2min chapter

#607: Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo — How to Be (Truly) Mission-Driven, Monetization Experiments, 10x Growth, Org Chart Iterations for Impacting Metrics, The Intricate Path to an IPO, Best Hiring Practices, Catching Exam Cheaters, The Allure of Toto Toilets, The Future of Duolingo, and How to Stand Out in Your Career

The Tim Ferriss Show

notes

CHAPTER

The Top Idea in Your Mind

Right now, we show the programmatic ads that come from like google and facebook. If we wanted to do something like this, we would have to have our own ad sales force. So i want to give you credit where credit is due. On i'm sure there are many things i could give you credit for, but one is a a relentless focus and ability to re focus. And i want to mention an article for folks. It's called the top idea in your mind. It's by pologram, which relates back to the point you made of realizing that you're not in the business of tidying up the last five % of translations that you have sourced from users.

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Transcript

Episode notes

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Luis von Ahn (@LuisvonAhn) is an entrepreneur and consulting professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who is considered one of the pioneers of crowdsourcing. He is known for co-inventing CAPTCHAs, being a MacArthur fellow, and selling two companies to Google in his twenties.

He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, a language-learning platform created to bring free language education to the world. With more than 500 million users, it is now the most popular language-learning platform and the most downloaded education app in the world.

Luis has been named one of the Brilliant 10 by Popular Science, one of the 50 Best Brains in Science by Discover, one of the Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review, and one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. Luis also won the 2018 Lemelson-MIT prize, the largest cash prize for invention in the U.S.

This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer.

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[05:03] Why the Duolingo owl is green

[06:47] The core cause behind Duolingo’s creation, and how Duolingo has evolved over the years

[12:48] Duolingo’s monetization efforts that didn’t quite pan out

[21:06] After initial reluctance, how was the Duolingo workforce convinced monetization needed to happen?

[25:06] As machine-driven translation services get more sophisticated, will human beings still seek to learn other languages via Duolingo?

[29:31] The most pursued/influential languages in the Duolingo system currently

[39:14] The development of Duolingo’s org chart

[45:40] Why Duolingo uses a daily metric

[48:33] Book recommendations

[50:26] Luis’ most worthwhile investments

[52:20] New beliefs, behaviors, or habits

[55:20] Recent life-changing purchases

[1:02:39] What Luis’ updated 2022 billboard might say

[1:06:14] What Luis means when he refers to Duolingo’s “mission,” and how the company’s long view affects decision making

[1:12:34] How Duolingo hires good candidates for the long haul

[1:18:50] Why and how Duolingo went public

[1:25:42] The biggest challenges Luis faces as CEO of a public company

[1:30:50] Duolingo is expanding to teach more than languages

[1:36:18] The Duolingo English Test: proficiency testing from home accepted by 4,200 academic programs across the world

[1:39:51] How Luis’ expertise at catching cheaters during his time as a professor at Carnegie Mellon makes Duolingo products more trustworthy as accredited sources

[1:43:39] The brief conversation with Luis’ personal trainer that changed his routine breakfast — to a different routine breakfast

[1:44:38] Advice to young, driven people entering the working world

[1:48:07] How Luis has become better at saying “No.”

[1:49:56] Luis’ request of the audience and parting thoughts

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