Why Raising $3M Is Harder Than $100M

\"We would not be where it is today... if we never hired from Gen Z... She just fundamentally understands it in a way that someone who's not Gen Z could never understand it.\"

• Gen Z employees offer insights into trends.
• Helps create resonating content.
• Encourages diverse hiring for innovation.

\"My role has changed practically every year... One of my principles is reduce, automate, delegate.\"

• Severin adapts his role to focus strategically.
• Emphasizes delegation with core involvement.
• Suggests evolving roles to match company needs.

\"Ultimately product quality is details... The difference between a good app and a great app is details.\"

• Severin highlights importance of small details.
• Details enhance user experience and retention.
• Encourages prioritizing product refinement.

\"The hardest part about learning a language is the actual motivation... Duolingo is... a motivation engine.\"

• Duolingo uses gamification to boost motivation.
• Recognizes motivation as main learning barrier.
• Designing for motivation increases engagement.

\"The only thing that matters is retention... If you do not have retention, it is a leaky bucket.\"

• Severin focuses on user retention over acquisition.
• High retention leads to sustainable growth.
• Investing in engagement is crucial for success.

\"We started using an AI tool for customer support... AI can do 70 to 80% of the tickets that we get.\"

• Duolingo handles majority of inquiries with AI.
• Expanded support to more users due to lower costs.
• Demonstrates AI's operational impact.

\"Today there is a unique cost to AI and therefore it is in our higher tier subscription... We believe all of these costs will come down.\"

• Duolingo offers AI features in premium tiers due to costs.
• Anticipates AI costs will decrease, enabling wider access.
• Highlights aligning AI with business models.

\"I do believe there's still a lot of value in thinking logically, which is something that the best CS courses teach you... I would say for the next 5 years, probably still a good investment.\"

• Severin values problem-solving skills from CS education.
• Emphasizes fundamentals over coding specifics.
• Recommends pursuing CS studies despite AI advancements.

\"Why don't you create it on the fly when you need it... you could then custom design a course just for you.\"

• Severin suggests real-time personalized courses.
• Increases relevance and motivation.
• Enhances user experience with tailored content.

\"It took us 12 years to build the first 100 courses or so. And now within one year, we built another 148 courses. It would have taken us decades to build this.\"

• Duolingo accelerated course creation using AI.
• AI generates sentences based on constraints.
• Integration of AI scaled their offerings exponentially.