Life Lessons From The World’s Youngest Self-Made Woman Billionaire

I'm glad to welcome Lucy Guo back to the

stage. Lucy uh co-founded Scale AI at

the age of 20 21 years old. She uh now

runs Passes, a content, you know,

creator platform and is a you know

successful VC investor in her own right.

Um she is the youngest self-made woman

billionaire in the world. She's about as

wealthy as Taylor Swift and she's 5

years younger than Taylor Swift.

I think Taylor still might be more

liquid.

That's probably true, but she might

trade the the five years for the for the

liquidity.

Uh so can you just walk us through, you

know, you've started a couple very

successful companies very young. Uh

what's your origin story? You know, how

do you become the the wealthiest, you

know, self-made woman billionaire in the

world?

Yeah. Um I always think that everything

is a combination of luck and hard work.

But I do think I got the drive to be an

entrepreneur pretty early on. um grew up

with immigrant parents who really

emphasized education and money. Um and I

really just took in the money aspect

because I wanted to buy things that I

could not afford or I was not allowed to

buy. For example, I was not allowed to

skateboard or buy a dipstick and I

wanted to buy one. So I figured out how

to make money on my own. It started off

just like in the playground, you know,

selling Pokémon cards, colored pencils,

anything I could find. And then um I

discovered the internet where I could

have internet money um that my parents

could not take away from me as

punishment. So um that's when I started

creating bots on Neopets. Um created my

own virtual pet site, arcade game

websites, like really everything that I

could like throw an ad on essentially.

Um and fast forward when first off, how

old were you when you were doing all of

these things?

Um I was in second grade when I was

making the bots. I started creating my

own websites in around like third grade

just off of WordPress, but you know,

like literally sticking every single

annoying ad on these websites. I I

remember I would like some submit these

websites on a stumble upon and just a

bunch of different services to you know,

gain traffic on them. Um, so I would get

paid per impression. Um, I was got very

clever around like I think like fifth

and sixth grade where I realized that um

because I wasn't allowed to watch TV so

I would watch TV like shows on the

internet. I started creating my own

websites where I would like, you know,

search up popular TV show names like um

Pretty Little Liars, Vampire Diaries,

etc. And I would just buy the domain

name like watchvampire Diaries.net and

then I would find a trailer for an

episode that didn't exist yet and then

Photoshop a play button on top and then

stick ads on the site and submit it to

every streaming service possible. Um, so

people would, you know, hit the website

trying to find an episode that didn't

exist and I'd make money off of it.

And so what you know before we move on

to your incredibly successful career

after you know your your very successful

career as a as a you know child um you

know are there any is there any mindset

or any any lessons that you learned from

those early hustles you know that that

carried you forward in your you know

when you when you started scale AI and

even

yeah I think the main thing is like um

the first is like not everything is a

risk like things might feel risky but

it's not so um when I dropped out of

college I remember a lot my peers, my

family obviously um didn't agree with

that decision, but in my head I was

like, "Okay, like it's not really a risk

because like I'm not like the most I

lose is like a few years, right? I can

always go accept a job offer I could go

back to college." Um but your network is

your net worth and that's something I

realized very early on too where I

believed that doing the T fellowship

would open doors for me um because

people would just be more willing to

talk to me because I was a te fellow. I

kind of also learned this early on in

high school where um someone had just

given me advice. Hey, like if you email

a VC um like just send a cold email,

they're more likely to respond to you

because you're a kid and everyone wants

to help kids out. Um so and and that was

true. Like I cold emailed VCs and I

would actually get responses versus if I

weren't who I am today and I cold

emailed a VC, I don't know if I would

get a response.

Um so uh I think those are probably like

and in optimizing for learning. So I

think like those are the three lessons

that probably got me to where I am today

because the second I got bored like I

was known as someone that would like you

know job hop a lot, right? But um for me

it was like when I stopped learning and

I felt like I was no longer growing um

even though I was leaving like millions

of dollars behind I felt like it made

sense to make my next career move

because the knowledge I would be gaining

would be valuable later on in life.

And so those three three key lessons

there I'd love to run through all three

of those. So the first one uh it's not

that much of a risk. Yes. A couple

questions. One is how responsive to that

argument were your parents at the time

and uh and you know do you have any

advice for other people who might be you

know in this room and have had similar

conversations or thinking about having

similar conversations you know maybe

with their parents?

Yeah. So I mean education gave my

parents everything they had in life. So

I fully understood that they felt like I

was throwing away their sacrifices when

choosing to drop out of college. Um,

that being said, I think that u they

didn't really realize how good my job

offers were that I already had before

leaving college. So, uh, they weren't,

you know, they weren't happy about it,

but um, and then they like now they

they're like, "Oh, like there was a

different path to success outside of

like getting your college degree." And

we understand that.

