Latest news with #LucyGuo
New York Post
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Lucy Guo's advice to other billionaires: 'Act broke, stay rich'
Tech entrepreneur Lucy Guo, 30, recently dethroned Taylor Swift as the youngest self-made female billionaire on the planet. But don't expect her to be popping Champagne bottles. 'I feel like the title changes every year,' Guo told The Post about the Forbes magazine ranking. 'It means almost nothing to me personally.' Guo's billion-dollar bounty comes from Scale AI, the artificial intelligence data-labeling startup she launched in 2016 with Alexandr Wang, when she was just 21. She left two years later but held onto an estimated 5% stake — a small slice that turned into a massive windfall this April when insider shares valued Scale AI at $25 billion, making Guo's cut worth an estimated $1.2 billion. 11 Tech entrepreneur Lucy Guo, 30, recently dethroned Taylor Swift as the youngest self-made female billionaire on the planet. Margot Judge for NY Post So, yeah. She's officially a billionaire, but doesn't feel like one. Guo's motto? 'Act broke, stay rich.' The coder-turned-founder still clocks 90-hour workweeks with a schedule that starts at 5:30 a.m. and ends at midnight — including up to four Barry's Bootcamp classes a day. Guo credits her 'no sleep' DNA to her parents, Chinese immigrants who worked as engineers in the San Francisco Bay area. 11 Guo made the cover of Forbes in April. Her billion-dollar bounty comes from Scale AI, the AI data-labeling startup she launched in 2016 with Alexandr Wang, when she was just 21. guofortit/Instagram The fast-talking tech trailblazer doesn't believe in wasting time. 'I don't watch TV or scroll TikTok,' Guo admitted. 'So that gives me many extra hours in a day. I'm constantly on the go, whereas a lot of people build in relaxation time. I do fill in my schedule with fun stuff, like at 10 p.m. maybe I'll go get dinner with friends.' While she may not splurge on Bentleys or Birkins, Guo has no shortage of interests — including Barry's, EDM music festivals, skateboarding, skydiving, collecting Pokémon plushies and building startups from scratch. Her latest professional passion project is Passes, the creator-driven platform she founded in 2022 that's already generating six-figure incomes for influencers, YouTubers, podcasters, astrologers and even golfers. 11 The Post previously photographed Guo at home in 2022. Sonya Revell for The New York Po 'Passes is a full-stack business platform for creators,' Guo explained. 'They can sell merch, subscriptions, unreleased YouTube videos, live streams and group chats to their superfans all in one place.' The idea for Passes came to her during the pandemic while running a start-up incubator. Guo saw creators like Logan Paul and Kylie Jenner building nine-figure brands and realized the real power lay in ownership. 'Creators are very unique. They can sell anything, and they don't have the typical customer acquisition costs that normal people have,' she said. 'They are these small businesses that can become larger businesses, but they've been mismanaged. No one was helping them get equity or build generational wealth.' 11 Among her extracurricular passions — learning to DJ. guofortit/Instagram With Passes, Guo aims to fix that. She's introduced a suite of tools to help creators monetize their brands, from in-house design to AI. Most significantly, creators keep 90% of their profits. 'We've become 80% to 100% of the creator's income,' Guo said with obvious pride. 'Even creators who have millions of followers on other platforms tell us that we are the most consistent income they have, and the majority of their income as well.' Unlike Instagram or TikTok, Passes is focused on the relationship between creators and their superfans, with monetization baked in. 'Instagram builds for breadth,' Guo said. 'Passes builds for depth. We're more like Patreon.' Still, comparisons to another platform, OnlyFans, persist. She insist's that not accurate. 11 Guo posted a photo with Bill Gates on her Instagram, joking, 'One of my guilty pleasures is being the dumbest person in the room.' guofortit/Instagram 'Our feature set is vastly different from OF. And even if you're not doing nudes on OF, the type of creator we attract would never go on OF because they don't want that as part of their brand.' The digital disruptor also points out that Passes has a no-nudity policy and stricter guidelines than OF. Nevertheless, there's been some controversy at Passes. A class-action lawsuit this year alleged underage content slipped through the cracks — claims Guo calls 'a shakedown.' 