TIVP062: Duolingo (DUOL): Generational Opportunity or fad? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O’Malley
The Intrinsic Value Podcast - The Investor’s Podcast Network
The Investor's Podcast Network
4.6 • 592 Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2026
⏱️ 84 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | The disconnect between the current market cap and the value many investors see in this company couldn't be larger. |
| 0:06.0 | Dualingo trades at a market cap of $5 billion, while some project that it will be the leader of a trillion dollar industry. |
| 0:14.0 | I was surprised to see that such reasonable valuations, honestly, only 20 times free cash flow and growing by more than 30% a year. I mean, |
| 0:21.9 | that's just something you rarely see. And you still have the founder on board, which is something |
| 0:25.8 | that we love to see. So if Duolingo comes even close to becoming the world's largest learning |
| 0:31.2 | platform, it will be a multi-backer. Today, we find out whether that's realistic. |
| 0:45.1 | You're listening to the Intrinsic Value Podcast by the Investors Podcast Network. |
| 0:51.9 | Since 2014, with over 180 million downloads, we've learned directly from the world's best investors. |
| 0:55.8 | Now, we're applying those lessons to analyze businesses and investment opportunities every week, helping you uncover intrinsic value. And now, here are your hosts, |
| 1:03.7 | Sean O'Malley and Daniel Monker. |
| 1:17.4 | Today, we will talk about a company that is dividing investors. |
| 1:23.4 | Some argue this is the uncatchable leader of an industry that will be worth trillions of dollars one day. |
| 1:28.7 | Others argue that it is nothing more than a language app that is actually pretty ineffective at teaching people languages and that company is none other than duolingo and for anyone who's |
| 1:35.0 | on social media i'm sure you've seen the company's very iconic green owl before the social media |
| 1:42.2 | marketing is uh is certainly pretty special, I think you could say. But |
| 1:46.3 | tell us, Daniel, yeah, why did you decide to pitch this company today? Well, I want to cover this |
| 1:52.1 | company because it's one of those situations where I just don't want to look back and realize |
| 1:56.6 | I have missed the most obvious next big thing. I've been using the product for quite some time, although it was two or three years ago, and I actually had a streak of 300 days of studying Spanish. And, spoiler, I can't speak Spanish anymore, and I actually never really could. To be fair, though, that says less about dual lingo and more about my personal effort I put into the Spanish practice. And I'm also playing chess from time to time, although I haven't done so in a while. And you can certainly see that in my game. If we just discussed, it's pretty terrible. I was one of those people, you know, who started after watching the Queen's Gambin. I wish that wouldn't be the case, but unfortunately, that's how it is. And in case anyone asks, why are you talking about |
| 2:34.8 | chess? Well, Duolingo has used the last couple of years and quarters to expand into verticals |
| 2:40.0 | beyond just languages. And they now have courses on math, music, and chess too. And I know you |
| 2:46.1 | have used Duolingo for quite some time too, Sean. So I think this should be a company where we can combine |
| 2:51.7 | our typical deep investor research with our impressions as users. Gosh, it's a bit surreal to be |
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