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Huh, I had no idea Duolingo was this successful. Anybody with insight into General Atlantic that could speculate on what changes they could bring? I've read the

Huh, I had no idea Duolingo was this successful. Anybody with insight into General Atlantic that could speculate on what changes they could bring? I've read their Wiki page but it's pretty barren, although they seem to be enacting some curious initiatives like: "In 2018 General Atlantic invested in UK investment start-up Greensill in an attempt to challenge traditional lending systems"

chris11 6y ago
I knew they were successful, but I didn't know they were valued at 1.5 billion.
- shiningdays 6y ago
  I can see this. I moved abroad in 2018 to a non-english speaking country and just about everyone I met had Duolingo on their phone. You'd be surprised at how many would cough up for a Premium membership just to keep their streak from breaking and making the cute green owl cry. That said, apparently their biggest market is actually people trying to learn English, which... checks out. In our modern times, english is the lingua franca. There's a bottomless pit of people who want or need to learn it.
  - danielscrubs 6y ago
    It's weird, because it's not very good at understanding the need of the users. If you are Chinese and want to learn English, you have to show the contrast between the grammar-points from a Chinese perspective in an meaningful way. It really feels like: how can I, as an english developer, teach language? Instead of: -How can I, as an elite teacher, create an app to teach language? Now that I think about it... is there any teachers with SF-developer-salary? Is there any language-teachers that talk about being the 10x teacher? Duolingo has done some cool stuff with AI: http://sharedtask.duolingo.com/ http://sharedtask.duolingo.com/ they just don't seem to use it?
ore0s 6y ago
When you get on the SF portion of the 101 you used to be able to see their hiring billboard with living in Pittsburgh as a plus. I wonder how how much of their being able to fly under the radar is due to their location.
freepor 6y ago
People who speak English as a first language never grasp the true market demand for language learning since all of their language learning is recreational.

chris11 6y ago

I knew they were successful, but I didn't know they were valued at 1.5 billion.

shiningdays 6y ago
I can see this. I moved abroad in 2018 to a non-english speaking country and just about everyone I met had Duolingo on their phone. You'd be surprised at how many would cough up for a Premium membership just to keep their streak from breaking and making the cute green owl cry. That said, apparently their biggest market is actually people trying to learn English, which... checks out. In our modern times, english is the lingua franca. There's a bottomless pit of people who want or need to learn it.
- danielscrubs 6y ago
  It's weird, because it's not very good at understanding the need of the users. If you are Chinese and want to learn English, you have to show the contrast between the grammar-points from a Chinese perspective in an meaningful way. It really feels like: how can I, as an english developer, teach language? Instead of: -How can I, as an elite teacher, create an app to teach language? Now that I think about it... is there any teachers with SF-developer-salary? Is there any language-teachers that talk about being the 10x teacher? Duolingo has done some cool stuff with AI: http://sharedtask.duolingo.com/ http://sharedtask.duolingo.com/ they just don't seem to use it?

ore0s 6y ago

When you get on the SF portion of the 101 you used to be able to see their hiring billboard with living in Pittsburgh as a plus. I wonder how how much of their being able to fly under the radar is due to their location.

freepor 6y ago

People who speak English as a first language never grasp the true market demand for language learning since all of their language learning is recreational.