'We filed a motion to dismiss,' she said, denying the allegations. 'Their claims don't match the investigation that we found. Bad actors are always going to be bad actors, and we just do our best to try to prevent this.' 11 Guo is also an avid skateboarder. Sonya Revell for The New York Po Passes currently has around 50 employees, thousands of creators and millions of subscribers. The biggest moneymakers include golfer Charley Hull, YouTuber Sssniper Wolf and a surprising niche: astrologers who sell daily horoscopes. 'Our creators are doing amazing things,' Guo said. 'And we're just getting started.' Her career has always been ahead of the curve. She began coding in second grade, studied computer science and HCI at Carnegie Mellon — and then dropped out after earning a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship. The California native interned at Facebook, became the first female designer at Snapchat and met her Scale AI cofounder, Wang, at Quora. The rest is billion-dollar history. But despite her self-made status, Guo is still sometimes underestimated. 11 She founded the platform Passes — which occupies a 25,000-square-foot office in Los Angeles. Margot Judge for NY Post 'People don't understand how much work it takes to get here,' she said. 'They see the headlines, but they don't see the 18-hour days.' And the billionaire has had her fair share of headlines, including the time she hosted a wild rager at her $6.1 million luxury apartment in Miami, replete with a lemur and snake. The party did not win over her neighbors like David Beckham, and she was reprimanded by the building's HOA. Soon after, Guo moved back to the West Coast, and bought a $4.2 million, five-bedroom mansion in Los Angeles that boasts a dipping pool and screening room. Being in LA also allows her to personally interact with creators in Passes' 25,000-square-foot state-of-the-art office. 'They come to our office to shoot content and record podcasts,' she said. 'It's a relationship-driven business. We're even building a music studio.' Guo's love of music, especially EDM, runs deep. Her obsession began at age 20, when she saw Major Lazer at Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. 'When I was living in San Francisco, I was not as happy as a person,' she admitted. 'But I was blown away by my first EDM experience. I think it's been proven that EDM makes you happier based off the BPM. It's all very positive, happy energy.' 11 The billionaire has had her fair share of headlines, including the time she hosted a wild rager at her then-home in Miami, replete with a lemur (pictured) and a snake. Guo's now learning to DJ and often hops behind the decks when friends perform: 'I played for 30 minutes at a club in LA recently and people were like, 'That set was so good!'' She always keeps a music-filled USB in her bag, and will fly to a music festival on a minute's notice, especially for her favorite DJs like Layton Giordani, Kygo, Gryffin, Mau P. and Zedd. Already this summer, she hit Europe for a month of VIP access at various music festivals. Guo also attended the A-list launch of the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection in Barcelona, alongside Tom Brady, Sofía Vergara and Naomi Campbell. She's next planning to visit Kenya and witness firsthand the great migration of wildlife across the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. 11 Guo collects Pokémon plushies. guofortit/Instagram 'I pick destinations based on views or mountains,' she said. 'If it has a Barry's Bootcamp, even better.' Guo is also a low-key Swiftie — though she jokes that beating Taylor Swift on the billionaire list hasn't changed things much for her. 'The only difference is my DMs are popping,' she said. 'Lots of celebrities trying to hang out. But now I'm more cautious. Do they think I'm hot? Do they want advice? Or are they just hoping for a PJ ride? It's made me put up my guard more.' 11 'I've been on all sides — engineer, VC, founder — but what excites me the most is product,' Guo said. Margot Judge for NY Post Guo was even mistakenly linked to Orlando Bloom in a tabloid because they were spotted next to each other at a party. 'I turned around and glanced at a wall, and the paparazzi snapped a photo,' she said, laughing. 'I'm definitely not dating Orlando Bloom.' The 30-year-old insists she doesn't have time to date, in fact. 'I've been on all sides — engineer, VC, founder — but what excites me the most is product,' she said. 'Figuring out the next feature, building tools people actually use, helping creators go big. That's what I love.' Just don't expect Guo to slow down anytime soon. 'I have too much energy to burn.'
