Lucy Guo

Lucy Guo grew up in Silicon Valley, the daughter of engineers who emigrated from China. She began programming in elementary school and creating websites as a schoolgirl.⁠[1][2]

She studied computer science and human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University but did not complete a degree.⁠[1]

She received a Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry, with $100,000 and entrepreneurial mentoring, and left university to pursue projects.⁠[3][1]

Her public professional profile records a 2014 internship with Facebook’s Messenger team.⁠[4]

She met Alexandr Wang while working at QuoraQuoraQuora is an American question-and-answer and knowledge-sharing website and the company that operates it, Quora, Inc., whose core product centers on users asking, answering, and voting to rank content; since 2022, the company has also offered Poe, a chat platform that aggregates AI models from multiple companies.Open the full entry and subsequently worked briefly at Snapchat.⁠[5]

She cofounded Scale with Alexandr Wang. Its early API routed tasks such as moderation, classification and data extraction to human workers.⁠[6]

Scale participated in Y Combinator’s Summer 2016 batch and developed into the AI data services company Scale AI.⁠[7]

She was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Enterprise Technology for cofounding Scale.⁠[8]

According to Forbes, she left Scale following a disagreement with her cofounder but retained her shares.⁠[5]

She founded venture capital firm Backend Capital. AngelListAngelListAngelList is a startup investment platform company based in San Francisco, United States. Founded in 2010 by Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi, it began as a mailing list recommending startups to angel investors, went on to launch online fundraising, Syndicates (co-investing), rolling funds, and other products, and later shifted into a fund administration and back-office services platform for venture capital funds and private markets.Open the full entry later listed a syndicate led by her and Dave Fontenot, affiliated with Backend Capital Advisors.⁠[1][9]

She founded Passes, a platform enabling creators to earn through paid content, subscriptions and direct messages, and became its CEO.⁠[10][11]

Forbes named her among the judges for its 2023 Under 30 Enterprise Technology list, published in November 2022.⁠[8]

Passes published guidance on transitioning Fanhouse creators and content to its platform, stating that content migration required creators’ consent.⁠[12]

In a signed post, she introduced service tiers for 2024: Starter at 10% plus $0.30 per transaction and Creators+ at 20%, with content protection and analytics tools. These were the announced terms at that time.⁠[13]

Passes raised a $40 million Series A round. The company offered tools for creators to charge fans directly.⁠[10]

Inc. included her in its 2025 Female Founders 500 for her work in creator services.⁠[14]

Alice Rosenblum filed a civil lawsuit alleging that Lucy Guo, Passes and other defendants facilitated and profited from unlawful sexual images made when she was a minor. In April, lawyers for Guo and Passes denied involvement in wrongdoing and sought dismissal, calling the allegations false.⁠[15]

Forbes estimated her net worth at approximately $1.25 billion, based on her retained Scale stake and other assets. This was a media valuation.⁠[5]

Scale announced an investment from Meta valuing the company above $29 billion. It said some proceeds would be distributed to shareholders and vested equity holders, who could also retain equity.⁠[16]

She joined the Future Gazers panel at Cannes Lions, arguing that AI could handle creators’ routine operations while people remained responsible for creative expression and audience relationships.⁠[17]

The Central District of California partly granted and partly denied the dismissal motions. Some claims against Guo were dismissed with leave to amend; other claims were dismissed with prejudice or with permission to amend. The court struck the class allegations and directed the case to proceed individually. This procedural order was not a final finding of liability.⁠[18]

School of Hard Knocks released a video featuring her interview. She discussed Scale’s data business, university networks, the Thiel Fellowship and her views on pursuing demonstrated demand and accepting entrepreneurial risk.⁠[19]

She released the official visualizer for her single “Champagne on Me” on her personal YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel.⁠[20]

Forbes listed an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion as of October 10. It dated her distinction as the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire to April–December 2025.⁠[2]

Ocean conservation organization Project Zero lists her as an ambassador. She also developed applications including Pokecrew, AccessURL and FriendSwipe as a freelance developer.⁠[1]

Her X account is @lucy_guo and her YouTube channel is @guoforit. The channel and music-video links connect to her Instagram and X profiles.⁠[21][22][20]