Steal From The Best

Steal From The Best

Luis von Ahn

Co-founder of Duolingo

Ideas

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains how CAPTCHAs help digitize books

1:13

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn on why AI isn't better at coding than humans

1:16

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains how to choose notification timing

0:25

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn: “People feel like we’re giving up on them”

0:58

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains why educational apps don't need to beat TikTok

1:04

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn: “It’s better to have a hole than an a-hole”

2:05

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn on why not monetizing early helped growth

2:19

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains why making Duolingo paid would hurt growth

1:50

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains why he rejected a CFO for being mean to his driver

0:51

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains why Duolingo has worked at scale

1:21

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn on why he backtracked on AI in performance reviews

0:47

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains why Duolingo's freemium model is wealth redistribution

0:53

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn: “I’m very good at holding a bar when it’s not me”

1:09

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains why leaderboards with friends don’t work

0:22

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains how to solve translation’s two big hurdles

0:49

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn on why its business model is fair

0:57

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn: “I have something very important to talk to you about”

1:10

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains how the ESP game labels images

0:49

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains how to reframe far-off invitations as tomorrow

0:31

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains why free users should pay if they can afford it

1:23

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains why the first 20 days matter for forming a habit

0:43

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains asymmetric verification games

0:34

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains how to ensure labels aren't corrupt

1:06

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains why it targets hundreds of millions of learners

0:21

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn explains why people aren’t shy talking to AI

0:17

Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn: “We decided to make a way to learn English for free”

0:20

Intro

▶️How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media | Duolingo's Luis Von Ahn | TED12:54 · 26 Oct 2023

▶️Duolingo — the next chapter in human computation | Luis von Ahn | TEDxCMU 201117:06 · 26 Apr 2011

▶️No Priors Ep. 114 | With Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn32:15 · 8 May 2025

▶️View From The Top with Luis Von Ahn, Cofounder and CEO of Duolingo49:43 · 9 May 2025

▶️Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder of Duolingo — How to Be (Truly) Mission-Driven, 10x Growth, and More | Tim Ferriss Show2:00:44 · 13 Jul 2022

Deep

📑Human Computation — Luis von Ahn, PhD thesis (CMU-CS-05-193, 2005)91 pages · 24 Oct 2005

📑Labeling Images with a Computer Game: The ESP Game8 pages · 24 Apr 2004

📑Duolingo: Learn a Language for Free while Helping to Translate the Web (AMTA 2012 keynote, full text)1 pages

📑Learning a Language for Free While Translating the Web. Does Duolingo Work? (Garcia, 2013)25 Jan 2013

📄The habit-building research behind your Duolingo streak (Duolingo Blog)31 Jan 2022

📄Improving the streak: Forming habits one lesson at a time (Duolingo Blog)19 Nov 2020

📄Duolingo: On a 'Streak' — Harvard Business School Case 825-09725 pages · Jan 2025

📑Streaks to success: The effects of highlighting streaks on student effort and learning1 Dec 2025

Other founders

Kevin SystromCo-founder of Instagram

Daniel EkCo-founder of Spotify

Brian ArmstrongCo-founder of Coinbase

Christian SeligCreator of Apollo for Reddit

Roy LeeFounder of Cluely

Zach YadegariCo-founder of Cal AI

Courtland AllenFounder of Indie Hackers

Sahil LavingiaFounder of Gumroad