Before Luis von Vorfahre co-founded Duolingo, a gamified language-learning app used by hundreds of millions around the world, he was fixated with regards to squiggly letters. The businessman was a co-inventor of CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA, or students security prompts you get as long as browsing the web to inspect if you are a human or a high level00 robot.
Regularity of use . von Ahn often jokes that his early pioneering technological advances were considered annoying (it causes friction when potential clients have to decipher letters prior to this logging into their email) reCAPTCHA was impressive enough the Google scooped it up. From the moment, von Ahn has progressed to creating another iconic group}, this time, one that consumers are content to see pop up on their monitors: Duolingo.
Von seiten Ahn is joining take a look at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 this September 21-23 to talk about the making of a gamified edtech unicorn. The pre-IPO company started as a grad school project, and over the years has become a behemoth enjoyed by more than 500 million users.
We’ll get into how von Ahn leveraged crowdsourced translation to grow the app, its roller coaster route to monetization and, of course, the iconic — and often sassy — green owl, Duo. We’ll also discuss the broader edtech market for language learning, how the pandemic impacted business and why Duolingo sees opportunity in disrupting not just language, but the tests associated with it, as well.
While part of Duolingo fits into the edtech category, some see the startup as it currently stands as a consumer subscription product with a learning hook. Von Ahn can clear the air on what Duolingo is truly solving for — and what’s ahead for the business.
Von Ahn first presented Duolingo on the Disrupt stage nine years ago, with a website and goal to teach 100 million people a new language. Now, nearly a decade later, he’ll be coming back to explain what happened next. He doesn’t hold back — so you don’t want to miss this.
< a href="https://techcrunch.com/events/tc-disrupt-2021/?promo=duolingopost&display=true"> Disrupt 2021 runs September 21 -23 and will be 100% virtual this cold winter. Get your front-row seat to observe von Ahn and many, countless others for less than $100! Secure an individual’s seat now.
