicago.

Especially on kids that
didn't like reading and were

not reading at grade level.

And so when I was working with these kids,
I would see all sorts of issues with them,

and one of the worst issues that I saw
was that they were unmotivated to read.

And if you're not motivated to do
something, you don't succeed in it.

And the research backs is up every time.

I would try everything.

I would get them to record on
their device and read books out

loud and listen back to them.

I would play little games.

I would motivate them with rewards and
do all these things in my classroom.

And I saw that they really
responded well to this.

So what I decided then was, okay, I got
to build an app that helps every child

do this, because I can't possibly do
this, even for all the kids in my class

and an app could really spread and scale
what I was doing, what was working well.

So I decided, okay, I'm going to go
learn about learning technologies

and get my graduate degree.

And so I applied to University of Austin,
got accepted and everything was great.

And I was like, all right, I'm
going to go on this journey.

And then the pandemic happened and that
door closed for me for good because I

was in Canada and couldn't go down there.

And so I reached out to several
companies that were doing the work that

I wanted to learn how to do in tech.

And I volunteered to work with them
on the job to do an unpaid internship.

intership And so Simbi
was one of those folks.

So I talked to the founders of Simbi.

And offered to work with them and they
accepted and I learned on the job.

I started taking night classes and
product management with product school.

I worked with the technical team there
and learned the skills I needed to learn.

And then I grew into that role
and eventually became head

of product there at Simbi.

And so that was like a moment where
I learned, okay, if you're just

really focused on what you want to
learn and are willing to do what it

takes, then reach out to it, then.

Then you can get there.

Raph: Amazing.

That transition from, the
classroom into the tech world.

What was like, what was the most
surprising or weird or yeah.

Janessa: really funny to
think back on it right now.

I'm married to a software developer too.

So he was working remotely for
a company at the same time.

And so I'd be like at my desk and
I'd be like asking all these random

acronyms I'm like, what's a KPI?

What are they talking about?

Or like even learning
how to use Slack, right?

And I was like, how does this work?

It's, there's a lot of tech language
that isn't common to people outside

of tech, and I had to learn that all
very quickly and looking back now it's

really funny to think about the things
that I just didn't even know how to do.

Raph: Yeah, that's funny.

Like I, so I've been watching a show
we just started a couple of days ago,

I think called Abbott Elementary.

Is that, have you

Janessa: Oh yeah, I haven't seen
it yet, but I've heard it's good.

Raph: Yeah.

And it's just really funny to me sometimes
to think about like the things that,

you know, As a kid, you go through
school, but you don't really know

what the teachers are going through.

Janessa: Yeah,

Raph: And yeah, there's just like such
a difference in like these different

worlds that we all inhabit and I guess
move through as we move on in our

careers or change careers or whatever.

I feel like Slack and AWS and
KPIs are so natural to me.

Janessa: What's funny too, is that
what I learned is that having a range

of skills like is really important.

So the things that I was learning
as a teacher actually came in handy.

So I led a R& D team, and
there was people from a lot

of different backgrounds.

And it was really interesting to see
like, I ran like a weekend with that

team in Vancouver a couple years ago.

And.

I found myself leading them through these
activities that were really similar to the

things that I would have been doing in my
classroom, actually, and trying to promote

engagement and communication and all these
things were very well aligned, actually.

Raph: Actually literally my next question
is is there anything that like any skills

that you learned as a teacher that have
helped you navigate the tech world?

So yeah.

Janessa: The other one is really
pitching, it's pitching and

teaching are so much alike.

I'm preparing actually this morning for
a pitch competition next week that I'm

doing here in Atlanta and I was thinking
like, oh, this is the same way, right?

I have to use expression.

I have to Get their attention.

I have to hook them into
what I'm talking about.

And there's a lot of overlap, actually.

More teachers should become entrepreneurs.

Raph: Yep.

Yep.

A little side note here.

I was going to ask you questions
about PEI, but you're in Atlanta now.

Okay.

Janessa: We started the business in PEI.

So Prince Edward Island
for those who don't know.

