Jessica Hicklin
Unlocked Labs
Denver, CO USA
"Good leaders build other leaders."
Career Roadmap
Jessica's work combines: Non-Profit Organizations, Technology, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
If there's a problem you want to solve through entrepreneurship, dream it up, write it out, then gather people around you who have the different skills you need on your team in order to make the idea reality. You can't do it alone. And be willing to be wrong. You're likely going to be wrong when you start out. That's okay. You're trying to solve a problem for the world—you don't and won't have all the answers. Be wrong and don't be shameful about it. Try, fail, then try again.
Here's the path I took:
GED
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
I was sentenced to life without parole at age 16 and walked into prison knowing I was expected to die there.
2.
Three years in, a moment of clarity hit me on my 21st birthday—I knew I didn’t want prison to be the end of my story.
3.
When Missouri pulled education programs from max prisons, I stepped up and became a volunteer GED instructor.
4.
I taught myself to code from textbooks and began building education tools inside a prison TV station I helped create.
5.
I co-founded a nonprofit and became CTO while still incarcerated, designing technology to bring education into prisons.
6.
Just six months before coming home, we officially launched Unlocked Labs, setting up our first systems with Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
7.
Since my release, I’ve grown Unlocked Labs to serve prisons in five states, leading a team where half have lived incarceration experience.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Myself:
I'm not qualified to hold this title.
How I responded:
After becoming CTO of a nonprofit I helped launch, I struggled with imposter syndrome. I didn't think I was qualified to do it. A conversation with the founding CTO of Deloitte changed my mindset. He told me that no one really knows what they're doing when starting a new business. It would've already been done otherwise. Hearing that I wasn't the only one learning while building was very reassuring. I used to think I needed a degree but what I actually needed was to show up and do the work.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I was sentenced to life in prison at age 16. I knew I was expected to die there. At 21 years old, I decided I didn't want prison to be the end of my story. Through self-teaching, I learned, grew, and launched a nonprofit to help others like me.