Despite founding and retaining a $1.3 billion stake in an AI unicorn, you won’t catch Lucy Guo wasting her billions on a lavish lifestyle to match her new status.
“I don’t like wasting money,” the frugal 30-year-old tells Fortune.
Of course, sometimes Guo will splurge—like if she’s got a 16 hour flight to endure, she says she’ll opt for business class. And there’s the odd designer dress hanging in her closet for when she needs it.
“Everything I wear is free or from Shein… Some of them aren’t going to be that great quality, but there’s always like two pieces or so that really work out, and I just wear them every day,” the billionaire founder laughs. “I still literally buy buy-one-get-one-free on Uber Eats.”
Guo, who is currently the founder and CEO of the creator community platform Passes, adds that a quote she stumbled on on the morning of our interview perfectly summarises her approach: “It’s like, act broke, stay rich.”
“Who you see typically wasting money on, designer clothes, a nice car, et cetera, they’re technically in the millionaire range,” Guo explains. “All their friends are multimillionaires, or billionaires and they feel a little bit insecure, so they feel the need to be flashy to show other people, ‘look, I’m successful.’”
“I’m not showing off to anyone, right?”
Indeed, for our interview, she’s makeup-free, dressed down, and could pass for any other millennial. But earlier in her career, Guo admits she, too, may have been dripping in designer gear.
“I do think that this is actually something that I personally went through, and I think a lot of people go through when you’re in that middle ground of you’re successful, but not as successful as you want to be.”
“And I think the reason most billionaires dress in a t-shirt, jeans, hoodies, is that they can. They don’t need to be in the suit 24/7 because they’re done proving themselves to the rest of the world. The rest of the world is just sucking up to them,” she adds. “And I think that’s kind of how I like feel, where I’m past that hump. I don’t really have to prove myself to anyone.”
“No one’s going to look at me and point at me like, ‘Haha, she’s so broke’ when I’m pulling up in a Honda Civic because whatever, it doesn’t matter.”
But in Guo’s eyes, she’s one of the few who actually are as cheap as they say they are.
“I think that people want to fit into society. Specifically in America, I do think there is a ‘we hate billionaires situation.’ So because of that, people want to show, ‘look, I’m not your typical billionaire. I’m frugal,’” she explains.
“I’m not saying it to be like, ‘let me show you the world that I’m not like other billionaires,” Guo adds. “I fully admit it, I have gone through that spending spree when I was more insecure, and I felt like I needed to show something.”
And those who really aren’t spending their millions? They aren’t doing it to be relatable, she says it’s because like her they had their flashy era—then reached the inevitable realisation: “Why am I wasting my money on something that doesn’t matter?”