Daily Mirror
07-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mirror
'AI is nothing to fear - it's the best business partner' says tech billionaire
Co-founder of Scale AI and founder of Passes, Lucy Guo pivoted from the tech-bro world of artificial intelligence to the 'Hollywood' creator space. But AI has its place in content creation, says Lucy Lucy Guo, founder and CEO of Passes, wants to turn content creators into millionaires. The 30 year old recently became a billionaire in her own right, though it's 'all on paper' as she told Forbes right before they crowned her the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. Passes is Lucy's big bet in the creator economy. Speaking to The Mirror, she describes seeing 'untapped potential' in the creator monetisation space back in 2020 after falling in with some content creators in Miami. 'I just saw how they could sell anything with an Instagram post or story' recalls Lucy. 'I also saw how inconsistent their income could be.' Her solution to the instability was for creators to monetise directly off their fan base, which would not only give creators direct, consistent income but the means to invest in other interests or business ventures. Ventures that could be passion projects or, as Lucy envisions, potentially large-scale product-based businesses. READ MORE: Audible's new AI plans will put jobs at major risk, say translators and voice actors Given Lucy's significant background in AI, Passes' approach is decidedly tech-forward compared to other fan subscriber platforms. While the technical approach separates Passes from its competitors, there's been a lot of scepticism from creators about AI - viewed as both a potential competitor and thief. But Lucy is adamant AI's utility will become clear. 'When creators realise the benefits of AI, they're going to change their perception and they're going to be very excited about it. But at the moment, there's a lot of fear. And fear prevents you from looking at all the upsides.' She continues: 'The whole world is like 'AI is going to take over' and I'm just like 'no, it's going to be our co-pilot. It's gonna be our best business partner'.' AI will help content creators post quickly and often - which is key to long-term success according to Lucy. 'We've actually noticed our creators that make the most money, they're actually smaller. They have 200, 300,000 followers,' says Lucy. 'My hypothesis is that it's because they just churn out more content because it doesn't need to be perfect'. The question of what matters to fans boils down to speed and community, according to Lucy. 'I would say in terms of what everyone wants it's very, very fast customer service - whether the customer service they want is from the creator or from [Passes].' Lucy also believes that women tend to lean more towards content creation and, simply put: 'they're better at it'. 'I think being a content creator requires a lot of empathy and being able to build relationships especially when they're not in person. You're building relationships with your fans digitally. And the traits needed to do that I think women are better at,' she explains. By Lucy's estimation, AI will make building those relationships easier and faster because it will free up creator's time to engage fans and think creatively. But she will need to work on building meaningful relationships with creators to test her bet. After Passes acquired the competitor site, Fanhouse in 2023, Lucy faced backlash from creators who felt blindsided by the acquisition. Creators found Passes' lack of content guidelines and AI push alarming. As reported by TechCrunch at the time, some creators grew worried about a tweet of Guo's in which she stated that Passes was working on technology that could optionally make AI likenesses of creators. Concerns escalated after Twitch streamer Riley Rose pointed out that Passes does not have content guidelines on its website. 'It's just that [Fanhouse's] content guidelines are very, very specific,' Guo clarified to TechCrunch. She said that because Fanhouse used Stripe as its payment processor, the company had to be very clear with users about what they can and cannot post. 'We do have content guidelines, it's just more lax," she explained. Now, convincing creators to embrace AI and bring their fanbase to a new platform - many of whom aren't accustomed to paying directly for their content - promises to be a tough sell even if Lucy is promising significant returns. And just as with fans, it isn't all about the money for creators. Help us improve our content by completing the survey below. We'd love to hear from you!
