At just 30, Lucy Guo has achieved what many entrepreneurs spend their entire careers chasing: billionaire status. Earlier this year, her net worth touched $1.3 billion after her stake in Scale AI, the data-labeling company she co-founded in 2016, surged in value following Meta’s investment deal that valued the company at $25 billion. With this, Guo dethroned pop icon Taylor Swift as the youngest self-made woman billionaire, CNBC Make It reported.
But her story is not one of early retirement and luxury. Instead, Guo has doubled down on the Silicon Valley work ethos, urging startup founders to embrace a 90-hour workweek to get their companies off the ground.
Waking at 5:30, skipping lunch, and working into the night
Guo’s daily schedule is as strict as it is intense. She wakes at 5:30 a.m., heads to Barry’s Bootcamp for back-to-back workouts, and then dives straight into work. Lunch rarely features as a pause in her day; instead, she snacks through meetings to avoid breaking momentum. “I think most people could have work-life balance if they cut out what they waste time on after work—like doom scrolling or watching TV,” she told CNBC Make It.
Even weekends aren’t entirely off-limits. Guo gives herself a brief window—from noon to 6 p.m. on one weekend day—to spend time with friends, but the rest is consumed by work. “I think I have more hours in a day because I don’t need much sleep,” she added, noting that she can work until midnight, socialize until 2 a.m., and still be up for a 6 a.m. workout.
From coding teen to billionaire founder
Raised in Fremont, California, by Chinese immigrant parents, Guo was writing code as a teenager. She sold virtual goods from Neopets before pursuing computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. She later dropped out after being awarded the Thiel Fellowship, which encourages young innovators to bypass traditional education in favor of entrepreneurship.
Her career trajectory includes internships at Facebook, a design role at Snapchat where she worked on Snap Maps, and a stint at Quora where she met Alexandr Wang, her Scale AI co-founder. Though she left the company in 2018 after internal disagreements, her nearly 5% stake is what catapulted her into the billionaire’s club.
The 90-hour workweek debate
Guo’s declaration that new founders should commit to 90-hour weeks echoes the controversial “996” culture—working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week—that dominates in parts of China’s tech ecosystem. “When you’re first starting your company, it’s near impossible to do it without doing that. You’re going to need to work like 90-hour work weeks to get things off the ground,” Guo told CNBC Make It.
While Guo frames this as a necessity for early-stage founders, others in the startup community disagree. Critics argue that glorifying exhaustion reduces productivity and accelerates burnout. Sarah Wernér, co-founder of Husmus, called it an “always-on culture” that damages retention, while venture capitalist Suranga Chandratillake dismissed it as “a fetishization of overwork rather than smart work.”
Beyond Scale AI
Guo has not stopped at one success. In 2019, she launched Backend Capital, a venture capital firm supporting early-stage tech startups, and in 2022, she founded Passes, a creator monetization platform that has raised more than $65 million to date.
Passes, however, has faced legal challenges. In February, a class-action lawsuit alleged distribution of explicit material on the platform. Guo dismissed the claims as a “shakedown,” and her company has moved to dismiss the case.
Guo insists that her intense routine still allows for “work-life balance” because of the choices she makes about sleep and socializing. Yet, her version of balance—working until midnight, skipping lunch, and clocking 90-hour weeks—sparks a larger debate: Is this the new standard of ambition, or a dangerous return to burnout culture?
But her story is not one of early retirement and luxury. Instead, Guo has doubled down on the Silicon Valley work ethos, urging startup founders to embrace a 90-hour workweek to get their companies off the ground.
Waking at 5:30, skipping lunch, and working into the night
Guo’s daily schedule is as strict as it is intense. She wakes at 5:30 a.m., heads to Barry’s Bootcamp for back-to-back workouts, and then dives straight into work. Lunch rarely features as a pause in her day; instead, she snacks through meetings to avoid breaking momentum. “I think most people could have work-life balance if they cut out what they waste time on after work—like doom scrolling or watching TV,” she told CNBC Make It.
Even weekends aren’t entirely off-limits. Guo gives herself a brief window—from noon to 6 p.m. on one weekend day—to spend time with friends, but the rest is consumed by work. “I think I have more hours in a day because I don’t need much sleep,” she added, noting that she can work until midnight, socialize until 2 a.m., and still be up for a 6 a.m. workout.
From coding teen to billionaire founder
Raised in Fremont, California, by Chinese immigrant parents, Guo was writing code as a teenager. She sold virtual goods from Neopets before pursuing computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. She later dropped out after being awarded the Thiel Fellowship, which encourages young innovators to bypass traditional education in favor of entrepreneurship.
Her career trajectory includes internships at Facebook, a design role at Snapchat where she worked on Snap Maps, and a stint at Quora where she met Alexandr Wang, her Scale AI co-founder. Though she left the company in 2018 after internal disagreements, her nearly 5% stake is what catapulted her into the billionaire’s club.
The 90-hour workweek debate
Guo’s declaration that new founders should commit to 90-hour weeks echoes the controversial “996” culture—working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week—that dominates in parts of China’s tech ecosystem. “When you’re first starting your company, it’s near impossible to do it without doing that. You’re going to need to work like 90-hour work weeks to get things off the ground,” Guo told CNBC Make It.
While Guo frames this as a necessity for early-stage founders, others in the startup community disagree. Critics argue that glorifying exhaustion reduces productivity and accelerates burnout. Sarah Wernér, co-founder of Husmus, called it an “always-on culture” that damages retention, while venture capitalist Suranga Chandratillake dismissed it as “a fetishization of overwork rather than smart work.”
Beyond Scale AI
Guo has not stopped at one success. In 2019, she launched Backend Capital, a venture capital firm supporting early-stage tech startups, and in 2022, she founded Passes, a creator monetization platform that has raised more than $65 million to date.
Passes, however, has faced legal challenges. In February, a class-action lawsuit alleged distribution of explicit material on the platform. Guo dismissed the claims as a “shakedown,” and her company has moved to dismiss the case.
Guo insists that her intense routine still allows for “work-life balance” because of the choices she makes about sleep and socializing. Yet, her version of balance—working until midnight, skipping lunch, and clocking 90-hour weeks—sparks a larger debate: Is this the new standard of ambition, or a dangerous return to burnout culture?
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