Lucy Guo: From Pokémon Card Hustler to World's Youngest Self-Made Female Billionaire

The Rebellious Daughter of Immigrants

Lucy Guo grew up in the Bay Area with Chinese immigrant parents who were "very, very strict." They saved on heating, bought the cheapest clothes, and instilled a frugality that would later serve her well as a founder.

But Lucy was rebellious from the start. In elementary school, she got in trouble for selling Pokémon cards and colored pencils on the playground. It was her first taste of entrepreneurship— and her first brush with authority figures who didn't appreciate her hustle.

Carnegie Mellon to Thiel Fellow

At Carnegie Mellon, Lucy studied computer science and human-computer interaction. She won hackathon after hackathon, gravitating toward the startup world. Then came the offer that would change everything.

In 2014, she won a Thiel Fellowship—Peter Thiel's program that gives $100,000 to young people who drop out of college to build companies. She was one of twenty recipients under 22 years old. She left Carnegie Mellon her senior year.

Before starting her own company, she built her skills: product designer at Quora, then Snapchat. She was learning how the best consumer products were made.

Co-founding Scale AI

In 2016, Lucy met Alexandr Wang at Quora. They bonded over a shared obsession: AI needed better data. Machine learning models were only as good as their training data, and most companies were struggling to label data at scale.

Together, they founded Scale AI. Lucy led operations and product design while Alex focused on the technical side. The company grew rapidly, becoming the go-to data labeling platform for self-driving cars, robotics, and AI applications.

The Exit That Made Her a Billionaire

After two years, Lucy left Scale AI. The reason? Disagreements with her co-founder Alex Wang. The details remain private, but the split was significant enough for her to walk away from the company she helped build.

Crucially, she kept her 5% stake. That decision—to leave gracefully, to not burn bridges, to hold onto her equity—would prove to be worth over a billion dollars.

Passes: Betting on the Creator Economy

During Covid, Lucy became friends with many content creators. She noticed something: creators are essentially small businesses, sometimes large businesses, but they had terrible tools for monetization and money management.

In 2022, she founded Passes, a platform that helps creators monetize their audiences through paid subscriptions, exclusive content, and financial tools. Within 48 hours of deciding to build it, she had raised $3.5 million. Shortly after, she had $8 million committed.

Today, Passes has raised over $65 million. Lucy is building the financial infrastructure for the creator economy.

Backend Capital: Investing in Technical Founders

In 2019, Lucy launched Backend Capital (originally Backend Ventures), a venture capital firm focused on early-stage engineering startups. Her thesis? Back technical founders who can actually build.

One of her notable investments: Ramp, the corporate card company that's now valued at over $7 billion. Lucy's eye for technical talent continues to pay dividends.

The Work-Life Balance Controversy

Lucy is unapologetic about her intensity. In 2025, she made headlines for her warning to anyone who craves work-life balance: "Maybe you're not in the right work."

Her daily routine is legendary: 5:30 AM wake-ups, double gym sessions, no lunch breaks. She's not selling hustle culture—she's living it. For Lucy, the work isn't a burden; it's the point.

What Founders Can Learn

The Accidental Billionaire

Lucy Guo didn't become a billionaire by grinding at Scale AI for a decade. She became a billionaire by co-founding the right company, leaving when it wasn't working for her, and being smart enough to keep her equity.

Now she's building her next chapter: Passes, Backend Capital, and whatever comes next. At 30, she has the resources to fund her curiosity indefinitely.

The playground hustler grew up. But she never stopped selling.