And then my husband's
originally from Chicago.

And we wanted to spend some
time in the States as well.

So we came down to Atlanta a few
months ago to launch the app.

So it was the same time as we
launched the app on the app store.

And we knew that we wanted to reach a
larger market and to build some really

great partnerships with folks and validate
some different business strategies.

And so we needed to be at a
larger city area to do that.

So we moved down to Atlanta
here for a while and we're.

Yeah we're networking and
learning a lot about how to sell

the app here in the States too.

Raph: Interesting.

So actually one of the questions
that I was going to ask you had to

do with like remote work and working
virtually digitally and all of that.

But I guess if you really want to
connect with people, it is practical

to have like literal physical people
nearby that you can connect with.

Janessa: Yes.

Raph: yeah.

Janessa: And I didn't realize
how important that was

until I came here, actually.

I

had been working remotely, the only
tech experience I had was all remote.

And so I was always trying to
network with folks through a screen.

And now it's just like the level
up that I can go for networking

is huge when you go to in person.

Because you go to events in person.

It's people are more likable in person.

I think, you're hanging out

with them.

You're having a drink, you're talking,
and then they say, Oh, do you know

this person over here, let me connect
you to them, or let's grab coffee next

week, or let's see how this could work,
and it becomes more tangible, I think.

And I didn't realize how much
business happened in person.

Until I had the opportunity
to work on business in person.

Raph: Yep, that makes a lot of sense.

I find networking very draining, but
I find that, and so I have a tendency

to just try and stick to digital
things, and then I find that whenever

I go to in person things there's so
much comes out of it, and I'm like,

oh, I guess it's worth the effort
it's worth the emotional effort.

Janessa: Yeah.

We're all so different, right?

I find it energizing.

It inspires me.

And I'm like, Oh, look at these people
doing great things and I can do this too.

And they can support what I'm
doing and we have this like synergy

and yeah, we're all different.

Raph: Yup, that's so funny.

Yeah I'm kinda curious if you want to
just talk about Questread and how things

have been going you started this about
a year and a half ago, is that right?

Yeah, technically we started February 2023

Okay, yeah, awesome.

How,

What's the journey been like what steps
did you go through to get to where

you are now and where are you now?

Janessa: Yeah.

So we started originally with the
former CTO of Simbi and myself.

So we had worked together before and
had a great working relationship.

And so we were both passionate about
solving the problem of child illiteracy

and wanted to do so with an engaging game.

And so from the start, we were well
aligned, had already worked together well.

So we hit the ground running.

And started doing customer
discovery with families.

We wanted to sell an app directly
to families because there is a gap,

and still is a gap in that market.

Parents are exhausted and
overwhelmed, and at the same time

their kids are failing at reading.

In the states here, 70 percent of
4th graders can't read a grade level.

so I talked to parents so many
times who are feeling guilty about

their child's reading struggles and
they don't know how to handle it.

Raph: Yeah.

Janessa: And so that was really the
motivator we had and still is the

passion that lights us because as like
starting a business from scratch is

a whole different ballgame than going
into one that's already existing.

So what we did is we started with a,
we're, we still have a very lean team.

And so our goal is to be as productive and
efficient as possible using innovations.

We leverage AI hugely to automate our
processes, to help us really in every

area of both the app and the work
that we do on a daily basis, which

allows us to continue to be a small team.

That actually functions
as a much larger one.

Yeah, so I guess so what we are now
we've, the first year was a lot of, like

I said, customer discovery interviews.

We did a pilot, we built out
the first version of the iOS app

and it was released on
the app store last month.

And so we have, right now we have
our first paying subscribers.

We have our first happy users
and we are really excited.

We're really focused on increasing
the amount of time that those kids

spend reading and getting as close
to those folks as possible to learn

more about how we can improve the
product, how we can make it better.

And at the same time, we're exploring
a lot of different opportunities for

businesses and organizations that
want to support and partner with us.

So that's really exciting to me
because it expands our reach and the

impact that we can have with the app.

Raph: amazing.

Yeah that's awesome.

