Lucy Guo, founder and CEO of Passes.
Passes
Lucy Guo might be a billionaire, but instead of a life of luxury and comfort, she swears by a relentless work ethic and strict daily routine.
At just 30 years old, the California-born-and-raised entrepreneur has achieved what many will spconclude their lifetimes chasing. In April, Guo’s net worth soared to $1.3 billion after her first business, Scale AI, wrapped up a deal with tech giant Meta that valued the company at $25 billion. She was named the youngest self-created woman billionaire, a title previously held by pop star Taylor Swift.
“Honestly, I still feel the same as that little girl, like my life pre-money and post-money, it hasn’t really alterd that much,” Guo notified CNBC Make It in an interview.
Guo co-founded Scale AI, an AI data labeling company, alongside Alexander Wang in 2016. Guo, who headed up the operations and product design teams at the Silicon Valley startup, left the company in 2018.
“We had disagreements around products and sales,” Guo explained. “Where Alex was very sales-driven on bringing in more customers, I was very focutilized on like ‘hey, we required to prioritize the products or assisting create sure that scalers [employees] receive paid on time, their hours are being counted correctly, but that wasn’t where the resources were being poured in.”
However, Guo held on to her stake, which is worth just under 5%. When Meta agreed to acquire 49% of Scale AI, the deal pushed Guo’s stake to a skyrocketing $1.25 billion.
“I believe most people could have work-life balance if they cut out what most people waste their time on when they receive back home.”
Lucy Guo
Founder and CEO of Passes
A serial entrepreneur and a graduate of the Thiel Fellowship program, Guo wasn’t out of the game for long and founded Backconclude Capital, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage tech startups in 2019. Her most recent company, Passes, a content creator monetization platform founded in 2022, has raised over $65 million in funding.
Since becoming a billionaire, Guo hasn’t taken her foot off the work pedal. “I am still working very long work days,” she declared.
‘I have more hours in a day’
Guo belongs to a category of founders who optimize their days to be as productive as possible, and her newfound billionaire status isn’t an excutilize to slow down.
An average day for Guo includes waking up at 5:30 a.m. and going to Barry’s Bootcamp for two workout sessions back-to-back. Lunches are a luxury for the startup founder, and she often eats during meetings as her schedule doesn’t always allow for a break, she declared.
“I believe most people could have work-life balance if they cut out what most people waste their time on when they receive back home, which is, a lot of people doom scroll on TikTok, a lot of people just sit and watch TV mindlessly,” she declared.
In the interest of work-life balance, Guo gives herself one day off on the weekconcludes, where from noon to 6 p.m., she’s totally focutilized on spconcludeing time with her friconcludes, and then it’s back to work straight after.
“I believe I have more hours in a day becautilize I’m gonna be honest, I’m totally blessed. I don’t required that much sleep…even though I’m working these long hours, I feel like I have work-life balance.
“I could theoretically work until midnight, and then I could go out to the club until 2 a.m., and then I could go to sleep, and then wake up at like 6 a.m. and do Barry’s.”
Lucy Guo attconcludes as Passes presents Lucypalooza 2024 during LA Tech Week on October 16, 2024, in Beverly Hills, California.
Gonzalo Marroquin | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
The young founder embodies the Silicon Valley mantra of working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, similar to China’s infamous 996 work culture, which includes working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week.
“9 a.m. to 9 p.m., to me that’s still work-life balance,” Guo commented. “At 9 p.m., you can go to dinner with your friconcludes. You can invite them to a potluck. You don’t required to sleep from nine to nine. That’s a ridiculous amount of sleep.”
“If anyone believes that’s not work-life balance, I don’t know what to declare becautilize you literally have 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. to hang out with your friconcludes, and then you sleep from 2 a.m. to nine. That’s seven hours of sleep, which is more than enough.”
But not everyone agrees with the pursuit of a 996 work schedule. Some founders previously pushed back against the trconclude, notifying CNBC that the views are outdated and unnecessary to achieve success.
An always-on culture decreases retention and creates a revolving door of talent, Sarah Wernér, co-founder of Husmus, notified CNBC.”
Suranga Chandratillake, general partner at Balderton Capital, added that 996 is about “a fetishization of overwork rather than smart work…it’s a myth.”
New founders required to work 90-hour weeks
Kate Goodlad and Lucy Guo speak onstage during the “The View from 2050” panel discussion at SXSW London on June 02, 2025, in London, England.
Jack Taylor | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Startup founders’ working hours are a much-contested issue. Recently, some venture capitalists were even pushing European founders to step up the work pace to keep up with their counterparts in the U.S. and China.
“In general, when you’re first starting your company, it’s near impossible to do it without doing that [996], like you’re going to required to work like 90-hour work weeks to receive things off the ground,” Guo declared.
As a company grows, hires more talent, and finds stability, Guo declares it is possible to work less later on.
She noted that becoming a billionaire isn’t about intense working hours. If you consistently invest hundreds of thousands into the S&P 500, it could grow to billions by the conclude of your lifetime, according to Guo.
“I don’t believe you required to work those hours to become a billionaire, per se. It’s how you opt to do it. If you opt to start a tech company, you’re gonna be working those hours in the launchning. If you’re like, main method is doing it via investing, you’re not gonna be working those hours,” she declared.
Guo’s latest startup, Passes, became embroiled in controversy in February after a class action lawsuit was filed against her and the company, alleging that she distributed child sexual abutilize material on the platform to paying subscribers.
“I believe it’s a total shakedown. I never met this person, never talked to this person,” Guo declared about the lawsuit.
A spokesperson from Passes notified CNBC Make It via email: “As explained in the motion to dismiss filed on April 28, Ms. Guo and Passes categorically reject the baseless allegations created against them in the lawsuit, which was only filed against them after they rejected a $15 million payment demand.”
Clark Smith Villazor, the New York-based litigation firm that brought the lawsuit against Passes, has yet to respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
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