The Star
23-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
World's youngest self-made woman billionaire Lucy Guo says craving work-life balance means you're in wrong job
Lucy Guo, world's youngest self-made woman billionare and cofounder of ScaleAI. -- Photo courtesy of Guo's Instagram HANOI (VNExpress/Vietnam News): Lucy Guo, the world's youngest self-made female billionaire and cofounder of AI firm Scale AI, believes wanting a strict work-life balance could be a sign that someone is in the wrong job. In an interview with Fortune magazine, the 28-year-old said she does not see her job as work in the traditional sense. "I love doing my job," she said. "I would say that if you feel the need for work-life balance, maybe you're not in the right work." Her daily routine starts at 5:30 a.m. with two to three high-intensity workouts at a training bootcamp, followed by work from 9 a.m. until midnight. "Some days, I am doing more marketing pushes. I'm talking to our PR, I'm doing podcasts, etc," she told Fortune. "Other days I am more product-focused... Reviewing designs, giving user experience feedback." She eats lunch at her desk and never cooks, relying entirely on food delivery service UberEats, she said. Despite working up to 90 hours a week, Guo said she still finds one to two hours each day for family and friends. "You should always find time for that, regardless of how busy you are." While younger generations increasingly prioritize work-life balance, Guo's schedule reflects a growing norm among startup founders. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan shares a similar view. "Work is life, life is work," he said on a recent podcast episode. Despite his demanding schedule, he stressed that family still comes first: "Whenever there's a conflict, guess what? Family first. That's it." Saudi Princess Noura bint Faisal Al Saud, CEO of consulting firm Culture House, echoed the mindset. "I'm always working 24/7 I'm a workaholic, so I don't stop working because I enjoy what I do." Guo, who dropped out of Carnegie Mellon University, later cofounded Scale AI with Alexandr Wang, now the world's youngest self-made billionaire with a net worth estimated at $3.6 billion, according to Forbes. After leaving the company in 2018, she retained a 5% stake, which is now worth an estimated $1.2 billion following Scale's valuation surge to US$25 billion in 2025, reported by Entrepreneur magazine. S he is now CEO of Passes, a platform that helps digital creators monetise their content. -- VNExpress/Vietnam News
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Scale AI's 30-year-old billionaire cofounder has a warning for anyone who craves work-life balance: ‘maybe you're not in the right work'
The billionaire cofounder of Scale AI, , has a message for anyone who craves work-life balance: Maybe you're in the wrong job. This millennial wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and doesn't clock off until midnight—and it's a philosophy that's catching on among founders now openly embracing China's 996 grind. Work-life balance has become the holy grail of modern employment. It's the non-negotiable perk that trumps salary and title—with Gen Z and millennial workers willing to walk away from jobs that don't deliver it in abundance. But what if instead of walking out on jobs that don't provide balance, they should leave the jobs that make them crave it instead? That's because, according to Lucy Guo, the 30-year-old billionaire cofounder of Scale AI, the need to clock off at 5 p.m. on the dot to unwind might signal that you're in the wrong job altogether. Guo, who dropped out of college and built her fortune in the tech industry, says her grueling daily schedule—waking up at 5:30 am and working until midnight—doesn't feel like work to her at all. 'I probably don't have work-life balance,' Guo tells Fortune. 'For me, work doesn't really feel like work. I love doing my job.' 'I would say that if you feel the need for work-life balance, maybe you're not in the right work.' That doesn't mean she's completely ignorant to life outside the office. The uber successful millennial, just dethroned Taylor Swift as the youngest self-made woman on the planet, according to Forbes' latest rankings. The 5% stake she held on to when she left her post at Scale AI is now worth an estimated $1.2 billion. Now, she's busy running another venture, the creator community platform Passes. Yet even when working '90-hour workweeks,' she says she still finds 'one to two hours' to squeeze in family and friends. 