Good, free, fun: The simple formula that has made Duolingo a daily habit for millions

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It must be difficult for you to fire someone.

Oh, my God! Yes! It's horrible.

The first person I fired, when we were a very small company, it was a woman. I fired her at the end of the day one day. And then the next day I came into the office, and she was still here. And it turned out she didn't understand that I had fired her because I never said "you're fired". I just went around it, and I thought she understood. And then we hugged, and I thought that was the end of it. Then I came in and I'm like "Why are you here?" She said "we had a really good conversation yesterday; I will do a better job". And I'm like "No". And then I had to fire her again.

I've learned that the wrong way to fire somebody is to build up to it. You [have to] start by saying "I am so sorry. I'm going to have to let you go". You say it first, so that it's super clear.

Where are you looking to grow; are you focused on particular emerging markets or new demographics?

Markets matter. Right now, we have users in every country in the world. The ones that are our big focus are the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, China, Brazil, Spanish-speaking Latin America, India, Italy and Turkey. I may have missed one, but these are the countries where we have people on the ground and where we're spending.

Do you think that an app like Duolingo could be becoming an alternative method for education or other skills more broadly?

Yeah, I think you can learn other skills, but I don't think that an app will replace schools or universities. That's because schools and universities serve other purposes. Schools, for example, serve the purpose of childcare. And universities, you get to learn how to be an adult. But I do think you'll be able to learn almost everything in an app.

Also, from a global standpoint, [many] people don't have access to a good teacher or a good education. So hopefully they'll be able to learn with this.

Do you see Duolingo occupying that space?

I would like that. I don't know if we'll be able to teach everything, but I would like that.

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