In April 2025, Lucy Guo grew to become the youngest feminine self-made billionaire after Meta paid $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI, the corporate she cofounded with Alexandr Wang in 2016.
Although Guo had left the corporate—which builds infrastructure and software program to create AI purposes—over disagreements with Wang in 2018, she retained her 5% stake within the enterprise, which skyrocketed in worth after Meta’s funding.
In 2022 she reemerged with Passes, a platform that helps creators monetize their social media followings by promoting entry to unique choices—from merchandise and merch to pay-by-the-minute personal telephone calls. As of February, the corporate has raised a complete of $49 million.
Guo tells me that Passes is rising—its funds to creators have totaled 9 figures to this point—and worthwhile. However its enlargement has include some controversy. In 2024, Passes was sued by rival platform Fanfix over alleged anti-competitive practices, and since February it has been going through a class-action lawsuit accusing it of distributing baby pornography.
We talked in regards to the lawsuits, in addition to what her platform presents creators that they will’t get on Patreon and even OnlyFans. She says the platform’s most important differentiator is that her long-term imaginative and prescient for Passes isn’t simply engagement, it’s . . .
. . . utilizing AI to develop creators’ incomes potential after which managing their wealth.
Why did you discovered Passes?
I wished to create a platform the place creators may monetize their model. Creators have such tremendous followers that there’s no buyer acquisition value in the case of advertising and marketing a product, which is exclusive. The perfect instance was when Kylie [Jenner] made some huge cash by way of her lipstick model, and her advertising and marketing plan was actually “I’m simply going to drop it and persons are going to purchase it.”
Then we noticed these different manufacturers pop up like Logan Paul’s Prime, and even Mr. Beast’s with Feastables, that makes up most of his web price. I used to be really debating whether or not to start out off with a platform like Passes or construct one thing like a YC Protected( a Easy Settlement for Future Fairness doc developed by Y Combinator to assist early-stage startups increase capital from buyers), the place creators would have the ability to get fairness into model offers that they work with.
Why did you take into account that choice?
It’s the solution to long-term generational wealth. Fairness is extra vital than upfront money, and I don’t assume Hollywood and managers essentially perceive fairness but. No creators would take heed to us if we pushed on fairness except we began making them cash. The explanation creators take heed to their managers is that the supervisor is their most important supply of revenue—so we wanted to grow to be their most important supply of revenue.
Over COVID, I observed a number of associates had been getting cash from Patreon or Purchase Me a Espresso. I assumed it was the proper time for creators to attach with their followers and supply an unique, genuine expertise, and I wished create the infrastructure for that.
What differentiates passes from say, a Patreon or an OnlyFans?
Quite a bit. We’ve got paid livestreams, paid one-on-one calls the place followers pay per minute. You’ll be able to promote your individual merchandise or you may create merchandise on our web site and promote it with out having to personal stock. We’re constructing out new options within the fintech house. We provide medical health insurance. We wish to create these unicorn creators and get into wealth administration.
Say a creator is on OnlyFans or Patreon, how do you persuade them to change over to Passes?
We don’t compete with OnlyFans—they’re a totally completely different platform. We don’t enable nudity, so when somebody’s on OnlyFans, we inform them that in the event that they change over to Passes, they’re in all probability not going to make any cash.
There are many non-pornographic content material creators on OnlyFans.
Yeah, for certain. However even when they’re doing different stuff, I feel their fan base has the hope of getting one thing else. Due to that, persons are prepared to spend extra on OnlyFans as a result of they simply know they’re not going to get something on Passes. As for Patreon, the pitch is fairly straightforward. We take much less of a proportion from creators’ earnings, now we have extra options, so there’s extra methods to monetize. We’ve seen creators change over from Patreon and make 30 occasions extra.
You’ve stated elsewhere that creators who make some huge cash on Passes usually have one thing like 100,000 followers on social media. Essentially the most-followed individuals on this planet don’t essentially have the closest relationships with their followers. Why is that?
Creators which have tens of millions of followers are very busy. They’re centered on capturing motion pictures or flying out for model offers. Creators which have between 100,000 and 1,000,000 followers aren’t getting as many alternatives. They’re determined for a solution to monetize their fan base, they usually occur to have extra superfans as a result of they’re creating extra content material to achieve traction and develop their follower numbers. They’re creating extra content material, and extra content material equals extra money.