I, so I did try the app.

I I don't know if you saw my

Janessa: I did.

I track everybody.

Like

I said, I know who everybody is,

Raph: yeah.

But yeah, I didn't realize
it was it was that recent.

That's amazing.

So as someone who is quite deep into
the actual tech and writing code

and that sort of thing, I feel like
it's so easy for people like me and

Pablo to like just want to stick to
the code and just and just build.

But.

With your role in customer discovery
and building partnerships and all of

that sort of stuff I'm curious, like,
how do you manage that workflow, that

relationship between Pablo who's just
building and writing code and managing

infrastructure and that sort of thing
and the information that you're finding,

like that you're getting from parents and
children and partners, like how do you

coalesce all of those things and bring
them together into a coherent product?

Janessa: I think one of the things
that I've really learned a lot about

and have put into practice is treating
everything like an experiment.

And that's helped me remove
my bias for the situation.

I'm a mother of three and I'm
highly engaged with my children.

I'm a reading specialist, so I come
from a very different perspective

than most of my customers.

And so I have to, Think carefully about
what they're actually telling me rather

than what I want them to tell me.

And so documenting everything has
been a really key thing for me.

I'm documenting I track every
conversation, even, I'm in the

corner store with some other mother
and I talk to them and they're

like, Oh, you were doing a reading?

It comes up all the time in my life.

So I track all these conversations
like, oh, they were using this app.

Oh, they noticed this problem.

And I make it seem like
really natural for them.

I hope it's not a weird interview
thing, but I write it all down and

then I see it, look for trends.

And then we use that
to inform our decision.

And actually, following
the data is important too.

So we might feel really strongly
that this like feature is great,

but then we track the clicks on it.

And we're like, that
doesn't lead to engagement.

Our north star is, time the kids are
spending reading and that didn't do that.

I, there's so many ideas.

Everyone has a cool idea and

I have lots of ideas.

Pablo has lots of ideas.

All our users have ideas,

but if it doesn't hit that North Star
and actually move us forward and we

can't justify it, then it's gotta go.

We're just very focused on
what we're trying to do.

Raph: Awesome.

How do you, how, what's your
process to test the validity of a

an idea before you actually go and
spend, time and effort building it?

Janessa: Yeah.

We do a lot of that testing right away.

And thankfully, like I said, I
have three children of my own and

they are surrounded by other kids.

So I spend a lot of time with kids.

So for the last couple of years, I have
spent, put a lot of things in front

of a lot of kids, even things like
we're choosing our mascot right now.

And so we're running ideas by them.

We don't want it to be too kiddish.

And so we're like, we throw it
in front of a fifth grade boy.

What do you think of this?

And if he likes it, then
probably all the kids younger

than him are going to like it.

And so we're, we put things
in front of people before

probably most people ever would.

I don't trust it myself until,
my sixth grade son says it's cool

Raph: yep.

Janessa: or

whatever words he's using at the time.

Raph: Awesome.

Nice.

You brought up AI earlier and yeah,
AI very much in the zeitgeist.

How, like, how specifically do you use it?

Yeah.

Any tools or yeah.

What's your workflow with it?

Janessa: Yeah.

So one of my favorite ones right
now is something called Blaze AI.

I don't know if you've heard of that.

But it's really helpful
for me in writing content.

Like all the emails that you have
to write to users, for instance,

that are constantly coming to them.

What I like about it is
it trains it on my voice.

So I feed it my writing
and my style of talking.

And then I feed it the
knowledge I want to offer it.

And you can feed it like websites
or documents, whatever you like.

And it turns that all together
to write content that you want.

So I could create my email
funnel campaigns with that tool.

So that's something I use just personally
for my own marketing and for writing.

I love writing,

but it can be very time consuming
when you have to write 20 emails

for one email flow campaign.

Raph: I yes I'm going through that
right now and I'm just like, this is

so much and I, yeah it's exhausting.

I also enjoy it.

I like writing, but yeah, it's nice
when you can at least get like a

template off the ground, like something
to get you started or to like,

Janessa: Yeah.

