World’s youngest self-made female billionaire: At 25, Alexander Wang holds the record for being the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. His start-up, Scale AI, which he co-founded in 2016, accounts for the bulk of his US$1 billion net worth. The current market value of the tech platform is US$7.3 billion. Wang is causing a stir in the IT industry, but he’s not alone. Former co-founder Lucy Guo is also receiving good praise. She was recently ranked second behind Kylie Jenner on Forbes list of wealthiest self-made women under the age of 40, with an estimated net worth of US$490 million. Other celebrities on the list include Rihanna, Huda Kattan, Maria Sharapova and Taylor Swift. Given this remarkable achievement, how did Guo break into a traditionally male-dominated field of technology ruled by stalwarts like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos?
Snapchat’s first female designer
In second grade, Guo reportedly started learning to code, according to a New York Post feature. Guo’s parents are both electrical engineers, so, unlike some parents who may encourage their children to follow their passion, this was not the case for Guo. Her mother specifically discouraged her from going into technology because it is challenging for women to succeed in this profession. However, the 28-year-old IT prodigy seemed unfazed. Guo eventually attended Carnegie Mellon to study computer science, but left early to apply for the Peter Thiel Fellowship, which was established by the co-founder of PayPal. According to the fellowship’s website, “The fellowship awards US$100,000 to young people who want to create instead of sit in a classroom.” She worked for Quora before co-founding Scale AI and then became the first female designer of Snapchat.
except alexander wang
In 2018, the same year Wang and Guo were named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, Guo left Scale AI. He still has a 6% ownership position in the business. According to Forbes, he co-founded the early-stage business firm Backend Capital in 2019. He started the tech start-up Moment last April. According to its website, Moment is backed by Antifund, the venture capital firm founded by Geoffrey Wu and Jake Paul.
fittest billionaire
To demonstrate his stamina, Guo once uploaded a three-hour HIIT video to YouTube. She said in the description of the video that apart from running 16–32 km (10–20 mi) every day, she does another HIIT or strength training session before dinner. She exercises for a total of 5.5 hours every day.
Guo reportedly spent US$6.7 million on a lavish apartment at the One Thousand Museum in Miami, Florida. According to the same New York Post feature, Guo and David Beckham are neighbors. However, she failed to recognize the football star when they both boarded the elevator. He found out about it only from his acquaintance, who later said, “Oh my God, it was David Beckham.”