Yeah. And, you know, you had also

mentioned um, you know, VCs being

willing to answer a kid's email. I'd

love to hear a little bit about, you

know, the ways that you think youth can

be an advantage rather than a

disadvantage.

I mean, I think youth is an advantage in

many ways. Um, a like as a kid, you have

so much free time nowadays, right? So,

like if you have that free time, like

spend some of it learning about

technology in the future. Uh, I think

that you have less responsibilities. Uh,

for example, like when you have a family

and you have kids, you just have less

time to experiment and like every like

spending a few years not making as much

is actually meaningful because you have

to support that family versus like as a

kid, you don't really need any

resources. Uh, like if you're a kid,

literally a kid, you're living at home

with your parents, but if you know

you're in your early 20s, um, like I was

couch surfing and drinking Soy Land and

figuring out how to like, you know, have

free food through all these VC sponsored

apps. It was great actually. I was

literally living for free. Yeah, it was

fine. Like I was fine couch surfing. I

didn't need a bed. Like I didn't need a

house of family. Uh and then I think if

you're in college specifically,

um it is the best time to find your

future hires and your future co-founders

because there's no time any like there's

no other time in your entire life where

you're going to be in such a dense

network of intelligent people that all

want to be friends with you because they

have no friends, right? Like quite

literally when you go from high school

to college, it's the only period in your

life where everyone is starting a new

life and no one has any friends. So

everyone's willing to get to know you.

Yeah. Okay. And then you know

um

you know it's it's easy to say you don't

have a lot to lose. You don't have a lot

of money to lose. You don't have a lot

of time to lose. Worst case, you lose a

couple years. I think when you're in

that moment, and I think probably a lot

of people, you know, out here are

probably somewhere, you know, in that

moment. it doesn't feel that way. You

know, a lot of the time you feel like

maybe anxious to to get things going

now. Uh you do feel like you need to to

make money now. So, you know, do you

have any advice for, you know, how to

have the the fortitude, I guess, to uh

to actually go and and, you know, take

that risk?

I mean, the way I've always thought

about things is if it's not

lifechanging, then like if I'm not

leaving life-changing money behind on

the table, then it just makes sense to,

you know, go do the next thing. And

again, like it's optimizing for learning

because even if I don't make

life-changing money with my next

endeavor, I will have that knowledge

that'll be valuable in the future and

I'll always be able to get that job

back. Like if you're a high performer,

your job is still there. Like your

company will very happily take you back,

right? Um so just like it knowledge is I

think just the key to success. So if you

think you're going to learn more doing

another endeavor pursuit um it makes

more sense in the long term like it's an

investment

and you know you you dropped out of

school you know you're studying computer

science to you know to become a teal

fellow

um but you know you had taken before you

you know co-ounded scale AI you take

taken a couple jobs in Silicon Valley

right you had worked at Quora you had

worked at Snap so how important do you

think it was I guess all of these

different educational experiences that

you had you know you learned all these

things growing up. You, you know,

learned some stuff, you know, in

college, you know, while you were there.

Then you took these jobs, you know, all

before you went to co-found a company.

What do you think was the most important

or most instructive, you know, and and

do you think that doing all of those

things made you more well-rounded or do

you think you could have skipped college

altogether or, you know, you needed to

go or?

Yeah. So, I actually don't think I could

have skipped college altogether. And I

think that was the most important for

me. Um, because that was where I gained

that network of people that I ended up

hiring as my first hires. Uh, because

they're the like you're this crazy kid

and like you may have raised funding,

but you're like, "Hey, like you should

not take millions of dollars that other

companies are offering you and come work

for me." And the only people that are

going to do that are people that have

worked with you and believe in you and

got close to you. Um, and those happen

to just be the people I went to college

with. Uh, so I actually suggest everyone

to college for like one to two years

because of what I said before, which is

that it's the only time in your life

that you're going to meet highly

intelligent people that all really want

to be your friend.

Mh.

Um, and then I think that working at

Kora and Snap because they were two such

different companies in the way they

operated helped me understand how I

would want to operate my company. So for

example at Kora um they basically ran a

philosophy that the product was

absolutely perfect um and all they

needed to do is AB test every single

part of the funnel um and optimize. So,

for example, like let's AB test and like

get more signups. Then we need to AB

test certain features to get more

questions asked, then more answers. And

as the flywheel goes, um the company

grows. Versus at Snap, AB test wasn't

really a thing. Um it was just like all

product innovation. Like I remember

being shocked the first day I walked in

because I saw how Evan was trying to

compete with Google, compete with

Amazon, etc. And these were things that

I would have never imagined Snap to

really be. So, he was much more of a

visionary founder. But I do think the

right answer is like being in the middle

because um you do need to optimize

certain parts of the funnel. Like I

learned that like you know changing one

word on a signup page can affect

conversions by 30%. Which is absolutely

crazy to me still to this day. Um and

that does have a drastic effect on your

numbers but also it's important to like

really think big and be a visionary.

