Duolingo Co-Founder, Severin Hacker: How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education

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20VC with Harry Stebbings

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Published on May 19, 2025 2:00:34 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9sEJurtZIU

Duration: 0:00

5,833 views

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Severin Hacker is the Co-Founder and CTO of Duolingo, the world’s most downloaded education app with over 100 million monthly users. Since its 2021 IPO, Duolingo has reached a market cap of $20BN. The company has raised over $183M from top-tier investors including CapitalG, Kleiner Perkins, Union Square Ventures, NEA, Ashton Kutcher, and Tim Ferriss. Severin is also an active angel investor, with standout bets including Decagon, one of the fastest-growing AI-native dev shops globally.
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In Today’s Episode We Discuss:

00:00 Intro
01:07 Duolingo’s AI Pivot: What “AI-First” Actually Means
02:58 The 12-Year Bottleneck Duolingo Crushed with AI
14:05 Will Duolingo Have More or Fewer Engineers in 5 Years?
16:16 Will AI Kill the CS Degree?
25:33 Is AI Integration Causing Margin Pressure at Duolingo?
39:10 Chess in Duolingo
43:28 Would Duolingo Open a Physical School?
57:24 Which Conventional Rules Are Worth Following?
01:04:19 How Do You See Competition and Value Distribution in EdTech?
01:06:30 Do You Think Europe Is Becoming Irrelevant?
01:16:26 Two Biggest Mistakes Duolingo Made
01:22:16 Why Union Square Was the Only VC to Say Yes
01:24:18 The Real Value of Tier 1 VCs (Even at Worse Terms)
01:29:10 If Duo Were Private Today, Would You Still Go Public?
01:34:30 Quick-Fire Round
01:35:53 Duolingo’s Secret Sauce: What Investors Always Get Wrong
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