- Billionaire school dropout Lucy Guo is reportedly the youngest self-made girl on the planet—knocking Taylor Swift off the highest spot. However even with a $1.3 billion reported internet price, the 30-year-old cofounder of Scale AI tells Fortune she nonetheless pinches the pennies and outlets at Shein.
Regardless of founding and retaining a $1.3 billion stake in an AI unicorn, you gained’t catch Lucy Guo losing her billions on a lavish way of life to match her new standing.
“I don’t like losing cash,” the frugal 30-year-old tells Fortune.
After all, generally Guo will splurge—like if she’s bought a 16 hour flight to endure, she says she’ll go for enterprise class. And there’s the odd designer gown hanging in her closet for when she wants it.
“However by way of like every day life, my assistant simply drives me in a fairly outdated Honda Civic. I don’t care,” she says.
“All the things I put on is free or from Shein… A few of them aren’t going to be that nice high quality, however there’s all the time like two items or so that basically work out, and I simply put on them day-after-day,” the billionaire founder laughs. “I nonetheless actually purchase buy-one-get-one-free on Uber Eats.”
Guo, who’s at present the founder and CEO of the creator neighborhood platform Passes, provides {that a} quote she discovered on the morning of our interview completely summarises her method: “It’s like, act broke, keep wealthy.”
Millionaires must show themself—billionaires don’t
Guo hit the jackpot after the AI startup she cofounded, Scale AI, was reportedly valued at $25 billion in April as a part of a share sale.
Though she left the corporate in 2018 (two years after founding it), the 5% stake she held onto is now price an estimated $1.2 billion—making the millennial certainly one of simply 5 feminine billionaires underneath 40 in response to Forbes’ newest rating, together with Rihanna and Anthropic’s cofounder Daniela Amodei.
It’s why Guo now not feels the necessity to show her wealth with a Patek Philippe on a regular basis watch, or a Hermès Birkin to hold her laptop computer. That, she says, is the behaviour of millionaires.
“Who you see usually losing cash on, designer garments, a pleasant automobile, et cetera, they’re technically within the millionaire vary,” Guo explains. “All their buddies are multimillionaires, or billionaires they usually really feel slightly bit insecure, in order that they really feel the have to be flashy to point out different folks, ‘look, I’m profitable.’”
“I’m not displaying off to anybody, proper?”
Certainly, for our interview, she’s makeup-free, dressed down, and will go for another millennial. However earlier in her profession, Guo admits she, too, might have been dripping in designer gear.
“I do suppose that that is truly one thing that I personally went via, and I feel lots of people undergo once you’re in that center floor of you’re profitable, however not as profitable as you need to be.”
“And I feel the explanation most billionaires gown in a t-shirt, denims, hoodies, is that they will. They don’t have to be within the go well with 24/7 as a result of they’re executed proving themselves to the remainder of the world. The remainder of the world is simply sucking as much as them,” she provides. “And I feel that’s form of how I like really feel, the place I’m previous that hump. I don’t actually need to show myself to anybody.”
“Nobody’s going to have a look at me and level at me like, ‘Haha, she’s so broke’ after I’m pulling up in a Honda Civic as a result of no matter, it doesn’t matter.”
‘Low-cost’ CEOs simply need to sound relatable—however not Guo
Guo’s not the one ultra-wealthy to confess she’s “fairly frugal.” The world’s strongest have been boasting about their quiet luxurious way of life for a while now. They’ve been donning logo-less angora wool jumpers and linen trousers that could possibly be from anyplace to the unassuming eye. Consultants say their rich friends can inform who’s carrying Zara from who’s in Loro Piana, however the level is to resemble folks in decrease tax brackets.
Others, like KeKe Palmer and Warren Buffet, have been much less refined about how they lead very regular lives, regardless of their big internet worths—with the world’s most well-known investor going as far to name himself “low cost”.
However in Guo’s eyes, she’s one of many few who truly are as low cost as they are saying they’re.
“I feel that individuals need to match into society. Particularly in America, I do suppose there’s a ‘we hate billionaires scenario.’ So due to that, folks need to present, ‘look, I’m not your typical billionaire. I’m frugal,’” she explains.
“I’m not saying it to be like, ‘let me present you the world that I’m not like different billionaires,” Guo provides. “I absolutely admit it, I’ve gone via that spending spree after I was extra insecure, and I felt like I wanted to point out one thing.”
And people who actually aren’t spending their thousands and thousands? They aren’t doing it to be relatable, she says it’s as a result of like her they’d their flashy period—then reached the inevitable realisation: “Why am I losing my cash on one thing that doesn’t matter?”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
