Former Cantonal School pupil named Entrepreneur of the Year at ceremony in London

A former pupil of the Cantonal School in Zug has been named Entrepreneur of the Year by the EY consulting company.

After leaving school Severin Hacker went on the study at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich but it was later when attending the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg in Pennslyvania that, together with his professor, Luis von Ahn, the pair developed the free Duolingo app, which benefited from a $45 million investment from Google in 2015, the app subsequently going on to be used by more than 300 million people as they embarked on a choice of more than 84 course to learn more than 30 languages.

It was in London on Thursday that Hacker (the phtograph shows him at an event last year) was presented with his award by the EY company.

In a subsequent interview with a journalist of the Zuger Zeitung, Hacker said that the award had confirmed the start-up company Duolingo had been set off in the right direction, while for him personally it confirmed recognition of him as an entrepreneur.

When asked what he thought was the secret of the success behind Duolingo, the 35-year-old said it was based on many A/B testing methods frequently used in software development, worked out by his team in product development whereby test users were divided into two groups receiving both the original version of the app and a slightly altered version, meaning the effectiveness of subsequent innovation was able to be monitored continuously. This in turn meant the product development team was able to improve the way the apps taught and motivated users.

As to what current research they were involved with, the entrepreneur said he was working on an app to teach the alphabet and literacy to speakers who had difficulties in writing their own language.

When asked what a typical working day for him was, he admitted he was no early riser but said, once at work, he was committed 100 per cent, not least as he is responsible for the technology and software engineering.

Meetings at which the strategic direction and tactical steps were discussed took up 30 per cent of his time, with another 30 per cent devoted to discussing developments with software engineers and another 30 per cent taken up with analysis and discussion of technical solutions and such like. As for the remaining 10 per cent, this was taken up with e-mail correspondence and general communication matters.

When asked how often he returned to Zug, where he grew up, he said he came twice a year, his parents continuing to live here.

When asked what he thought about the Swiss start-up scene, he mentioned the quality of them now was much better than when he was a student, but added that, when compared with companies in the United States, and in particular in Silicon Valley, Swiss entrepreneurs were not ambitious enough.