'You should always find time for that, regardless of how busy you are.' That, she suggests, is about making time for life—not running from your work. 5:30 a.m.: Wake upOn the morning of our interview in London, LA-based Guo says was up all night: 'I'm so jet lagged.' But she typically wakes up at around 5:30 and does two to three high-intensity workouts at Barry's every day. 9 a.m. onwards: In the office'Every day looks very different,' Guo says. 'Some days, I am doing more marketing pushes. I'm talking to our PR, I'm doing podcasts, etc. Other days I am more product-focused… Reviewing designs, giving user experience feedback.' She has her daily black coffee hit and lunch al desko. Midnight: BedtimeThe founder says she's typically working until 12 a.m.—when she finally will shut the laptop and go to sleep. The thing keeping her up so late? Keeping a beady eye on the customer support inbox. She gives her team just five minutes to respond to their customers before responding to them herself. 'Having that white glove customer service is what makes startups stand out from big tech,' Guo explains. 'While you have less customers, it's very possible for the CEO to answer everything which makes people more loyal. It's impossible for like the Uber CEO to do this nowadays. So that's the kind of mentality I have.' 'If you want to grow, your reputation is everything, and the best thing you do for your reputation is, offering the best, support to your customers. So I'm constantly doing that.' While Guo's routine may sound extreme to the regular worker, for founders, it's the new norm. Entrepreneurs have been taking to LinkedIn and claiming that the only way to succeed in the current climate is by copying China's 996 model. That is, working 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. Harry Stebbings, founder of the 20VC fund, ignited the latest debate at the start of the month when he said Silicon Valley had 'turned up the intensity,' and European founders needed to take notice. '7 days a week is the required velocity to win right now. There is no room for slip up,' Stebbings wrote on LinkedIn. 'You aren't competing against random company in Germany etc but the best in the world.' 'Forget 9 to 5, 996 is the new startup standard,' Martin Mignot, partner at Index Ventures echoed on the networking platform. 'Back in 2018, Michael Moritz introduced the West to China's '996' work schedule… At the time, the piece was controversial. Now? That same schedule has quietly become the norm across tech,' Mignot added. 'And founders are no longer apologizing for it.' But it's not just startup chiefs that are having to put in overtime to get ahead, CEOs admitted to Fortune at our recent Most Powerful Women Summit in Riyadh that they work well beyond the 40-hour benchmark. 'I don't know that I finish work psychologically,' Leah Cotterill CEO of Cigna Healthcare Middle East and Africa revealed, adding that she fully immerses herself into work all day and night 'Monday through Thursday' but tries to 'ease that off' on Friday for the weekend. Others put a number on the hours they work, from up to 12 a day to 80 a week. But like Guo, many said they do it—not in reaction to the current market conditions, but because they're passionate about what they do. 'I'm always working 24/7 I'm a workaholic, so I don't stop working because I enjoy what I do,' Princess Noura bint Faisal Al Saud, Culture House's CEO added. And the next generation of workers probably needs to take note. Unfortunately for work-life balance-loving young people, experts have stressed that 40-hour workweeks aren't enough if they want to climb the corporate ladder. In a leaked memo to Google's AI workers, Sergey Brin suggested that 60 hours a week is the 'sweet spot'. This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Scale AI's 30-year-old billionaire cofounder has a warning for anyone who craves work-life balance: ‘maybe you're not in the right work'
The billionaire cofounder of Scale AI, , has a message for anyone who craves work-life balance: Maybe you're in the wrong job. This millennial wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and doesn't clock off until midnight—and it's a philosophy that's catching on among founders now openly embracing China's 996 grind. Work-life balance has become the holy grail of modern employment. It's the non-negotiable perk that trumps salary and title—with Gen Z and millennial workers willing to walk away from jobs that don't deliver it in abundance. But what if instead of walking out on jobs that don't provide balance, they should leave the jobs that make them crave it instead? That's because, according to Lucy Guo, the 30-year-old billionaire cofounder of Scale AI, the need to clock off at 5 p.m. on the dot to unwind might signal that you're in the wrong job altogether. Guo, who dropped out of college and built her fortune in the tech industry, says her grueling daily schedule—waking up at 5:30 am and working until midnight—doesn't feel like work to her at all. 