The working environment is undergoing a rapid and exhilarating change and you do not want to be left behind.
On How to be the Difference, we help you navigate in and around the intricacies of this new and exciting era, providing the latest career advice from leading industry experts. As the demand for tech-savvy professionals rapidly increases, “the world is your oyster…” has never rang truer, from remote teams and online working platforms to task automation.
If you are looking to begin your career, secure that promotion, find the right role to suit your family’s needs or identify better ways to attract and retain top talent for your company, look no further as we tackle the ever-evolving nature of the working environment, and its future.
Hosted by Talanta’s very own, our Co-founder and Head of Impact, Johanna Molina and Head of Experience, Paul Lynskey.
A sinuous path towards empowering Latin American entrepreneurs
In this episode of How to be the difference, Johanna and Paul sit down with Gina Gotthilf, the co-founder and COO at Latitud. This company is helping Latin America’s top thinkers and doers build the next generation of world-class tech companies through fellowships and funds. It was created to solve the problems and remove the obstacles in the path of many brilliant entrepreneurs trying to change the reality of Latin America.
Originally from Brazil, Gina has an outstanding career path, and describes her own journey as “wiggly”: she studied philosophy intending to be a filmmaker but ended up being the co-author of a neuroscience study, developing digital marketing campaigns for LVMH and Estée Lauder, working at a presidential campaign, and more. She is known best for her career at Duolingo, where she led the growth and marketing team and increased its users from 3 to 300 million. Now, at Latitud, she is helping ambitious entrepreneurs in Latin America succeed. In many cases, Latin America’s bureaucracy and its legal implications to incorporate a company can stop unique projects in its tracks. Latitud offers fellowship programs, funds, and education tools to help entrepreneurs in several stages. It connects them to top leaders of tech companies, actual operators, and a whole network of people and resources that can help them make their project a reality.
In conversation with Johanna and Paul, Gina shares what strategy she used to grow and increase the engagement of platforms such as Duolingo and Tumblr, and also shares valuable insights on how she managed to live with and overcome mental health issues while trying to find her path. Gina also talks about how difficult it is to know where your career may take you and tells us why it is so important to enhance the talent and drive of entrepreneurs in Latin America.
To learn more about amazing internship opportunities, check out Talanta’s website.
Outline of this episode:
- [04:00] – Gina’s background and journey.
- [09:10] – Gina’s proudest moments.
- [10:35] – Upscaling Duolingo from 3 to 200M users.
- [16:11] – Why is Duolingo such a good product?
- [23:20] – Why is traditional education ineffective at teaching languages?
- [27:41] – About Latitud.
- [35:46] – What kind of entrepreneurs is Latitud looking for?
- [38:55] – Advice on mental health.
- [42:05] – What is next for Gina?