And so you know you co-ound scale AI

2016 you know sort of

uh you know feels like a forever ago in

the in the world of you know AI uh

pretty famously had a falling out with

your co-founder and and left you know

after a couple of years.

What lessons can we all draw from that

experience? You know what did you learn

and and what might others learn you know

in terms of you know co-founding a

company with somebody and sometimes

things don't go according to plan. Yeah,

I think the main thing is that if you

can't be your co-founder's biggest

cheerleader, um it's probably not great

to um be their co-founder just because

when like things go wrong in a company

and like you know it's always going to

be a roller coaster and you guys can't

align on a decision um if you're going

to be bitter about it like you're going

to have a falling out like you guys are

going to butt heads. But at the end of

the day, when like other people at the

company are looking at like I guess like

the decisions the company is making and

you can't stand beside your co-founder,

even if you have disagreements, that's

just going to cause issues. Like you

have to be your co-founder's biggest

cheerleader.

And so just moving along, so I'd love to

talk about passes. Uh you know, could

you just walk us through sort of what it

is? And what I'd really love to hear

about is,

you know, what do you see going on in

the creator economy right now? you know,

and and what are the opportunities that

are out there for, you know, people who

are looking to be creators?

Yeah. So, um, we're building

infrastructure to help creators monetize

their brand. And, um, this really became

inspired due to the fact that like I saw

creators really building these like

unicorn companies. So, Mr. Beast with

Feastables, that's actually the main

reason his net worth is so high. Um,

Logan Paul with Prime, Jake Paul with W

and Better, etc. And I think we're going

through a phase right now like after

Kylie built her lipstick brand. Um

creators are realizing that they are the

brand, right? Um I think that a lot of

founders are also realizing and willing

to give up double digit percentage

equity because they see that with

creators um they no longer need to spend

money on customer acquisition costs

because the creators are able to

convert. Um so what I see the future

being is creators really like being

businesses. Um, I don't necessarily see

creators being, you know, like the CEO

though. Like I think that what's going

to happen is, um, operators are going to

partner with creators and are going to

act as like chief creative officers, um,

and really do the marketing behind a

brand and, um, offer, you know, like

creative inputs. Um, but I think a lot

of creators are starting their own

venture funds. They're like grabbing

equity in companies, etc. And this is

going to be the trend going forward um

because everyone wants to build

generational wealth which I think is why

creators are so interested in tech right

now because they're seeing like this is

how a lot of new money is being built.

And so you know I would love to you know

Randall had said earlier today that

there are probably several billionaires

future billionaires you know out in the

in the crowd today. Um you know you

managed to hit the milestone at a at a

very you know early age. Um, you know,

at the time you had you had said to

Forbes that, you know, you don't think

about it very much and, uh, you know,

it's not very liquid. Uh, has your

perspective on any of that changed? I

mean, what's what's your reaction, I

guess, to, you know, being the world's

youngest self-made billionaire?

Uh, my life's pretty much the same. You

know, I'm still waking up at 5:30 a.m.

going to Barry's, going to work. Like,

we work in the office every single day

of the week. So, um, I just go to work

then go home.

Yeah. And you know, you're very famously

very frugal, you know, trying to get a

deal on Uber Eats or something like

that. Uh, is there a point where you can

relax on that or do you think that

that's a mindset that everybody should

always have?

I mean, I would say relax on it, but I'm

Asian, so it's almost just like a game,

right? Like I get excited getting deals.

Um, and free things. I really like free

things.

All right. And so, you know, I guess in

closing, what's the what's the biggest

takeaway from from your short but, you

know, very uh high journey, I guess, to

to success that everybody else can can

take away? If there's one thing that,

you know, you think people could take

away from your story, what is it?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's optimized for

learning and always be willing to help

people out. Um, because everyone that

you like help out unselfishly, like I do

think karma is a real thing. comes back

at you and when you are successful I

think you should reinvest into the

ecosystem. So nowadays I'm literally

just trying to find all my favorite

products and like you know people that I

just believe in and reinvest in them. Um

cuz I remember what it was like you know

first starting out and I had all these

people just help me with like no

questions asked and I don't think I

would be here today without um doing

that. Oh and then I would say just like

ask for things. because I think people

are too scared to like ask. Um, and I

mean like you will get a yes most likely

no matter what. Like people are going to

like there's going to be someone willing

to give their time. There's going to be

someone that's going to give you money.

Um, and I think that people are too

scared for of rejection. But um, you

just have to be like a no is okay

whatever. Like you get a no, right? Like

what's the worst thing that happens?

Like it hurts your ego a little bit, but

like the first yes you guess is going to

change your life.

Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, thank you

so much for joining us and thank you for

starting your uh DJ career here at

Appreciate it.

I know. I'm excited. Thank you for

letting me DJ here.