'I probably don't have work-life balance,' Guo tells Fortune. 'For me, work doesn't really feel like work. I love doing my job.' 'I would say that if you feel the need for work-life balance, maybe you're not in the right work.' That doesn't mean she's completely ignorant to life outside the office. The uber successful millennial, just dethroned Taylor Swift as the youngest self-made woman on the planet, according to Forbes' latest rankings. The 5% stake she held on to when she left her post at Scale AI is now worth an estimated $1.2 billion. Now, she's busy running another venture, the creator community platform Passes. Yet even when working '90-hour workweeks,' she says she still finds 'one to two hours' to squeeze in family and friends. 'You should always find time for that, regardless of how busy you are.' That, she suggests, is about making time for life—not running from your work. 5:30 a.m.: Wake upOn the morning of our interview in London, LA-based Guo says was up all night: 'I'm so jet lagged.' But she typically wakes up at around 5:30 and does two to three high-intensity workouts at Barry's every day. 9 a.m. onwards: In the office'Every day looks very different,' Guo says. 'Some days, I am doing more marketing pushes. I'm talking to our PR, I'm doing podcasts, etc. Other days I am more product-focused… Reviewing designs, giving user experience feedback.' She has her daily black coffee hit and lunch al desko. Midnight: BedtimeThe founder says she's typically working until 12 a.m.—when she finally will shut the laptop and go to sleep. The thing keeping her up so late? Keeping a beady eye on the customer support inbox. She gives her team just five minutes to respond to their customers before responding to them herself. 'Having that white glove customer service is what makes startups stand out from big tech,' Guo explains. 'While you have less customers, it's very possible for the CEO to answer everything which makes people more loyal. It's impossible for like the Uber CEO to do this nowadays. So that's the kind of mentality I have.' 'If you want to grow, your reputation is everything, and the best thing you do for your reputation is, offering the best, support to your customers. So I'm constantly doing that.' While Guo's routine may sound extreme to the regular worker, for founders, it's the new norm. Entrepreneurs have been taking to LinkedIn and claiming that the only way to succeed in the current climate is by copying China's 996 model. That is, working 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. Harry Stebbings, founder of the 20VC fund, ignited the latest debate at the start of the month when he said Silicon Valley had 'turned up the intensity,' and European founders needed to take notice. '7 days a week is the required velocity to win right now. There is no room for slip up,' Stebbings wrote on LinkedIn. 'You aren't competing against random company in Germany etc but the best in the world.' 'Forget 9 to 5, 996 is the new startup standard,' Martin Mignot, partner at Index Ventures echoed on the networking platform. 'Back in 2018, Michael Moritz introduced the West to China's '996' work schedule… At the time, the piece was controversial. Now? That same schedule has quietly become the norm across tech,' Mignot added. 'And founders are no longer apologizing for it.' But it's not just startup chiefs that are having to put in overtime to get ahead, CEOs admitted to Fortune at our recent Most Powerful Women Summit in Riyadh that they work well beyond the 40-hour benchmark. 'I don't know that I finish work psychologically,' Leah Cotterill CEO of Cigna Healthcare Middle East and Africa revealed, adding that she fully immerses herself into work all day and night 'Monday through Thursday' but tries to 'ease that off' on Friday for the weekend. Others put a number on the hours they work, from up to 12 a day to 80 a week. But like Guo, many said they do it—not in reaction to the current market conditions, but because they're passionate about what they do. 'I'm always working 24/7 I'm a workaholic, so I don't stop working because I enjoy what I do,' Princess Noura bint Faisal Al Saud, Culture House's CEO added. And the next generation of workers probably needs to take note. Unfortunately for work-life balance-loving young people, experts have stressed that 40-hour workweeks aren't enough if they want to climb the corporate ladder. In a leaked memo to Google's AI workers, Sergey Brin suggested that 60 hours a week is the 'sweet spot'. This story was originally featured on
