2025 BrainChip Discussion, page-4267

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Grant Lee 3rd+

Co-Founder/CEO @ Gamma

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After selling CAPTCHA, Google wired Luis von Ahn enough money to retire at 30. By Monday, he was back teaching freshmen computer science at Carnegie Mellon. "I briefly considered retirement—but only for a second. I get really bored." That restlessness built a $7.7B company with 46 million daily users. More students than Harvard has graduated in its entire 388-year history. But here's the thing: Silicon Valley doesn't celebrate the Luis von Ahn story. It worships the college dropout mythology instead. Zuckerberg at 19. Gates at 20. Jobs at 21. The data tells a different story: the average successful founder is 42, not 22. Von Ahn was 32 when he walked away from tenure to start Duolingo. His "disadvantage"? A decade in academia teaching the same concepts over and over. Turns out, that was his secret weapon. In Guatemala, where von Ahn grew up, half the kids never learned to read. Power outages were constant. Quality education was for the wealthy. "I want the poor person in Guatemala to learn with the same quality as a rich kid in New York." Every habit Silicon Valley dismisses as "too slow" became Duolingo's edge: → Professors debate ideas ruthlessly while respecting people Duolingo built a zero-blame culture where engineers celebrate bold experiments, even failed ones. → Teachers break down complex stuff for confused freshmen Von Ahn used the same skill to turn technical decisions into clear company strategy. → Academics demand proof before conclusions Every Duolingo feature ships behind controlled experiments. No opinions, only data. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The companies that'll win the next decade? They're not the ones with the loudest CEOs or the flashiest launches. They're the ones building like von Ahn: methodical, evidence-driven, ego-free.

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YourStory Media

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Once valued at $1.5 billion and backed by Microsoft, Builder.ai has filed for bankruptcy after a lender seized $37M, exposing deep cracks in its AI narrative. Despite its promise of no-code, AI-powered app creation, much of the work was reportedly done manually by engineers in India. Critics say the “AI” was more branding than breakthrough, raising questions about hype vs. reality in the AI startup world.

M Anthony Lewis

CTO@BrainChip | AI, Robotics, Disruptive Computing

Wow. I have a simple goal: Just say true things. If everyone did that, the world would be a much better place. If people don't like the truth, you have to accept that.