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Life Lessons From The World’s Youngest Self-Made Woman Billionaire | Forbes | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Life Lessons From The World’s Youngest Self-Made Woman Billionaire
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I'm glad to welcome Lucy Guo back to the
stage. Lucy uh co-founded Scale AI at
the age of 20 21 years old. She uh now
runs Passes, a content, you know,
creator platform and is a you know
successful VC investor in her own right.
Um she is the youngest self-made woman
billionaire in the world. She's about as
wealthy as Taylor Swift and she's 5
years younger than Taylor Swift.
I think Taylor still might be more liquid.
liquid.
That's probably true, but she might
trade the the five years for the for the liquidity.
liquidity.
Uh so can you just walk us through, you
know, you've started a couple very
successful companies very young. Uh
what's your origin story? You know, how
do you become the the wealthiest, you
know, self-made woman billionaire in the world?
world?
Yeah. Um I always think that everything
is a combination of luck and hard work.
But I do think I got the drive to be an
entrepreneur pretty early on. um grew up
with immigrant parents who really
emphasized education and money. Um and I
really just took in the money aspect
because I wanted to buy things that I
could not afford or I was not allowed to
buy. For example, I was not allowed to
skateboard or buy a dipstick and I
wanted to buy one. So I figured out how
to make money on my own. It started off
just like in the playground, you know,
selling Pokémon cards, colored pencils,
anything I could find. And then um I
discovered the internet where I could
have internet money um that my parents
could not take away from me as
punishment. So um that's when I started
creating bots on Neopets. Um created my
own virtual pet site, arcade game
websites, like really everything that I
could like throw an ad on essentially.
Um and fast forward when first off, how
old were you when you were doing all of
these things?
Um I was in second grade when I was
making the bots. I started creating my
own websites in around like third grade
just off of WordPress, but you know,
like literally sticking every single
annoying ad on these websites. I I
remember I would like some submit these
websites on a stumble upon and just a
bunch of different services to you know,
gain traffic on them. Um, so I would get
paid per impression. Um, I was got very
clever around like I think like fifth
and sixth grade where I realized that um
because I wasn't allowed to watch TV so
I would watch TV like shows on the
internet. I started creating my own
websites where I would like, you know,
search up popular TV show names like um
Pretty Little Liars, Vampire Diaries,
etc. And I would just buy the domain
name like watchvampire Diaries.net and
then I would find a trailer for an
episode that didn't exist yet and then
Photoshop a play button on top and then
stick ads on the site and submit it to
every streaming service possible. Um, so
people would, you know, hit the website
trying to find an episode that didn't
exist and I'd make money off of it.
And so what you know before we move on
to your incredibly successful career
after you know your your very successful
career as a as a you know child um you
know are there any is there any mindset
or any any lessons that you learned from
those early hustles you know that that
carried you forward in your you know
when you when you started scale AI and even
even
yeah I think the main thing is like um
the first is like not everything is a
risk like things might feel risky but
it's not so um when I dropped out of
college I remember a lot my peers, my
family obviously um didn't agree with
that decision, but in my head I was
like, "Okay, like it's not really a risk
because like I'm not like the most I
lose is like a few years, right? I can
always go accept a job offer I could go
back to college." Um but your network is
your net worth and that's something I
realized very early on too where I
believed that doing the T fellowship
would open doors for me um because
people would just be more willing to
talk to me because I was a te fellow. I
kind of also learned this early on in
high school where um someone had just
given me advice. Hey, like if you email
a VC um like just send a cold email,
they're more likely to respond to you
because you're a kid and everyone wants
to help kids out. Um so and and that was
true. Like I cold emailed VCs and I
would actually get responses versus if I
weren't who I am today and I cold
emailed a VC, I don't know if I would
get a response.
Um so uh I think those are probably like
and in optimizing for learning. So I
think like those are the three lessons
that probably got me to where I am today
because the second I got bored like I
was known as someone that would like you
know job hop a lot, right? But um for me
it was like when I stopped learning and
I felt like I was no longer growing um
even though I was leaving like millions
of dollars behind I felt like it made
sense to make my next career move
because the knowledge I would be gaining
would be valuable later on in life.
And so those three three key lessons
there I'd love to run through all three
of those. So the first one uh it's not
that much of a risk. Yes. A couple
questions. One is how responsive to that
argument were your parents at the time
and uh and you know do you have any
advice for other people who might be you
know in this room and have had similar
conversations or thinking about having
similar conversations you know maybe
with their parents?
Yeah. So I mean education gave my
parents everything they had in life. So
I fully understood that they felt like I
was throwing away their sacrifices when
choosing to drop out of college. Um,
that being said, I think that u they
didn't really realize how good my job
offers were that I already had before
leaving college. So, uh, they weren't,
you know, they weren't happy about it,
but um, and then they like now they
they're like, "Oh, like there was a
different path to success outside of
like getting your college degree." And
we understand that.
