The contemporary technology and entrepreneurial world are in constant flux, moulded by risk-taking innovators who do not shy away from bucking the norm. Over the last couple of years, a fresh set of founders has appeared on the scene who work with the purpose to combine engineering skills with innovative business models as well as unflinching personal branding. They're not just creating companies; they are disrupting industries while setting new standards for success.
More and more women are staking their claims in traditionally male domains. They are using both brains and muscle to take big swings at business, with often searing scrutiny to follow. One amongst such names is Lucy Guo. Lucy is a pioneer whose path has led her from teen coder to feted tech mogul. The tech entrepreneur recently dethroned Taylor Swift as the youngest self-made female billionaire.
Born to Chinese immigrant parents who were electrical engineers in Fremont, Lucy entered the world of technology early. She coded as a kid and made money during her teenage years creating bots on Neopets and selling digital assets.
Rising Through Silicon Valley
Lucy’s entrepreneurial spirit took her to Carnegie Mellon University to pursue computer science, but she departed in 2014 after winning the Thiel Fellowship, a $100,000 scholarship urging young entrepreneurs to forego college and start companies.
After short-lived gigs at Facebook and Snapchat, where she was the first woman designer and assisted in developing Snap Maps, Lucy went to Quora. There, she met Alexandr Wang alongside whom she co-founded Scale AI, a startup for data labeling artificial intelligence in the year 2016. While she was let go from the company in 2018, she still maintained a vast amount of ownership. In 2025, the valuation of Scale AI reached a high of $25 billion, pushing Lucy's net worth to $1.25 billion and making her the globe's youngest self-made female billionaire.
Creating (and Courting) Controversy
Not one to rest, Lucy continued to start many ventures. In 2019, she started Backend Capital, a venture company that invests in early-stage engineering startups such as the fintech startup Ramp. In 2022, she started Passes, a subscription service for influencers and creators to monetize content, akin to OnlyFans. The company raised $40 million by 2024 and signed up notable personalities such as Olivia Dunne and Shaquille O'Neal.
But Passes was criticized in 2024 for enabling a child to share bikini pictures—content that only went down after intervention by the media. In 2025, the site was involved in a lawsuit over the sharing of sexually abusive content involving a creator's early life. These events created controversy, yet Lucy has been generally unbothered in the public sphere.
Living on Her Own Terms
Beyond her business ventures, Lucy is known for her flamboyant lifestyle. She spent years as a digital nomad before settling in Miami in 2020, where her $6.7 million apartment and headline-making parties earned her the label ‘Miami’s number one party girl’ by the New York Post. In 2024, she purchased a $4.2 million home in West Hollywood and now lives in Los Angeles.
Brazen and provocative, Lucy Guo is not merely another tech entrepreneur, she is a shorthand for how the next generation of business builders are redefining the playbook on achievement.
