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Founder worth $1.3 billion still shops at Shein, drives old Honda: ‘I don’t like wasting money’
Lucy Guo, co-founder of Scale AI and college dropout, emphasizes thriftiness despite billionaire status.
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At 30, Lucy Guo has dethroned Taylor Swift as the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. Despite her staggering net worth – Forbes estimates it to be $1.3 billion – this 30-year-old college dropout does not believe in wasting money.
In fact, Lucy tells Fortune that her wardrobe is dominated by free clothes or fast fashion - barring the odd designer dress. She still drives a Honda Civic and flies commercial.
“I don’t like wasting money,” the 30-year-old told Fortune.
Who is Lucy Guo? And what is the source of her wealth?
Lucy Guo is an American social media influencer and co-founder of Scale AI. She founded the company in 2016 and was fired two years later following a disagreement with co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang.
Lucy was just 21 when she launched the AI startup. A computer science student at Carnegie Mellon, she had dropped out of college and interned with Facebook before she built Scale AI.
Despite being fired, Guo retained an estimated 5% stake in Scale AI. It is this stake that gives her her status as the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at age 30.
Lucy Guo on wearing Shein
“Everything I wear is free or from Shein,” Guo, now the founder of OnlyFans competitor Passes, told Fortune.
“Some of them aren’t going to be that great quality, but there’s always like two pieces or so that really work out, and I just wear them every day,” she added.
Her thriftiness does not end at clothes - this Miami and Los Angeles-based billionaire still drives an old Honda Civic and doesn’t believe in private jets. If it’s a long flight, Guo does splurge on a business class ticket.
“I still literally buy buy-one-get-one-free on Uber Eats… in terms of like daily life, my assistant just drives me in a pretty old Honda Civic. I don’t care,” she says.
“Who you see typically wasting money on, designer clothes, a nice car, et cetera, they’re technically in the millionaire range,” Guo explains. “All their friends are multimillionaires, or billionaires and they feel a little bit insecure, so they feel the need to be flashy to show other people, ‘look, I’m successful.’”
