Scaling Duolingo, embracing failure, and insight into Latin America’s tech scene | Gina Gotthilf

Gina Gotthilf is a co-founder and the COO of Latitud, a startup platform supporting the next generation of iconic tech startups in Latin America. Previously, Gina led growth and marketing at Duolingo, which she helped grow from 3 million to 200 million users. She was recently named one of the 500 most influential people in all of Latin America by Bloomberg. In today’s episode, we discuss: • Behind the scenes of Duolingo’s early growth • How to balance the “A and B sides” of life • Stories from Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign • Lessons from Duolingo’s international expansion • Tactical tips for driving organic growth • How to use PR, brand love, and community as growth levers • Why Gina is passionate about investing in Latin America — Brought to you by Jira Product Discovery—Atlassian’s new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams: https://atlassian.com/lenny/?utm_source=lennypodcast&utm_medium=paid-audio&utm_campaign=fy24q1-jpd-imc | Hex— Helping teams ask and answer data questions by working together: https://www.hex.tech/lenny | Mercury—the powerful and intuitive way for ambitious companies to bank: https://mercury.com/ Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/scaling-duolingo-embracing-failure-and-insight-into-latin-americas-tech-scene-gina-gotthilf-la/#transcript Where to find Gina Gotthilf: • X: https://twitter.com/ginag • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginafrombrazil/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gina/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Gina’s background (04:34) The Vamos Latam Summit (07:22) Gina’s “A and B sides” framework (09:34) Her B side (16:27) Lessons from working on Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign (20:40) How Gina was able to 3x the conversion rate on a campaign site in one day (24:34) 4 areas Duolingo leaned into to have success in the difficult world of B2C subscriptions (36:39) B-side lessons from Duolingo (42:05) The importance of trusting your gut (44:54) Organic growth tactics and the importance of branding (48:01) What makes for remarkable branding (52:01) Duolingo’s process for keeping copy on-brand (52:45) How Duo’s passive-aggressive messages led to a movement (55:19) How Latitud uses niche humor as part of their branding (56:31) Duolingo’s TikTok (59:02) Lessons from internationalizing Duolingo (1:03:51) Why Gina was drawn to the tech industry in Latin America (1:09:26) What Latitud does (1:17:20) Opportunities in emerging markets (1:20:45) Lightning round Referenced: • The Vamos Latam Summit 2023: https://www.latitud.com/vamoslatamsummit • Ben Horowitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/behorowitz/ • Rappi: https://about.rappi.com/ • Reed College: https://www.reed.edu/ • Marcus Aurelius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius • Mike Bloomberg’s website: https://www.mikebloomberg.com/ • How Duolingo reignited user growth: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-duolingo-reignited-user-growth • Burr Settles on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/burrsettles/ • Nubank: https://nubank.com.br/en/ • Navigating comms and PR | Lulu Cheng Meservey (Substack, Activision Blizzard): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/navigating-comms-and-pr-lulu-cheng-meservey-substack-activision-blizzard/ • 47 Duolingo Memes That Are Equal Parts Funny and Extremely Concerning: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kellymartinez/duolingo-memes-jokes • Latitud: https://www.latitud.com/ • Brian Requarth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianrequarth/ • On Deck: https://www.beondeck.com/ • Leadsales: https://leadsales.io/en/crm-for-whatsapp/ • Pomelo: https://pomelo.la/latam/ • The Design of Everyday Things: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654 • Man’s Search for Meaning: https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/1663607982/ • Succession on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/succession • The Rehearsal on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-rehearsal • The White Lotus: https://www.hbo.com/the-white-lotus • Bo Burnham: Inside: https://www.netflix.com/title/81289483 • “How is the best-case scenario Joe Biden?” song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltg9ohuh0KM • How to with John Wilson on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/how-to-with-john-wilson • Viome: https://www.viome.com/ • Levels: https://www.levelshealth.com/ • Andrew Chen’s blog: https://andrewchen.com/ • The ship of Theseus: https://www.philosophy-foundation.org/enquiries/view/the-ship-of-theseus • Gina Gotthilf on 20VC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M7XsTicrY0 Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.