Nov 9, 2026 · 39 min
One founder turns AI agents into a language app and company
How this founder built a better Duolingo with Codex | William Imoh
William Imoh’s workflow shows how AI can expand a solo founder’s reach while making judgment, taste, and review loops more important.
- 1Mural Chat uses persistent Norwegian conversation and immediate corrections to target the gap between language study and spontaneous speaking.
- 2AI agents let William build native iOS and Android experiences despite not starting as a Swift or Kotlin specialist.
- 3His role-based agent system extends beyond coding into marketing, sales, support, recruiting, and operations with human oversight.
Don't miss
William demonstrates Mural Chat in Norwegian as it refuses to switch to English and corrects his grammar in real time.
The brief
After moving to Norway, William Imoh found that a long Duolingo streak and language exams had not prepared him for real conversation, especially when locals switched to English.
He built Mural Chat as an always-available Norwegian partner that stays in the language, corrects grammar immediately, and uses speech and captions to make practice feel consequential.
Codex and other agents helped William choose native iOS and Android development for the experience he wanted, while detailed product prompts and visual references guided the design.
The live Norwegian demo is the episode’s clearest proof point: the app refuses an English escape hatch and turns mistakes into an immediate, repeatable practice loop.
William applies the same logic to Hackmamba, assigning role-based agents to engineering, marketing, sales, support, recruiting, and operations while reserving judgment and sensitive access for himself.
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