Duolingo made its debut on the public markets this week. This sparked excitement and attention for the edtech industry and its founder cohort. Even after Duolingo raised its IPO price range and was priced higher, the stock price of the language learning business soared once it started trading.Duolingo's IPO shows that investors in the public markets can see long-term value and mission-driven technology-powered education concerns; Duolingo's IPO is more significant than the relatively few edtech companies which have ever listed.Duolingo's IPO shows that investors in the public markets can see long-term value and mission-driven technology-powered education concerns; Duolingo's IPO is more significant than the relatively few edtech companies which have ever listed.Our EC-1 contains the complete story of Duolingo from its origins to messy monetization and historic IPO. There are many interviews with executives, investors, and linguists.Today, however, we have new additions. Luis von Ahn, CEO of Duolingo, was available to talk about his company's IPO and the impact it may have on startups. Duolingo's IPO can be seen as a case study in consumer startups, mission-driven businesses that monetize a small number of users, and education companies that have recently reached scale. Duolingo is not an edtech company that has a new branding. It believes that its growth is due to being an engineering-first startup.It seems that selling motivation rather than fluency in a foreign language is a better proposition. Investors believe that this idea can scale to software-like profits.1. Duolingo's core service will be more sophisticated with the IPO eventDuolingo went through three phases. It started with growth, where it focused on getting as many people to its app as possible; it then introduced a subscription tier to help it survive; and finally, it began education. This is where it is trying to add more advanced, intelligent technology to its service.
