Self-Made Millionaire Lucy Guo: How She Made Her First Million
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Cynthia Measom
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Ashleigh Ray
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If you’re searching for advice on how to make your first $1 million, Lucy Guo’s story is one to take note of. At just 28 years old, this entrepreneur co-founded Scale AI, a billion-dollar tech startup, which propelled her net worth into the hundreds of millions.
Beyond her impressive professional achievements, Guo has a knack for making smart financial choices. Read on to learn more about how she made her first $1 million — plus, find out her personal tips that can help you do the same.
How Guo Made Her First $1 Million
Lucy Guo showed her entrepreneurial spirit early on. When she was just a kid, she sold things like Pokémon cards and colored pencils on the playground to other kids at school. Even though she ultimately got into trouble, she didn’t stop there.
In high school, she earned money through selling things on eBay and selling hacked Pokémon games and marketing tools via websites. With her earnings, she bought $5,000 worth of Bitcoin, which was relatively cheap at the time. In an interview with Fortune, Guo said the Bitcoin she bought is theoretically worth several millions, but she left it on the exchange instead of putting it in a wallet. The website has since been seized by the FBI, which prevented her from making her first million at that point.
Later, she co-founded Scale AI, which is a generative AI startup that helps companies create their own AI systems. Guo sold some of her shares and left the company in 2018. However, she still owns 5.99% of the company, which is valued at $7.3 billion. That makes Guo’s share worth $437.3 million, which makes up the bulk of her current wealth.
Next, Guo went on to co-found Backend Capital, a venture capital firm that funds engineering breakthroughs. Additionally, she is the founder and CEO of Passes, a Web3 platform that offers monetization tools for digital creators.
Guo’s Tips for Making Your First $1 Million
If your goal is to be a self-made millionaire like Lucy Guo, you’re in luck, the wildly successful entrepreneur shared her tips in her Fortune interview.
Spend Time on Reddit’s Financial Forums
When asked for her advice to people who want to make huge wealth gains, especially in the tech field, Guo recommended going to work for a startup and getting money tips from Reddit. “I would go onto Reddit and look up Lean FIRE (financially independent, retire early) and Fat FIRE forums, because they really do teach you a lot about money management and wealth,” she said in her interview with Fortune.
Invest Real Estate
Guo also said she sees big potential in real estate if you’re looking to make your first million. She said you can find lots of cheap properties in Las Vegas that you can Airbnb for income year-round. Additionally, she said you can expect the value of the real estate you purchase to go up over time, which can also help you build wealth.
Put Money in Biotech or AI
Guo also believes in the future of biotech and AI. She said that she invested in a biotech company that’s working on extending the lifespans of dogs by a few years with the goal to extend the lifespans of humans because she believes that it’s potentially a trillion-dollar company.
Save More Than You Spend
One of Guo’s biggest tips is to be frugal and live below your means. She said as people begin to earn more money, they often increase the cost of their lifestyle, which causes them not to be able to save as much. She recommends always saving more than you spend so you can take advantage of the power of compound interest over time.
Guo said that, for the most part, she lived very frugally until she made her first $10 million.
Build Strong Connections
Guo said that “your network is your net worth.” She believes of the easiest ways you can make money is by being a broker and taking a percentage of the transaction.
“For example, if you’re well connected to a lot of funds, and also early-stage startup employees or founders, you can make good money brokering secondaries in hot startups,” she told Fortune.
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