Hacker: European skepticism toward founder ambition harms its tech ecosystem
Severin Hacker · Duolingo Co-Founder, Severin Hacker: How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · May 19, 2025 · at 1:09:53
Severin Hacker is the co-founder and CTO of Duolingo. He addresses cultural attitudes towards tech founders in Europe compared to Silicon Valley.
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“I think a lot in, a lot of people in, in Europe, you just like, you're kind of like, why are you doing this? Like, why, why, you know, like, or they look at it as like, oh yeah, you know, they're just doing it for the money or there's this suspicion. Almost of you can't be too successful or you can't be, you shouldn't be too ambitious. And I think that, that, that is very detrimental to the European startup ecosystem.”
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