Lucy Guo: The woman training AI

In this episode of Good Bad Billionaire, the hosts explore the incredible journey of Lucy Guo, who, at 30, was named by Forbes as the youngest self-made female billionaire. Guo rose to prominence through her co-founding of Scale AI, an artificial intelligence company that serves high-profile clients like OpenAI and Google. Despite her wealth, Guo maintains a modest lifestyle, often traveling frugally and participating in everyday bargain hunting.

Growing up in the Bay Area with parents who were electrical engineers, Guo developed a strong work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. Bullied for her frugality in school, she learned to leverage her coding skills to create opportunities for herself, with a fascination for making money starting as early as eight years old. By high school, she was already engaging in activities like implementing Google AdSense on websites she designed, ultimately leading her to drop out of college to join the prestigious Thiel Fellowship.

At the Thiel Fellowship, Guo faced significant family resistance for leaving college but chose to pursue her entrepreneurial ambitions. After a few failed attempts at startups, she co-founded Scale AI, which grew rapidly among tech giants. However, she eventually parted ways with the company, experiencing conflicts with her co-founder, Alexander Wang. Guo then pivoted to venture capital with her firm Backend Capital, and she also founded a subscription-based platform for content creators called Passes, despite facing legal hurdles along the way.

The episode highlights her achievements, the controversies surrounding Scale AI’s labor practices, and her current ventures focusing on empowering content creators. By April 2025, her stake in Scale AI crowned her a billionaire, though she remains cautious regarding her newfound wealth, often humorously remarking that it is all on paper rather than in her bank account.