Inside 30-year-old billionaire Lucy Guo’s intense each day routine

Lucy Guo is perhaps a billionaire, however as an alternative of a lifetime of luxurious and luxury, she swears by a relentless work ethic and strict each day routine.

At simply 30 years outdated, the California-born-and-raised entrepreneur has achieved what many will spend their lifetimes chasing. In April, Guo’s web value soared to $1.3 billion after her first enterprise, Scale AI, wrapped up a take care of tech big Meta that valued the corporate at $25 billion. She was named the youngest self-made girl billionaire, a title beforehand held by pop star Taylor Swift.

“Actually, I nonetheless really feel the identical as that little woman, like my life pre-money and post-money, it hasn’t actually modified that a lot,” Guo instructed CNBC Make It in an interview.

Guo co-founded Scale AI, an AI knowledge labeling firm, alongside Alexander Wang in 2016. Guo, who headed up the operations and product design groups on the Silicon Valley startup, left the corporate in 2018.

“We had disagreements round merchandise and gross sales,” Guo defined. “The place Alex was very sales-driven on bringing in additional prospects, I used to be very targeted on like ‘hey, we have to prioritize the merchandise or serving to guarantee that scalers [employees] receives a commission on time, their hours are being counted accurately, however that wasn’t the place the assets had been being poured in.”

Nevertheless, Guo held on to her stake, which is value slightly below 5%. When Meta agreed to amass 49% of Scale AI, the deal pushed Guo’s stake to a skyrocketing $1.25 billion.

A serial entrepreneur and a graduate of the Thiel Fellowship program, Guo wasn’t out of the sport for lengthy and based Backend Capital, a enterprise capital agency investing in early-stage tech startups in 2019. Her most up-to-date firm, Passes, a content material creator monetization platform based in 2022, has raised over $65 million in funding.  

Since changing into a billionaire, Guo hasn’t taken her foot off the work pedal. “I’m nonetheless working very lengthy work days,” she stated.

Guo belongs to a class of founders who optimize their days to be as productive as attainable, and her newfound billionaire standing is not an excuse to decelerate.

A mean day for Guo contains waking up at 5:30 a.m. and going to Barry’s Bootcamp for 2 exercise classes back-to-back. Lunches are a luxurious for the startup founder, and she or he usually eats throughout conferences as her schedule does not all the time permit for a break, she stated.

“I feel most individuals may have work-life stability in the event that they lower out what most individuals waste their time on after they get again residence, which is, lots of people doom scroll on TikTok, lots of people simply sit and watch TV mindlessly,” she stated.

Within the curiosity of work-life stability, Guo provides herself at some point off on the weekends, the place from midday to six p.m., she’s completely targeted on spending time along with her pals, after which it is again to work straight after.

“I feel I’ve extra hours in a day as a result of I am gonna be sincere, I am completely blessed. I do not want that a lot sleep…though I am working these lengthy hours, I really feel like I’ve work-life stability.

“I may theoretically work till midnight, after which I may exit to the membership till 2 a.m., after which I may fall asleep, after which get up at like 6 a.m. and do Barry’s.”

The younger founder embodies the Silicon Valley mantra of working 24 hours a day, seven days every week, much like China’s notorious 996 work tradition, which incorporates working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days every week.

“9 a.m. to 9 p.m., to me that is nonetheless work-life stability,” Guo commented. “At 9 p.m., you may go to dinner with your pals. You possibly can invite them to a potluck. You needn’t sleep from 9 to 9. That is a ridiculous quantity of sleep.”

“If anybody thinks that is not work-life stability, I do not know what to say since you actually have 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. to hang around with your pals, and you then sleep from 2 a.m. to 9. That is seven hours of sleep, which is greater than sufficient.”

However not everybody agrees with the pursuit of a 996 work schedule. Some founders beforehand pushed again in opposition to the pattern, telling CNBC that the views are outdated and pointless to attain success.

An always-on tradition decreases retention and creates a revolving door of expertise, Sarah Wernér, co-founder of Husmus, instructed CNBC.”

Suranga Chandratillake, normal companion at Balderton Capital, added that 996 is about “a fetishization of overwork fairly than sensible work…it is a delusion.”

Startup founders’ working hours are a much-contested subject. Not too long ago, some enterprise capitalists had been even pushing European founders to step up the work tempo to maintain up with their counterparts within the U.S. and China.

“Generally, if you’re first beginning your organization, it is close to not possible to do it with out doing that [996], like you are going to have to work like 90-hour work weeks to get issues off the bottom,” Guo stated.

As an organization grows, hires extra expertise, and finds stability, Guo says it’s attainable to work much less in a while.

She famous that changing into a billionaire is not about intense working hours. In case you constantly make investments a whole bunch of hundreds into the S&P 500, it may develop to billions by the tip of your lifetime, in keeping with Guo.

“I do not assume it’s good to work these hours to develop into a billionaire, per se. It is how you decide to do it. In case you decide to start out a tech firm, you are gonna be working these hours at first. In case you’re like, important methodology is doing it through investing, you are not gonna be working these hours,” she stated.

Guo’s newest startup, Passes, grew to become embroiled in controversy in February after a class motion lawsuit was filed in opposition to her and the corporate, alleging that she distributed baby sexual abuse materials on the platform to paying subscribers.

“I feel it is a complete shakedown. I by no means met this individual, by no means talked to this individual,” Guo stated in regards to the lawsuit.

A spokesperson from Passes instructed CNBC Make It through electronic mail: “As defined within the movement to dismiss filed on April 28, Ms. Guo and Passes categorically reject the baseless allegations made in opposition to them within the lawsuit, which was solely filed in opposition to them after they rejected a $15 million cost demand.”

Clark Smith Villazor, the New York-based litigation agency that introduced the lawsuit in opposition to Passes, has but to answer CNBC’s request for remark.