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Severin Hacker

05/19/25

@ 20VC with Harry Stebbings

It's harder to raise $3 million than it is to raise $100 million, and Duolingo would not have been able to raise any money in Europe during its early years.

Video

Duolingo Co-Founder, Severin Hacker: How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education

@ 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Duolingo Co-Founder, Severin Hacker: How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education

05/19/25

Related Takeaways

Hosain Rahman

10/15/14

@ Y Combinator

Raising our first half a million dollars was more challenging than raising our first $200 million, as investors were skeptical about mobile voice technology at the time.

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.

Luis von Ahn

12/01/23

@ The Logan Bartlett Show

Going public has elevated Duolingo's operations, forcing us to operate at a higher level and maintain a cleaner organizational structure.

Luis von Ahn

12/01/23

@ The Logan Bartlett Show

Duolingo has about 24 million daily active users, but we aim to reach 500 million, indicating significant room for growth.

Severin Hacker

05/19/25

@ 20VC with Harry Stebbings

It's often harder to raise a small amount of money than a larger round because of the expectations that come with higher valuations.

Severin Hacker

05/19/25

@ 20VC with Harry Stebbings

We waited too long to take monetization seriously at Duolingo, which was a mistake that delayed our growth.

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.

Michael Seibel

05/07/22

@ Y Combinator

Raising the next round of funding is often harder than founders anticipate, especially in a changing economic environment.

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.