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Lenny's PodcastScaling Duolingo, embracing failure, and insight into Latin America’s tech scene | Gina Gotthilf
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Episode Details
EPISODE INFO
- Released
- October 19, 2023
- Duration
- 1h 36m
- Channel
- Lenny's Podcast
- Watch on YouTube
- ▶ Open ↗
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
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.
SPEAKERS
Gina Gotthilf
guestLenny Rachitsky
hostNarrator
other
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Gina Gotthilf and Lenny Rachitsky, Scaling Duolingo, embracing failure, and insight into Latin America’s tech scene | Gina Gotthilf explores Duolingo’s playful growth, hard failures, and Latin America’s tech boom Gina Gotthilf shares how she helped scale Duolingo from 3 million to 200 million users largely through organic, product-led growth, distinctive brand voice, and relentless experimentation. She contrasts her polished “A-side” career milestones with the messy “B-side” of layoffs, visa issues, depression, and failed bets, arguing that resilience and time are underrated in careers. Gina then dives into building Latitude, an “operating system” for Latin American startups, explaining why the region is a massive, under-served tech opportunity and how founders there are uniquely scrappy. Throughout, she surfaces concrete lessons on growth, communication, branding, experimentation, and the realities of scaling in emerging markets.
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