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#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

NOTE

The Value of Going Public for Operational Excellence

Going public forced the company to improve its processes and operations significantly. Before, there were no structured processes in place, but the public offering pushed them to establish efficient procedures. This led to a cleaner 'house' metaphorically speaking, making the company operate better and feel more organized. The speaker encourages small business owners to consider the benefits of improving operations, even if they do not plan to go public, suggesting the book 'Built to Sell' by John Warlow as a valuable resource for enhancing business practices.

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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.

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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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