Duolingo

History-making companies begin with a vision. For Luis von Ahn, Duolingo was synonymous with the vision to deliver language education to everyone. Having grown up in Guatemala, Luis came to realize that learning English was a privilege, one that at least doubles a person’s income potential. It was his mother who taught him English from a very young age.

After immigrating to the U.S. at the age of 18 to study math at Duke University, Luis went on to become a computer science professor specializing in human-based computation. It was there that he posed a question to his top Ph.D. student, Severin Hacker, “How can we get 100 million people translating the web to every language for free?” The inspiration behind the question was Luis’ ambition to create a language learning platform that people could use to gain the economic advantages that often come with being at least partially bilingual.

Providing equal access to education for everyone is a lofty goal, and one that some EdTech companies were already tackling with a traditional educational approach. Luis and Severin had a different path in mind:delivering a highly engaging experience for language learners through gamification.

It was that gaming element that caught the attention of Kleiner Perkins partner Bing Gordon when he was approached by USV’s Brad Burnham about Duolingo in 2013. Having spent a decade as the chief creative officer at Electronic Arts, Bing knows games, and was pleasantly surprised by Duolingo’s product design and team.