Yeah. And, you know, you had also
mentioned um, you know, VCs being
willing to answer a kid's email. I'd
love to hear a little bit about, you
know, the ways that you think youth can
be an advantage rather than a disadvantage.
disadvantage.
I mean, I think youth is an advantage in
many ways. Um, a like as a kid, you have
so much free time nowadays, right? So,
like if you have that free time, like
spend some of it learning about
technology in the future. Uh, I think
that you have less responsibilities. Uh,
for example, like when you have a family
and you have kids, you just have less
time to experiment and like every like
spending a few years not making as much
is actually meaningful because you have
to support that family versus like as a
kid, you don't really need any
resources. Uh, like if you're a kid,
literally a kid, you're living at home
with your parents, but if you know
you're in your early 20s, um, like I was
couch surfing and drinking Soy Land and
figuring out how to like, you know, have
free food through all these VC sponsored
apps. It was great actually. I was
literally living for free. Yeah, it was
fine. Like I was fine couch surfing. I
didn't need a bed. Like I didn't need a
house of family. Uh and then I think if
you're in college specifically,
um it is the best time to find your
future hires and your future co-founders
because there's no time any like there's
no other time in your entire life where
you're going to be in such a dense
network of intelligent people that all
want to be friends with you because they
have no friends, right? Like quite
literally when you go from high school
to college, it's the only period in your
life where everyone is starting a new
life and no one has any friends. So
everyone's willing to get to know you.
Yeah. Okay. And then you know um
um
you know it's it's easy to say you don't
have a lot to lose. You don't have a lot
of money to lose. You don't have a lot
of time to lose. Worst case, you lose a
couple years. I think when you're in
that moment, and I think probably a lot
of people, you know, out here are
probably somewhere, you know, in that
moment. it doesn't feel that way. You
know, a lot of the time you feel like
maybe anxious to to get things going
now. Uh you do feel like you need to to
make money now. So, you know, do you
have any advice for, you know, how to
have the the fortitude, I guess, to uh
to actually go and and, you know, take
that risk?
I mean, the way I've always thought
about things is if it's not
lifechanging, then like if I'm not
leaving life-changing money behind on
the table, then it just makes sense to,
you know, go do the next thing. And
again, like it's optimizing for learning
because even if I don't make
life-changing money with my next
endeavor, I will have that knowledge
that'll be valuable in the future and
I'll always be able to get that job
back. Like if you're a high performer,
your job is still there. Like your
company will very happily take you back,
right? Um so just like it knowledge is I
think just the key to success. So if you
think you're going to learn more doing
another endeavor pursuit um it makes
more sense in the long term like it's an investment
investment
and you know you you dropped out of
school you know you're studying computer
science to you know to become a teal fellow
fellow
um but you know you had taken before you
you know co-ounded scale AI you take
taken a couple jobs in Silicon Valley
right you had worked at Quora you had
worked at Snap so how important do you
think it was I guess all of these
different educational experiences that
you had you know you learned all these
things growing up. You, you know,
learned some stuff, you know, in
college, you know, while you were there.
Then you took these jobs, you know, all
before you went to co-found a company.
What do you think was the most important
or most instructive, you know, and and
do you think that doing all of those
things made you more well-rounded or do
you think you could have skipped college
altogether or, you know, you needed to
go or?
Yeah. So, I actually don't think I could
have skipped college altogether. And I
think that was the most important for
me. Um, because that was where I gained
that network of people that I ended up
hiring as my first hires. Uh, because
they're the like you're this crazy kid
and like you may have raised funding,
but you're like, "Hey, like you should
not take millions of dollars that other
companies are offering you and come work
for me." And the only people that are
going to do that are people that have
worked with you and believe in you and
got close to you. Um, and those happen
to just be the people I went to college
with. Uh, so I actually suggest everyone
to college for like one to two years
because of what I said before, which is
that it's the only time in your life
that you're going to meet highly
intelligent people that all really want
to be your friend. Mh.
Mh.
Um, and then I think that working at
Kora and Snap because they were two such
different companies in the way they
operated helped me understand how I
would want to operate my company. So for
example at Kora um they basically ran a
philosophy that the product was
absolutely perfect um and all they
needed to do is AB test every single
part of the funnel um and optimize. So,
for example, like let's AB test and like
get more signups. Then we need to AB
test certain features to get more
questions asked, then more answers. And
as the flywheel goes, um the company
grows. Versus at Snap, AB test wasn't
really a thing. Um it was just like all
product innovation. Like I remember
being shocked the first day I walked in
because I saw how Evan was trying to
compete with Google, compete with
Amazon, etc. And these were things that
I would have never imagined Snap to
really be. So, he was much more of a
visionary founder. But I do think the
right answer is like being in the middle
because um you do need to optimize
certain parts of the funnel. Like I
learned that like you know changing one
word on a signup page can affect
conversions by 30%. Which is absolutely
crazy to me still to this day. Um and
that does have a drastic effect on your
numbers but also it's important to like
really think big and be a visionary.