And that just as a test too, what I do
is I send my husband that email I wrote

and I asked him

if it was sent from me or from Blaze.

And if you can't, if you can't
tell, then I'm, I know it's good.

Raph: That is

really, yep.

I love that.

Nice.

Janessa: your voice, right?

It's still you and our brand right now,
our brand is very much like my voice.

And until that changes,

I want

Raph: I actually, out of curiosity,
like what's your, how what's been your

thinking about like building the brand,
like building yeah yeah, the brand

the voice the imagery, all of that.

How's that come about?

Janessa: Yeah.

So it's really come just from what
we've learned from customer discovery.

So as I talk to parents and I understand
what motivates them and what they're

saying, the themes come across.

So when I did the initial pilot,
for instance, I had every parent who

signed up, which was over a hundred
families, book 15 minute phone calls

with me or one on one meetings.

And I recorded them all and
I documented them carefully.

And then the themes were very obvious.

they felt frustrated they felt guilty
there was trigger event usually from the

teacher, that said you know my child isn't
reading at grade level and then they were

like what do I do now they are helpless
and so that language, understanding who

they are who they are and what they want
helps me craft the words I use to talk

to them so I'm not going to talk to
that person the same way that I would to

someone, for instance, like me, who is
, just a very different perspective on it.

They already, they feel
terrible about what's going on.

They feel overwhelmed.

They don't want another thing to do.

They want someone to support what
they're doing and that they can be

successful in this and help their kid in
a really easy way that they can afford.

And so that narrowing down who
they are has helped us think about

how to talk to them very clearly.

Raph: Yeah.

That's awesome.

Um, oh another thing I
wanted to talk to you about.

The accelerator.

You got into an accelerator.

Janessa: Yeah,

Raph: how's that?

What's what led you into an accelerator?

What, when does it start?

Are you excited?

Is it A little, yeah, I feel
like accelerators to me feel both

exciting and also okay, this is
like a, it's going to be an intense,

like three months or whatever or
however long this accelerator is.

Janessa: yeah.

it is about three months,
which I think many of them are.

I'm really excited about it and I think
it will, and we ended up choosing to

do this because I We're at a really
pivotal point right now where we have

the product, we have our first users,
and we need to validate our go to market

strategy and build out the network
and solidify some key partnerships.

And we met with the folks at Ocean
and felt very well aligned with them.

They're very focused on
impact And on, social change.

And that's the kind of people
we want to be in business with.

There's a lot of folks who are their
main bottom line is, their return on

investment and we could become who they
want us to be for sure, but we didn't

build this to make someone else rich.

We built this to have an
impact, to actually make a

dent in the reading crisis.

And so that's what drives us.

And so those are the people that
we care about getting to know more.

And we believe that when you do do make
an impact and you have real results.

You are effective and make a change
that the funding and the finances

will follow that but from the get
go, we don't want to be in business

with folks that are not well aligned.

And so we met with Ocean folks.

They were, they really cared
about us as individuals.

It's really a holistic program about
the founders and supporting you, being a

startup founder is a challenge for sure.

I don't think I could have
done this 20 years ago.

This is the things that I've learned
and become more resilient and got

some grit, went through some hard
times, helped me to get to the stage

where I could do things like this,
and where I saw the bigger picture.

So anyways, that's a long
answer to your question.

Sometimes I ramble.

But yeah, we're excited about doing this.

It'll involve three different live in
person times, ending with a demo day in

September, where we'll get to showcase
the things we've learned and we just think

it's going to really push us forward.

Raph: Amazing.

Where's the demo day?

It's, is that in Atlanta?

Janessa: It's in Los Angeles, actually.

Yeah, it's a distributed around the U.

S.

accelerator.

Raph: Okay, cool.

What actually the your process
for deciding to go through an

accelerator what was that like?

Yeah.

Janessa: Yeah.

So, this is something that our team
has struggled with because you'll

have limited resources and you don't,
it has to be somebody worthwhile.

So we researched a lot of
different accelerators.

