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Luis von Ahn

05/10/25

@ Stanford Graduate School of Business

We launched Duolingo with a premium model where users can learn for free but see ads, or pay to remove ads, which allows us to fund the platform while keeping it accessible.

Video

View From The Top with Luis Von Ahn, Cofounder and CEO of Duolingo

@ Stanford Graduate School of Business

View From The Top with Luis Von Ahn, Cofounder and CEO of Duolingo

05/10/25

Related Takeaways

Severin Hacker

05/19/25

@ 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Most of our users still use the free tier of Duolingo, which I'm very proud of because it reflects our commitment to inclusivity and purpose.

Luis von Ahn

12/01/23

@ The Logan Bartlett Show

Our goal is to democratize education, and while we initially thought we could monetize through user-generated translations, we found that a freemium model was more effective for our growth.

Luis von Ahn

12/01/23

@ The Logan Bartlett Show

Duolingo has never relied on performance marketing, allowing us to maintain good margins and avoid the pitfalls that many consumer apps face.

Luis von Ahn

05/10/25

@ Stanford Graduate School of Business

We spent the first five or six years of Duolingo not monetizing, which I regret; we should have started monetizing after year three to be further ahead today.

Mathilde Collin

10/25/18

@ Y Combinator

We started with a freemium model, but realized it distracted us; we shifted to a paid model and consistently increased prices over time, which helped us focus on serious customers.

Luis von Ahn

12/01/23

@ The Logan Bartlett Show

We decided to implement ads in a way that wouldn't degrade the user experience, ensuring that our free users still receive a quality product while generating revenue for the company.

Severin Hacker

05/19/25

@ 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Duolingo's mission is to provide the best education and make it universally available, leveraging technology to offer the equivalent of one-on-one tutoring for everyone.

Severin Hacker

05/19/25

@ 20VC with Harry Stebbings

We always knew we could grow users first, which was our primary focus in the early days of Duolingo.

Luis von Ahn

12/01/23

@ The Logan Bartlett Show

Eighty percent of our users in the United States were not learning a language before using Duolingo, which shows how we expanded the market.