And so you know you co-ound scale AI
2016 you know sort of
uh you know feels like a forever ago in
the in the world of you know AI uh
pretty famously had a falling out with
your co-founder and and left you know
after a couple of years.
What lessons can we all draw from that
experience? You know what did you learn
and and what might others learn you know
in terms of you know co-founding a
company with somebody and sometimes
things don't go according to plan. Yeah,
I think the main thing is that if you
can't be your co-founder's biggest
cheerleader, um it's probably not great
to um be their co-founder just because
when like things go wrong in a company
and like you know it's always going to
be a roller coaster and you guys can't
align on a decision um if you're going
to be bitter about it like you're going
to have a falling out like you guys are
going to butt heads. But at the end of
the day, when like other people at the
company are looking at like I guess like
the decisions the company is making and
you can't stand beside your co-founder,
even if you have disagreements, that's
just going to cause issues. Like you
have to be your co-founder's biggest cheerleader.
cheerleader.
And so just moving along, so I'd love to
talk about passes. Uh you know, could
you just walk us through sort of what it
is? And what I'd really love to hear
about is,
you know, what do you see going on in
the creator economy right now? you know,
and and what are the opportunities that
are out there for, you know, people who
are looking to be creators?
Yeah. So, um, we're building
infrastructure to help creators monetize
their brand. And, um, this really became
inspired due to the fact that like I saw
creators really building these like
unicorn companies. So, Mr. Beast with
Feastables, that's actually the main
reason his net worth is so high. Um,
Logan Paul with Prime, Jake Paul with W
and Better, etc. And I think we're going
through a phase right now like after
Kylie built her lipstick brand. Um
creators are realizing that they are the
brand, right? Um I think that a lot of
founders are also realizing and willing
to give up double digit percentage
equity because they see that with
creators um they no longer need to spend
money on customer acquisition costs
because the creators are able to
convert. Um so what I see the future
being is creators really like being
businesses. Um, I don't necessarily see
creators being, you know, like the CEO
though. Like I think that what's going
to happen is, um, operators are going to
partner with creators and are going to
act as like chief creative officers, um,
and really do the marketing behind a
brand and, um, offer, you know, like
creative inputs. Um, but I think a lot
of creators are starting their own
venture funds. They're like grabbing
equity in companies, etc. And this is
going to be the trend going forward um
because everyone wants to build
generational wealth which I think is why
creators are so interested in tech right
now because they're seeing like this is
how a lot of new money is being built.
And so you know I would love to you know
Randall had said earlier today that
there are probably several billionaires
future billionaires you know out in the
in the crowd today. Um you know you
managed to hit the milestone at a at a
very you know early age. Um, you know,
at the time you had you had said to
Forbes that, you know, you don't think
about it very much and, uh, you know,
it's not very liquid. Uh, has your
perspective on any of that changed? I
mean, what's what's your reaction, I
guess, to, you know, being the world's
youngest self-made billionaire?
Uh, my life's pretty much the same. You
know, I'm still waking up at 5:30 a.m.
going to Barry's, going to work. Like,
we work in the office every single day
of the week. So, um, I just go to work
then go home.
Yeah. And you know, you're very famously
very frugal, you know, trying to get a
deal on Uber Eats or something like
that. Uh, is there a point where you can
relax on that or do you think that
that's a mindset that everybody should
always have?
I mean, I would say relax on it, but I'm
Asian, so it's almost just like a game,
right? Like I get excited getting deals.
Um, and free things. I really like free things.
things.
All right. And so, you know, I guess in
closing, what's the what's the biggest
takeaway from from your short but, you
know, very uh high journey, I guess, to
to success that everybody else can can
take away? If there's one thing that,
you know, you think people could take
away from your story, what is it?
Yeah, I mean, I think it's optimized for
learning and always be willing to help
people out. Um, because everyone that
you like help out unselfishly, like I do
think karma is a real thing. comes back
at you and when you are successful I
think you should reinvest into the
ecosystem. So nowadays I'm literally
just trying to find all my favorite
products and like you know people that I
just believe in and reinvest in them. Um
cuz I remember what it was like you know
first starting out and I had all these
people just help me with like no
questions asked and I don't think I
would be here today without um doing
that. Oh and then I would say just like
ask for things. because I think people
are too scared to like ask. Um, and I
mean like you will get a yes most likely
no matter what. Like people are going to
like there's going to be someone willing
to give their time. There's going to be
someone that's going to give you money.
Um, and I think that people are too
scared for of rejection. But um, you
just have to be like a no is okay
whatever. Like you get a no, right? Like
what's the worst thing that happens?
Like it hurts your ego a little bit, but
like the first yes you guess is going to
change your life.
Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, thank you
so much for joining us and thank you for
starting your uh DJ career here at
Appreciate it.
I know. I'm excited. Thank you for
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