Exclusive 🦉 “Education Super App” — Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn announces next product on TBOY

The Best One Yet

Nick & Jack Studios

News, Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you get someone to learn everyday? Make it addictive… in a good way. Luis von Ahn has mastered engagement with Duolingo, transforming it into the largest education app on earth with over 40M daily users.

And in our exclusive interview, Duolingo CEO announces the next product: Chess.

In this episode, you’ll hear…

Why the CEO (proudly) calls Duolingo “addictive”
Why he will never open an office in Silicon Valley
The psychology behind push notifications, streaks, and the unhinged owl
Duolingo’s viral super bowl commercial (aka “The Growing Butt”)
Using fire to fire fight in the fight against social media
“If it’s not fun, it won’t work”
Why “screen-time” isn’t a problem — it’s inevitable
Why artists will beat nerds in the age of AI
How millionaires on Duolingo subsidize migrants
Why Duolingo employees didn’t want to make money (at first)

Watch the extended version on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Well, the biggest thing, I keep telling people and nobody seems to listen to me.
0:03.4	First person I ever had to fire, we're adding another subject, and it is not one that many
0:07.9	people have expected.
0:08.8	I could see his butt crack.
0:10.3	And then it started growing, like his butt started growing, started really realizing,
0:14.8	okay, we can be a little more savage.
0:17.0	I actually believe that as AI matures, what's going to be most valuable, the only thing he wants in life is for you to do your lesson.
0:26.4	And the obstacle is that you're lazy.
0:29.4	Yiddis, bonjour, bonjourno, Maharabi, marhaba, nihow, aloha, and conichua.
0:36.7	Our guest today can say hello in every one of those languages.
0:40.1	True. Probably Dothraki, too. Because Duolingo is the largest language app on the planet
0:45.4	used by 40 million people every day. But Luis von Onn aspires for more than just language learning.
0:52.0	Because he wants his app to become the world's first super app for all things education.
0:57.3	Our guest today, Luis Von On, was born in Guatemala, but launched this tech business in Pittsburgh, PA.
1:03.0	Although his app uses all the growth hacks that were invented in Silicon Valley.
1:07.5	He created a mascot so popular, Doolipa is trying to date it. An unhinged owl mascot.
1:14.2	That's such a meme. It got its own skit on SNL. And on today's show, Luis will announce Duolingo's
1:19.0	next product. That's right, Duolingo's next new thing will be revealed right here on Teaboy.
1:24.5	Yeties, today we are sitting down with the Lord of the Language. The Sultan of
1:28.9	Streaks. The Baron of Being Bilingual. Luis von On is the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo. There ain't any
1:36.0	subtitles in today's episode, Yetis. Nope. But watch out for that unhinged owl. Because that thing is a
1:40.8	rafter with some major boundary issues. Today's interview with Luis, Abdulingo, is the best one yet.
	...

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