# Diego Villegas

> Diego Villegas is the co-founder and CEO of Slang, an MIT-born edtech startup that uses machine learning and NLP to teach industry-specific professional English to the global workforce. A serial entrepreneur, he first built MASA, a Colombian oil-and-gas technical-services firm that grew to roughly $200M in revenue and 5,000+ employees before its acquisition by Stork. The pain of watching capable employees stall - and get laid off - for lack of business English became the seed of Slang, which now offers 150+ career-focused courses to companies including Nestle, Banco Santander, and Hyatt across more than a dozen countries.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Slang
- **Organizations:** Slang, MASA, Stork, MIT Sloan
- **Nationality:** Colombian
- **Education:** B.Sc., Universidad de Los Andes, MBA, Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership, MIT Sloan, Certificate, Launching New Ventures (entrepreneurship), Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Grew MASA to roughly $200M in annual revenue and 5,000+ employees (18-year CAGR of 34%) before its acquisition by Stork, Co-founded Slang, scaling it to 150+ career-focused English courses across 13+ countries, Slang clients include Nestle, Banco Santander and Hyatt; 91,000+ courses completed

## Career timeline

- **1990-1992** — Won first place in Physics and Mathematics State Olympics three consecutive years
- **1993** — Founded MASA, a technical-services and asset-integrity firm serving Oil & Gas, Chemical and Power industries in Colombia
- **2007** — MASA acquired by Stork B.V.; later served as EVP Corporate Development and board member
- **2013** — Completed MBA at MIT Sloan; met co-founder Kamran Khan on campus
- **2018** — Slang publicly launched after starting as an MIT research project on AI and NLP for language learning
- **2021** — Slang closed a $14M Series A round led by DILA Capital and ALIVE

## Achievements

- Grew MASA to roughly $200M in annual revenue and 5,000+ employees (18-year CAGR of 34%) before its acquisition by Stork
- Co-founded Slang, scaling it to 150+ career-focused English courses across 13+ countries
- Slang clients include Nestle, Banco Santander and Hyatt; 91,000+ courses completed
- Raised a $14M Series A for Slang from DILA Capital, ALIVE, Salesforce Ventures, Roble Ventures, Impact Engine and the IDB
- Three-time winner of Physics and Mathematics State Olympics

## Latest updates

- **2023-08** — Slang's most recent recorded funding milestone; company continuing to expand its catalog of professional English courses and enterprise client base.

## Links

- Website: https://slangapp.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/villegasdiego
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/SlangEspanol
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/SlangEspanol

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/diego-villegas
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-12