Hardware Podcasts

reCAPTCHA and Duolingo: Luis von Ahn (2020)

How I Built This · 18 Dec 2023 · 1h 07m

What this episode covers

Luis von Ahn, co-founder of Duolingo, explains how he invented CAPTCHA to solve Yahoo's spam problem and later created reCAPTCHA to digitize books by leveraging human typing. He then pivoted to Duolingo, partnering with co-founder Severance Hacker to build a free language learning platform that initially attempted to monetize through user-generated translations for clients like CNN and BuzzFeed. When that model proved unsustainable, von Ahn adopted a freemium model with ads and subscriptions, eventually taking the company public with a valuation reaching $9 billion.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Yahoo, Google, CNN, New York Times, Facebook, Union Square Ventures
Products
CAPTCHA, reCAPTCHA, Duolingo, Rosetta Stone

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