20VC: Duolingo Co-Founder on Why $3M is Harder than $100M to Raise | Why You Should Always Take Tier 1 VCs Even at Worse Terms | Why Europe Can't Win Unless the US Screws Up | How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education with Severin Hacker
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch19 Maj

20VC: Duolingo Co-Founder on Why $3M is Harder than $100M to Raise | Why You Should Always Take Tier 1 VCs Even at Worse Terms | Why Europe Can't Win Unless the US Screws Up | How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education with Severin Hacker

Severin Hacker is the Co-Founder and CTO of Duolingo, the world's most downloaded education app with over 100 million monthly users. Since its 2021 IPO, Duolingo has reached a market cap of $20BN. The company has raised over $183M from top-tier investors including CapitalG, Kleiner Perkins, Union Square Ventures, NEA, Ashton Kutcher, and Tim Ferriss. Severin is also an active angel investor, with standout bets including Decagon, one of the fastest-growing AI-native dev shops globally.

Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:

00:00 – Why It's Harder to Raise $3M Than $100M

02:10 – The Real Reason Duolingo Couldn't Have Started in Europe

04:40 – Duolingo's AI Pivot: What "AI-First" Actually Means

07:00 – The 12-Year Bottleneck Duolingo Crushed with AI

11:40 – How Duolingo Uses AI Internally (and Why They Love Cursor)

13:30 – Where AI Still Sucks (Especially in Engineering)

16:00 – Will AI Kill the CS Degree? Severin's Surprising Take

18:00 – The End of Work? UBI, Purpose, and the Future of Labor

25:20 – OpenAI vs Duolingo: Are They Coming for Language Learning?

29:20 – Duolingo's Biggest Mistake: "We Waited Too Long on This…"

39:30 – Duolingo's Secret Sauce: What Investors Always Get Wrong

45:00 – Would You Go Public Today? Severin's Surprising Answer

49:00 – Best and Worst Parts of Going Public—A Rare Honest Take

51:00 – Should Europe Give Up? Severin's Unfiltered Opinion

56:00 – Harsh Truth: "Europe Can't Win Unless the U.S. Screws Up"

59:10 – Why Founders Have to Move to the US to Optimise Their Chance of Success

1:01:00 – Why Union Square Was the Only VC to Say Yes

1:03:00 – The Real Value of Tier 1 VCs (Even at Worse Terms)

1:05:00 – From PhD Student to Billionaire: Does Money Buy Happiness?

1:09:00 – Why Severin Sometimes Lies About His Job

1:10:20 – Founder Marriage Advice: "Write a Contract"

1:11:50 – How to Pick a Life Partner – Severin's Tuesday Night Test

20VC: Duolingo Co-Founder on The Doomed Future of Europe, Reflections on Money, Marriage and the Future of AI

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20 VC 002: How to become a VC with Kris Jones

20 VC 002: How to become a VC with Kris Jones

In this session of The Twenty Minute VC, I'm so excited to have the opportunity to interview Kris Jones. Kris has enjoyed an amazing career in the technology industry, founding PepperJam, an internet marketing agency in 1999 and later selling it to Ebay in April of 2010. More recently, Kris has made his transition into the Venture Capital Industry through the founding of an early stage technology investment fund, KBJ Capital, which includes portfolio companies Highlighter.com, French Girls App, ReferLocal.com, LSEO.com and many more incredible companies. In this session you'll learn: Why Kris decided to make the transition from the Startup ecosystem to the world of Venture Capital. How did it feel for Kris, selling his company to Ebay? What was the most important lesson Kris learnt in the journey from having the idea for PepperJam to being acquired by Ebay? What is the key characteristic a Founder must have? What can an individual do to get employed in the Venture Capital industry. Kris is also a prolific writer here are some of his articles, you can check out! Forbes: 15 Steps to Set Your Company Up for a Successful M&A Mashable: 9 Ways Social Media Marketing Will Change in 2014 Citibank: How to Impress a Potential Investor

13 Jan 201522min

20 VC 001: Guy Kawasaki of Apple, Motorola and AllTop.com

20 VC 001: Guy Kawasaki of Apple, Motorola and AllTop.com

Welcome to the 1st episode of The Twenty Minute VC, on today's show we have Guy Kawasaki, Guy is the Founding Partner of Garage Technology Ventures, a seed & early stage venture capital fund investing in extraordinary entrepreneurs with unique technologies. Previously, he was Chief Evangelist of Apple Inc and an advisor to the Motorala Business Unit of Google. Guy is also the author of many best selling books including the recent best seller, The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users. In this episode we delve into: Why Guy made the transition into the VC industry? What is the most important aspect for a startup to have? What drives Guy insane about startup founders today? What books Guy gives to aspiring entrepreneurs? What software & apps Guy cannot live without? We then finish on a quick fire round where we discover Guy's thoughts on the future of Amazon, Tesla and whether we really are in the midst of a tech bubble. All of the products mentioned in todays show can be found at www.thetwentyminutevc.com If you love the show, please do leave a review on the iTunes store and don't forget to subscribe!

13 Jan 201519min

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