Lucy Guo
Lucy Guo | |
|---|---|
| Born | Fremont, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Engineer, entrepreneur |
| Years active | 2014–present |
| Known for | Co-founder of Scale AI, founder of Passes |
Lucy Guo is an American engineer and entrepreneur known for co-founding Scale AI. In 2022, she established her second company, Passes. By 2025, Guo became the youngest female self-made billionaire worldwide, thanks to her ownership stake in Scale AI.
Early life and education
Raised in Fremont, California by parents who immigrated from China and worked as electrical engineers, Guo developed an interest in coding at a young age. During her teenage years, she generated income by creating bots for the online game Neopets and trading virtual items. She initially pursued computer science at Carnegie Mellon University but left in 2014 after being awarded the Thiel Fellowship, a two-year grant of $100,000 designed to support young innovators in focusing on entrepreneurial ventures instead of completing their academic programs.
Career
Following her departure from Carnegie Mellon to accept the Thiel Fellowship, Guo completed an internship at Facebook before becoming the first female designer at Snapchat, where she played a role in developing Snap Maps. She subsequently joined Quora, where she met Alexandr Wang. Together, they launched Scale AI in 2016. Although Guo was removed from the company in 2018, her 5% equity stake led to her recognition as the youngest self-made female billionaire by May 2025, overtaking Taylor Swift.
In 2018, Guo introduced Apply to Date, an application designed to create dating profiles resembling resumes. The next year, she founded Backend Capital (initially Backend Ventures), a venture capital firm investing primarily in early-stage engineering startups, with notable investments including the fintech firm Ramp.
Guo founded Passes in 2022, a social media platform that allows creators to share content with paying subscribers. The company secured $40 million during a Series A funding round in 2024. Passes enforces strict content guidelines prohibiting nudity and sexual material and retains a 10% fee on creators’ earnings. In February 2025, both Guo and Passes were sued over allegations that the platform hosted nude images of an underage creator before she turned eighteen.
Personal life
As of 2024, Guo lives in Los Angeles. Formerly a digital nomad, she purchased a $6.7 million apartment in Miami in 2020, where her social gatherings caused tensions with neighbors. In 2024, she acquired a residence in West Hollywood valued at $4.2 million, followed by the purchase of a $30 million estate in Hollywood Hills in 2025.