Duolingo hits GDC again to recruit game devs to make gamified mobile apps

Duolingo, the maker of popular language-learning apps, might seem out of place at the Game Developers Conference. But the company is showing up once again to hire young game developers to help make its gamified mobile apps.

Bob Meese, chief business officer at Duolingo, said in an interview with GamesBeat that his recruiters are heading to GDC to find people to fill a number of openings at Duolingo. One of the open positions is for a VP of growth and product marketing.

“It’s so important. The most important thing of learning a language or really learning anything is to stay focused,” Meese said.

Meese said this kind of recruiting has paid off for Duolingo over the years; in September, the company announced new features including Adventures mini-games and Video Call to help with language learning. Bonnie Ross, former head of 343 Industries and the Halo franchise at Microsoft, joined Duolingo as an independent board member in December, and she said she was impressed with the company’s ability to make learning entertaining.

Meese also noted Duolingo recently added Friend Streaks, an example of gamification, and he noted the company takes the Long View, as noted in its employee handbook. It’s key to entertain people while they’re learning so they will stay longer and be highly engaged with the app.

Meese said the company is looking for marketers who are more technical / analytical and experience at leading mobile games companies is a plus. Meese said the company won’t have a dedicated booth, but someone will be wearing the Duo owl mascot suit at GDC and will be walking around the conference.

“We really enjoy coming to the GDC and just making sure that everybody knows that we want to be part of the community,” Meese said.

Duolingo has had steady growth. The company has 40 million daily active users and 117 million monthly active uers. Bookings were $870 million last year, with 26% adjusted EBITDA margin.

It’s not obvious, but Duolingo is one of the companies that is “adjacent” to games. Amir Satvat, the game jobs champion, said it’s critical for game job searchers to consider such adjacent industries where their skills can be appreciated when searching widely for jobs. Your chances of getting a job out of college in the game industry are about 1% in the first year; your chances improve if you use the resources of Satvat, who has helped thousands get jobs in games in the past few years. And your chances of getting any job improve dramatically again if you widen your search to adjacent industries, Satvat said.

Satvat has a team of volunteers working on this “Project Reality” challenge, where the message is to find adjacent jobs as a stepping stone to working in games. And that’s exactly the strategy that Meese, who was formerly the top games guy at Google, is pursuing in finding talent for his company.

Overall, Duolingo has about 850 people, and Meese said it feels like the company grows by about 100 people a year. Many of the new hires are early in their careers.