{"id":42488,"date":"2025-09-27T15:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T15:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microloannexus.com\/?p=42488"},"modified":"2025-09-27T15:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T15:06:08","slug":"here-are-5-tips-to-succeed-at-duolingo-according-to-the-companys-ceo-dont-be-a-jerk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microloannexus.com\/?p=42488","title":{"rendered":"Here Are 5 Tips to Succeed at Duolingo, According to the Company&#8217;s CEO: &#8216;Don&#8217;t Be a Jerk&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-386782\">\n<header class=\"\">\n<div class=\"tw:text-lg\">\n<p>Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn gives new hires five valuable tips.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gate-check piano-check is-layout-flow tw:prose tw:prose-lg tw:prose-blue tw:font-serif tw:max-w-[728px] tw:mb-12 tw:mx-auto tw:lg:mx-0\">\n<div>\n<h2 class=\"tw:mt-0 tw:mb-1 tw:font-sans tw:text-2xl\">Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"tw:font-semibold tw:font-sans tw:text-base tw:marker:text-blue-600\">\n<li>Luis von Ahn has been the CEO of Duolingo for over 14 years. <\/li>\n<li>In a new social media post, von Ahn detailed five tips for new hires to succeed at the company.<\/li>\n<li>One tip he gave was avoiding toxic behavior, which the company \u201crejects.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Duolingo accepts a cohort of new graduates every September as new hires. Now the company\u2019s CEO, Luis von Ahn, is sharing how these new employees can succeed and best contribute to the company.<\/p>\n<p>In a LinkedIn post released earlier this week, von Ahn mentioned that Duolingo had welcomed 42 new graduates to the company this fall. The language learning app had over 850 employees total as of April. Its valuation was about $15 billion at the time of writing.<\/p>\n<p><b>Related: Duolingo Says AI Completed Work in 12 Months that Took Humans 12 Years<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The new hires \u201calways ask me how to succeed here,\u201d von Ahn stated in the LinkedIn post. Von Ahn has led Duolingo for over 14 years and holds a doctorate in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University, per his LinkedIn.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Luis von Ahn, CEO of Duolingo. Photographer: Justin Merriman\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Here are the five tips he shares with new hires, according to his post:<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Stay away from toxic behavior<\/h2>\n<p>Von Ahn warned new employees away from approaching their roles with \u201cmassive egos\u201d and being untrustworthy by telling different people different things to try to accomplish a task.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t be a jerk,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Duolingo\u2019s culture quickly pinpoints and \u201crejects\u201d toxic behavior, he stated.<\/p>\n<p><b>Related: \u2018Continuing to Hire\u2019: Duolingo\u2019s CEO Clarifies AI Stance After Backlash \u2014 Read the Memo<\/b><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Be proactive<\/h2>\n<p>Von Ahn explained that in its early days, Duolingo didn\u2019t have a company blog. Two engineers approached the problem differently: One complained about it for months without doing anything about it, while another started the blog without being asked to.<\/p>\n<p>The latter engineer \u201cdid way better at Duolingo,\u201d von Ahn stated, adding that if new hires notice an issue at the company, they are always free to fix it.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Put the company\u2019s mission above yourself<\/h2>\n<p>Von Ahn encouraged new hires to think first about what is best for the company and their team, and put those priorities ahead of what is best for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>He cautioned that \u201cthis doesn\u2019t mean work yourself to death,\u201d but it does mean focusing on what\u2019s good for Duolingo\u2019s mission, which is to provide free language education to all.<\/p>\n<p><b>Related: \u2018Make Chess as Accessible as Possible\u2019: Duolingo\u2019s Next Move Is Teaching Users How to Play Chess<\/b><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Become familiar with the product<\/h2>\n<p>It takes actually using Duolingo to know the product and why it\u2019s important, according to von Ahn. The Duolingo app gamifies language learning and is available for hundreds of languages, including Spanish, French, Japanese and Mandarin.<\/p>\n<p>Von Ahn mentioned that he still reports bugs on the app in an effort to improve the user experience.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. Embrace that success takes hard work<\/h2>\n<p>Von Ahn stated that success is \u201c65% luck\u201d and \u201c35% hard work for about two decades.\u201d He wrote that new hires don\u2019t have to be the most intelligent people in the room \u2014 they just have to be persistent and \u201cshow up\u201d until luck finds them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you stick with it, you\u2019ll surprise yourself with how far you can go,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p><b>Related: Duolingo Put Its Sarcastic Teen Chatbot to Work on Its Earnings Call<\/b><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow piano-meter-body tw:prose tw:prose-lg tw:prose-blue tw:font-serif tw:max-w-[728px] tw:mb-12 tw:hidden tw:mx-auto tw:lg:mx-0\">\n<div>\n<h2 class=\"tw:mt-0 tw:mb-1 tw:font-sans tw:text-2xl\">Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"tw:font-semibold tw:font-sans tw:text-base tw:marker:text-blue-600\">\n<li>Luis von Ahn has been the CEO of Duolingo for over 14 years. <\/li>\n<li>In a new social media post, von Ahn detailed five tips for new hires to succeed at the company.<\/li>\n<li>One tip he gave was avoiding toxic behavior, which the company \u201crejects.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Duolingo accepts a cohort of new graduates every September as new hires. Now the company\u2019s CEO, Luis von Ahn, is sharing how these new employees can succeed and best contribute to the company.<\/p>\n<p>In a LinkedIn post released earlier this week, von Ahn mentioned that Duolingo had welcomed 42 new graduates to the company this fall. The language learning app had over 850 employees total as of April. Its valuation was about $15 billion at the time of writing.<\/p>\n<p><b>Related: Duolingo Says AI Completed Work in 12 Months that Took Humans 12 Years<\/b><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/business-news\/duolingo-ceo-luis-von-ahn-heres-how-new-hires-can-succeed\/497628\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn gives new hires five valuable tips. Key Takeaways Luis von Ahn has been the CEO of Duolingo for over 14 years. In a new social media post, von Ahn detailed five tips for new hires to succeed at the company. One tip he gave was avoiding toxic behavior, which the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[32],"class_list":{"0":"post-42488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-money","8":"tag-featured"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.12 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Here Are 5 Tips to Succeed at Duolingo, According to the Company&#039;s CEO: &#039;Don&#039;t Be a Jerk&#039; | Micro Loan Nexus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn gives new hires five valuable tips. Key Takeaways Luis von Ahn has been the CEO of Duolingo for over 14 years. 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