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Luis Von ahn

CEO & Co-Founder, Duolingo

Search every verified Luis Von ahn interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, recently marked the 10th anniversary of the Duolingo English Test (DET) with the release of a documentary titled "The Bridge: 10 Years of the Duolingo English Test." In the film, von Ahn discussed the test's origins, stating that it was designed to address barriers faced by international students, such as the cost and travel required for traditional proficiency exams. He noted that data showed students traveled an average of 175 kilometers to reach a test center, and he described the DET as a way to "level the playing field" by making the test accessible from home. Von Ahn also reflected on his personal experience as an immigrant, saying that a product like the DET would have saved him months of saving money for a standardized test when he first came to the U.S. In an interview with an Indonesian content creator, von Ahn confirmed that he invented CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA, which he sold to Google, and discussed Duolingo's mission to provide free access to education. He attributed the company's success to hard work and solving real problems, while acknowledging that not all of its product launches have succeeded. During Duolingo's Q2 2026 earnings call, von Ahn reported that daily active users grew 23% year-over-year and discussed the company's approach to AI, noting that it uses a portfolio of models and expects to shift more toward open-weight models over time. He also addressed features like video call for conversation practice, saying research shows it improves users' conversational skills, and mentioned ongoing efforts to address declining attention spans by testing longer minimum session lengths.

Recent appearances

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“At the highest level, what we want is that if you use Duolingo and you get value out of it, and you can afford to pay, we want you to pay. So if you can afford to pay and you get value out of it, it is only fair that you pay us because running Duolingo costs hundreds of millions of dollars per year. So if it is fair but if you cannot afford to pay or for some reason have a difficulty in paying then we actually want y”

“Lo que más me inspiró es haber crecido en Guatemala, simplemente haber visto, bueno, cuando estaba allá no me daba cuenta, pero después de salir de Guatemala me di cuenta de la cantidad de pobreza que hay en Guatemala y de lo mucho que puede mejorar el país. Y después me empecé a dar cuenta que hay otros países como Guatemala en el mundo que realmente tienen que mejorar bastante y por eso creo que he tratado de que m”

“Duolingo es una empresa en la bolsa de valores pública acá en Estados Unidos, en que le ha ido bastante bien, valorada alrededor de 7,000 millones de dólares. La empresa es lo que hace es enseñamos mayormente enseñamos idiomas, es una aplicación para aprender idiomas. Ahora nos estamos metiendo a enseñar matemática y música, pero mayormente lo que hacemos es enseñar idiomas. Tenemos usuarios en todos los países del m”

“It turns out this is a humongous market. It's about $15 billion a year are spent on people certifying that they know English.”

“I always thought that education actually was something that brought inequality because what happens is the people who have money can buy themselves the best education in the world. and because of that they remain having a lot of money. Whereas the people who don't have very much money barely learn how to read and write and therefore remain not having very much money.”

“We have never done a layoff. Despite what the internet may think, it is important to continue hiring people because a single employee is just way more productive now than they used to be.”

Other executives at Duolingo

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