Jess Ewing and Literati’s Founding Story

My first love was reading.

I remember every page from a hand-sewn “quiet book” gifted to my mother when I was very young—the feeling of the felt apples that you could “pick” from the tree on one page and tying a shoelace on another. Books stimulated my brain and sparked the love of literature and learning that I carry with me to this day. 

I graduated from Stanford with a degree in symbolic systems and landed my dream job at Google as a Product Manager. I spent the first five years of my career working under some of the most well-known business leaders, building products that are still in use today. 

I knew, though, that I wanted to feel more connected to the work that I was doing. I left Google to write a novel and even became an outdoor survival guide. After some soul searching, I decided I wanted to combine the two things I love and know best: literature and building products. I was going to go back into tech, but this time on my own terms. 


I had seen parents struggling to find books for their kids—books that they would love and that were at the right reading level. I built Literati with the belief that every kid can develop a love of learning by being given the right books for them at the right time. Literati makes finding the best books easy and inspiring, so that parents can focus on watching their kids grow.