Show notes
In today’s episode ofThe Eric Ries Show, I am joined by Luis von Ahn, CEO and co-founder of Duolingo. With Duolingo, his mission was simple: make language learning accessible to everyone—not to build a for-profit company. Fast forward to today, and Duolingo has grown into a $17 billion business with a reported 90% of the online daily active users in the language learning market. In our conversation today, we discuss the following topics: • How hiring an intern led to Duolingo’s viral mascot • Duolingo’s revenue strategy that helped their stock be up over 100% in the past year• How only 10% of users pay but make about 30% of the revenue in the education app category• The newly published Duolingo Handbook and its critical role within the company• How turning learning into a game changed everything • Why Duolingo spent the first five years focusing on improving retention • Duolingo’s unique approach to experimentation and how to apply it • Why Duolingo isn’t focused on market investors but on building a 100-year company • And much more!—Brought to you by:• Wilson Sonsini – Wilson Sonsini is the innovation economy’s law firm.Learn more.—Where to find Luis von Ahn:• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-von-ahn-duolingo/• X:https://x.com/luisvonahn—Where to find Eric:• Newsletter:https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast:https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow —In This Episode We Cover:(00:00) Intro(03:10) How Duolingo’s passive-aggressive mascot, Duo, became an internet sensation(09:21) Why Luis took a chance on the Duo campaign—despite his doubts(11:30) Take the long view: Duolingo’s principle to build a lasting brand(12:52) Duolingo’s commitment to excellence (14:54) Luis’s journey to entrepreneurship (18:28) Luis’s MacArthur Fellowship “genius” award (20:13) The inspiration behind Duolingo’s mission and how they stay in alignment with it(26:16) Early learnings that shaped Duolingo into a fun product (29:14) How Duolingo gained an edge over Rosetta Stone(32:45) How a company with no revenue can be worth a billion dollars (33:10) The VC who pushed Luis and Severin to monetize (36:05) How Duolingo stays focused on long-term sustainability (40:12) A mistake Duolingo made by focusing on the quarter rather than long term (42:15) The importance of trust and “the cultural bank”(44:11) Duo class shares and ways Duolingo resists hyper-monetization (46:30) A case for staying under-monetized (48:23) Why Duolingo wrote a handbook, and the process of creating it(54:00) The cadence of evaluating the relevance of the handbook (55:01) Eric’s “two-way reviews” (58:34) An explanation of Duolingo’s “green machine” (1:01:42) Product reviews and a/b testing at Duolingo (1:06:32) Why Duolingo takes a stance against MVPs in their handbook(1:10:07) How Duolingo’s v1 meets Eric’s definition of MVP(1:11:45) Duolingo’s early strategy focused on retention (1:16:22) Duolingo’s testing philosophy (1:18:13) Lightning round—You can find the transcript and references athttps://www.ericriesshow.com/—Production and marketing byhttps://penname.co/.Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed.
