How Lucy Guo went from college drop-out to one of America's richest self-made women
And why professionals with a strong online presence will dominate the future
Hey friends,
The field of AI is experiencing unprecedented growth and expansion today. However, just a few years ago, only a handful of visionaries were truly dedicated to advancing AI technology. Today, we'll share the inspiring journey of Lucy Guo, one of these visionaries. Lucy co-founded Scale AI in 2016 before venturing into her own venture capital firm. Her current estimated net worth exceeds 400 million dollars. This is the story of her journey from college dropout to one of America's wealthiest self-made women. Enjoy!
Two college drop-outs = success?
Lucy enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University, majoring in computer science for two years, but then chose to leave in 2014. Back in high school, Lucy was already actively participating in hackathons and spending a lot of time on internet forums, self-teaching coding skills. After a couple of years in college, Lucy decided that the hassles of a degree weren't worthwhile and became a Thiel Fellow.
Following stints at Snapchat and Quora as a product designer, Lucy crossed paths with Alexandr Wang, another college dropout. Together, they shared a vision of helping companies harness the power of machine learning at scale. Without much hesitation, these two dropouts founded a company destined for great success: Scale AI.
Taking a step back- and two forwards
After encountering some initial challenges with their product line, Scale AI shifted its focus towards using imagery, computer vision, and various sensor data to deliver top-notch training data for machine learning teams. This pivot marked a turning point for them. Scale AI quickly skyrocketed in value, becoming a multi-billion dollar company, with Lucy excelling in her role as a developer for cutting-edge AI solutions and leading numerous successful research projects.
However, in 2018, despite being one of the most influential women in the AI industry, Lucy made a surprising move by stepping away from the company. She decided to embrace a new challenge: venture capital.
Passing on the success
Lucy knew she wasn’t going to leave the AI industry anytime soon. But instead of founding another AI company, her focus shifted on helping other ones succeed. Today, her fund has invested into over 50 start-ups and helped countless brilliant engineers establish their company.
While she is still general partner at Backend Capital, Lucy couldn’t go without leading a company, which is why she started building a new platform, Passes, in 2022. Lucy is confident that creators are not only entrepreneurs, but own the future. That is why Passes is designed to help individuals capture their audience, and monetize it too. When asked what her long-term goals were, Lucy stated she simply wants to make all other competitors obsolete.
Leveraging one’s audience
Lucy began growing her followers on X (formerly Twitter) while working at Backend Capital, and her audience reached an impressive 64,000, including notable figures like Pomp! She strongly believes that there's a crucial connection between starting a business and having a dedicated audience. When you're the face of your company, people are more inclined to join your team. For instance, even though many employees were laid off at Twitter after Elon Musk took charge, some people still choose to stay because they want to be part of his vision. This concept can be especially valuable, especially when you're just starting your entrepreneurial journey, much like Lucy did in 2022 with Passes.
Lucy’s dedication to master skills without getting a degree shows that in today’s world, you can teach yourself whatever you want to learn. Not only does Lucy’s journey prove that you don’t need a college degree to be successful, it also showcases the necessity for having an audience when starting a new company.
Cheers,
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