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Duolingo swipes Tinder in a Clash Royale

Natasha Mascarenhas and Alex Wilhelm
·3 min read

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

For this week’s deep dive, Alex and Danny unpacked Natasha's latest project: The Duolingo EC-1. The 12,000-word four-part series was published last week and is worth a read. But, until you get to it, enjoy our podcast that double-clicks into its most interesting bits.

The Duolingo EC-1

Duo, Duolingo's mascot, flying around. Image Credits: Duolingo

Here's how it went, after we got our morning allergy banter out of the way:

  • What's an EC-1? A TechCrunch-style deep-dive into one of the startup world's most promising, and interesting, companies.

  • What's with the flying vermin up above? That's Duolingo's mascot. Which is a combination of hypercuteness and modest menace. (You will have fun learning a language. Or the owl will visit.)

  • Why did we write about Duolingo? No, it wasn't only because Duolingo is edtech. Natasha dug into the company's product-led growth mode, and its views on gamification, which were fascinating.

  • What's up with today's show name? As it turns out, Duolingo has a Tinder angle. In fact, Duolingo leaned on some of the biggest companies out there when it came to design and monetization.

  • And as with all edtech companies, we talked monetization and outcomes!

The Duolingo EC-1 comprises four main articles numbering 12,200 words and a reading time of 48 minutes. Here’s what’s in store:

And of course, use code Extra Crunch "Equity" for a sweet, and perhaps the best, discount to access this story and all of our best stuff.

Until Friday!

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PST, Wednesday, and Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. PST, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

How a bot-fighting test turned into edtech’s most iconic brand, Duolingo

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