- Billionaire faculty 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 web value, the 30-year-old cofounder of Scale AI tells Fortune she nonetheless pinches the pennies and retailers 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 life-style to match her new standing.
“I don’t like losing cash,” the frugal 30-year-old tells Fortune.
In fact, generally Guo will splurge—like if she’s acquired 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“However when it comes to like every day life, my assistant simply drives me in a fairly outdated Honda Civic. I don’t care,” she says.
“Every thing 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 each day,” the billionaire founder laughs. “I nonetheless actually purchase buy-one-get-one-free on Uber Eats.”
Guo, who’s at the moment the founder and CEO of the creator neighborhood platform Passes, provides {that a} quote she came across on the morning of our interview completely summarises her method: “It’s like, act broke, keep wealthy.”
Millionaires have to 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 value an estimated $1.2 billion—making the millennial one in every of simply 5 feminine billionaires beneath 40 in line with 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 associates are multimillionaires, or billionaires they usually really feel just a little bit insecure, in order that they really feel the should be flashy to indicate different individuals, ‘look, I’m profitable.’”
“I’m not exhibiting off to anybody, proper?”
Certainly, for our interview, she’s makeup-free, dressed down, and will go for every other millennial. However earlier in her profession, Guo admits she, too, might have been dripping in designer gear.
“I do assume that that is really one thing that I personally went by means of, and I believe lots of people undergo if you’re in that center floor of you’re profitable, however not as profitable as you wish to be.”
“And I believe the explanation most billionaires gown in a t-shirt, denims, hoodies, is that they’ll. They don’t should be within the go well with 24/7 as a result of they’re carried out proving themselves to the remainder of the world. The remainder of the world is simply sucking as much as them,” she provides. “And I believe that’s sort of how I like really feel, the place I’m previous that hump. I don’t actually must 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 wish 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 life-style for a while now. They’ve been donning logo-less angora wool jumpers and linen trousers that might 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 individuals in decrease tax brackets.
Others, like KeKe Palmer and Warren Buffet, have been much less delicate about how they lead very regular lives, regardless of their big web 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 really are as low-cost as they are saying they’re.
“I believe that folks wish to match into society. Particularly in America, I do assume there’s a ‘we hate billionaires state of affairs.’ So due to that, individuals wish 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 by means of that spending spree after I was extra insecure, and I felt like I wanted to indicate one thing.”
And those that actually aren’t spending their hundreds of thousands? They aren’t doing it to be relatable, she says it’s as a result of like her that they had 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