And you we had some early interviews with
various different ones and you can tell

pretty quickly whether or not they truly
care about you as founders and the product

you do, the mission you're on or not.

And so that was our process.

We learned and tried to see
who was well aligned or not.

A lot of times accelerators like look
good on paper and it's just a PR stunt

and we didn't, we don't
have any time for that.

Like

we're a small team.

We have.

We have books to write.

We have customers to get.

We have relationships to build.

We have things to do.

We can't just spend all our time learning.

And that's that's a whole other topic, but

a lot of people want to teach you
things that now aren't necessarily

going to move you forward.

We don't have patience
for just PR relationships.

We have to have an actual belief that
they're going to move us forward.

Raph: Yeah.

I feel like the struggle and like
finding like the accelerators, the

funders, the people who will connect
with you on the right level, I feel

like is something that I feel intensely.

My instinct about venture capital
more broadly is that There's a lot

of people out there who just want
that 10x return, and that's just the

only thing that they're there for.

And I feel like we're in a system
that kind of incentivizes that.

So it makes sense that's
why they're there.

But with with I think your kind of
mission and the kinds of projects

that like we like to work on as well.

It's really important that it's not just
a return that people are looking for.

Yeah.

Janessa: It changes the game too
when you're bootstrapping, right?

We've got to be very creative about the
ways we've gotten money into the business.

So far, and that changes things.

Then you think about, I think about last
summer when I rented my house out and

we lived in a camper to raise money for
that, or, the, how hard we worked for this

grant to get this funds, and then you're
like, am I going to dilute everything

just to get quick money in right now?

And then have them steer the ship.

Like I didn't work this hard and come this
far to give it to somebody right away.

Raph: Yep.

Janessa: I

don't know.

Maybe that's a

Raph: I

Janessa: about it, but and

Raph: think it makes a lot of

Janessa: you think it
makes a lot of sense.

Yeah.

It's there's a lot of really
good people out there too.

And it's worth the time to
find people that care about

what you're doing and value it.

Raph: Yeah.

I was talking to someone recently who
was talking about founder breakups.

And, it sounded like it was financial
things and it was related to misaligned

funding and other, things of that nature.

And I feel like it is so
important that everyone actually

care about what you're doing.

If your goal is the mission, like
there are some people who find like

the goal is just to make a return.

But for those who are who are
mission driven, you have to find

other people who are as well,
otherwise it just doesn't work right.

Janessa: Yeah.

Really every company needs to
have some kind of a mission

or something that they're working towards.

If you have a clarity in your focus,

then you can have something
for everyone to work towards.

Otherwise, you What are you doing?

Raph: Yeah.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

I totally agree.

Okay.

So we are on the small tech podcast
and yeah, I guess you, you already

talked about Blaze, but do you have
any other sort of small tech products

that you can that you can talk about?

Something that's made a
positive impact on your life?

Janessa: When we, like I said, we
moved to Atlanta a couple months ago,

and one of the things that people
told us right away when we moved here,

they said the traffic is terrible.

They said, you have to
download this app called Waze.

And it

will navigate you around all the things.

And we had never really thought about
navigating traffic or trying to avoid

different things, but it's been such a
game changer because it changes you in

the moment to reroute you around the
pileup that's in front of you or whatever.

So that's been a good
little app for us to use.

Raph: Nice.

Yeah.

I use Waze as well.

Yep.

Cool.

Janessa, thank you so much
for coming on the podcast.

This was amazing.

I feel like I learned a lot from
everything you had to say and

yeah, I really appreciate it.

Janessa: Raph.

Take care.

Raph: Awesome.

See ya.

Folks.

That was my interview with the amazing
Janessa Ferrell from quest read.

You can go find them at questread.com.

You can find us at smalltechpodcast.com
and you can find EC at goec.io.

We're a small team and we can
use all the help we can get.

So if you can like, and subscribe
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And let us know if you
want to hop on the podcast.

If you want to talk to me
about the products that you're

building, that would be amazing.

We all want to do something
good in the world.

So go out there and build
something good folks.

I'll see you in the next one.

See ya.