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Key Takeaways Duolingo, the $4.6 billion language learning app, evaluates candidates from the minute they step into a taxi cab.
Duolingo’s cofounder and CEO, Luis von Ahn, pays taxi drivers to evaluate whether candidates deserve to be hired.
The company has passed on hiring otherwise strong candidates because of the way they treated the taxi driver.
After a year-long search, Duolingo was about to hire a chief financial officer. One person shone above the rest, with a stellar resume and strong interpersonal skills. The entire hiring committee “really liked” the candidate, Luis von Ahn, Duolingo’s cofounder and CEO, told The Burnouts podcast last month.
There was just one problem. It turned out that the person was “pretty mean to their driver from the airport to the office,” von Ahn disclosed. “And that made us not hire them.”
Duolingo makes it a practice to evaluate candidates from the minute they step into a taxi cab — even if they aren’t aware that they are under scrutiny. The CEO pays taxi drivers to determine whether candidates deserve to be hired, judging by their behavior in the car. It’s one extra layer of evaluation that job seekers have to pass to be hired by the $4.6 billion company.
“Our belief is if they’re going to be mean to the driver, they’re probably going to be mean to other people, particularly people under them,” von Ahn said on the podcast.
Luis Von Ahn, cofounder and chief executive officer of Duolingo. Photographer: Justin Merriman/Bloomberg
Meanwhile, it’s a tough job market for candidates, especially for those seeking entry-level positions. A recent analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed that by the end of 2025, unemployment among recent college grads (ages 22 to 27 with a bachelor’s degree) climbed to about 5.6% — the highest it’s been in three years and noticeably higher than the overall 4.2% rate.
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