Comment on Duolingo CEO explains his approach to 'founder mode' — and what happens when executives disagree

Duolingo CEO explains his approach to 'founder mode' — and what happens when executives disagree

Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesDuolingo CEO Luis von Ahn talked about his data-driven approach to "founder mode."The CEO said he and his team look to the data and rarely disagree — but when going solely off opinions, his wins out.A debate over founder mode was recently sparked by Paul Graham's essay advocating hands-on leadership.Amid the wider debate in Silicon Valley about how a CEO should run their company, Duolingo's chief executive is siding with a data-driven approach to founder mode.He's also confident that his leadership team at the language-learning firm is capable of the founder-mode management style.In an interview on The Verge's "Decoder" podcast, Duolingo CEO and cofounder Luis von Ahn said that while he has a "view of everything" at the company, other executives, such as vice president of product management Cem Kansu and chief design officer Ryan Sims, do as well."Yes, I am in that mode, but we have a number of people who could probably play that role as well," von Ahn said when asked about founder mode.The tech industry's latest debate on management styles was first sparked in September after Paul Graham, investor and founding partner of the startup accelerator Y Combinator, published an essay titled "Founder Mode" that sparked debate across the tech industry.Graham, who said he was inspired by Airbnb's cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky, argued that companies should be run with a hands-on approach rather than delegating tasks to direct reports.He described it as a way to run a company that involves being highly hands-on rather than delegating to a small number of direct reports and isolating executives via administrative tiers — or "manager mode."Von Ahn, who cofounded Duolingo in 2011, said that when disagreements occur between the three executives, he goes by the saying, "If we're going to go by opinion, let's go by mine.""Generally, when we have disagreements, I see how deeply they believe in their thing, and sometimes I just disagree and commit," he said.

 

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