William Imoh, Founder Who Never Wrote Swift, Builds Native Voice App with Codex: 1,000 Days on Duolingo Didn't Teach Him Norwegian
William Imoh, founder of Hackmamba with a background in chemical engineering, four years as a product manager, and no prior experience writing Swift code, moved to Norway and struggled to hold a conversation in Norwegian despite 1,000 days on Duolingo. He subsequently built Mural, a native iOS/Android voice learning app, using Codex and GPT-Live, while employing a Lord of the Rings-themed Grok Bot agent system to assist in managing his company of approximately 25 people.
After moving to Norway, William Imoh spent 1,000 days studying Norwegian via Duolingo but still found himself unable to conduct a full conversation. This specific frustration directly led to the creation of Mural, a voice-learning application he later built using Codex.
His background does not point to that of a mobile developer. He holds a degree in chemical engineering, taught himself to code, worked as a product manager for four years, and had never written a single line of Swift. However, in an episode of Lenny's Newsletter's How I AI podcast, he demonstrated how he used Codex and GPT-Live to build native applications for both iOS and Android. Mural is a real-time voice application whose core function allows learners to practice conversations in Norwegian.
During the podcast, he discussed the importance of design language—a specific design prompt made Mural’s appearance distinct from other language-learning apps on the market. He also addressed the per-session cost of GPT-Live-1 and latency thresholds, factors that determine whether a voice-tutoring experience is viable. While these specific figures were detailed in the show, this summary confirms only that they were discussed.
On the operational side, William Imoh organized his team of Grok Bot agents by assigning roles based on characters from The Lord of the Rings. He mapped the various responsibilities of a solo founder onto different characters, using this system to assist in managing a team of about 25 people. The episode also noted that he granted his agents access to 15 open tabs, with one exception.