There was a 2024 lawsuit introduced on by one other creator platform, Fanfix, which alleged that Passes used confidential info to put up purchasers and made deceptive claims about creators’ earnings on the platform. That clearly doesn’t match up with what you simply stated.
I’m used to San Francisco and the tech trade, the place you’re competing off of advantage and everybody’s simply attempting to create one of the best product attainable. Hollywood may be very litigious and within the Hollywood scene, persons are prepared to make up lies with the intention to compete.
You’re additionally at the moment being sued in a class motion swimsuit over claims that Passes knowingly distributed baby sexual supplies. How are you responding to that case?
We did our personal inside investigation and located that the claims and the case don’t match up with proof that now we have discovered up to now. I feel that is simply one other a kind of situations the place persons are attempting to shake us down and try to get cash. That case was dismissed in Florida. [Editor’s Note: The lawsuit was dismissed in Florida, but transferred to California, where it remains active.]
You probably did make adjustments to the platform consequently, although. Now individuals beneath 18 can’t be part of.
We had the concept that everybody ought to have the ability to monetize. Once you take a look at YouTube, a number of households are monetizing their content material. However on the finish of the day, it was a handful of creators that generated close to 0% of income on Passes. So we determined it was very dangerous and simply not price it.
You’re a high-profile founder. What’s it like for you personally when authorized challenges come up?
Now I’m proof against it. I used to be very stunned at first. What I’ve realized in lawsuits—and this blew my thoughts—is that you need to assume all the things within the declare is true and attempt to poke authorized holes in that. You’ll be able to’t simply hand over proof that the allegations are incorrect and transfer on. That simply makes it really easy for individuals to sue off others of full lies. I feel the hope when individuals do that’s that the price of one other social gathering defending the lawsuit is bigger than simply settling. I refuse to settle as a result of I might slightly spend extra and show issues aren’t true.
What are you able to say about the way forward for Passes?
Wealth administration. Creators all the time ask us, how do I flip passive revenue into passive fairness? Who’re one of the best wealth managers to work with? How do I set myself up for all times? That is all stuff we must always simply have the ability to do.
We’ve already paid out creators 9 figures. Each time we ship a payout to their checking account, now we have to pay a price. It simply is sensible for us to be a financial institution as a result of then we may give them high-yield financial savings accounts.
Do you’ve any predictions in regards to the creator economic system?
The creator economic system is rising, and we’re going to see extra creators sooner or later simply because traits comply with youngsters. Once you discuss to youngsters these days, all of them wish to be creators. We’re going to be seeing much more creators, particularly in a variety the place we monetize effectively, which is the 100,000-follower vary.
What do you consider this emergent class of AI-generated “expertise”—I’m considering of figures just like the AI actor Tilly Norwood—within the context of Passes and the creator economic system?
I’m not that bullish on AI creators. There have already been a number of and everybody thought it was going to be the following large factor, however actually we acquired Lil Miquela and a few others. What’s more likely to occur is that persons are going to be licensing their likeness out to allow them to spend extra time creating content material and interacting with their followers. For instance, if a model wished to fly me out, I may simply license my likeness out as a substitute of that. I may scale myself higher so I’ve extra time to do issues that I really like. We’re not going to see AI creators change precise creators as a result of it’s arduous to have a human reference to somebody that you recognize is faux.
Do you assume you may have a human reference to a licensed picture of a creator?
I feel so. However you may’t dilute your model an excessive amount of. On the finish of the day, it’s nonetheless that creator you’ve a reference to. You’re following them on Instagram and you’re keen on them.
How are you utilizing AI to attach creators with the precise model offers?
We’ve got a characteristic known as sensible pricing that principally mechanically costs items of content material creators make primarily based off components like fan historical past and the kind of content material it’s, to assist optimize their earnings. When creators use this, their earnings go up by 3x normally. Hopefully this quarter, we’re rolling out AI brokers for creators. We wish creators to have the ability to concentrate on creating content material. These brokers do all the things from AB take a look at captions to scheduling mass messages and working technique beneath pages.
Do you assume we’re in an AI bubble?
I don’t assume we’re in an AI bubble. Valuations are greater now as a result of you may construct corporations at a decrease value. I used to be in San Francisco different week, and there was this firm that scaled from zero to $90 million in income in 4 months. They’ve Cursor AI doing 99% of their code. Due to all these AI instruments you now want much less cash to get to scale. Valuations are predictive. It’s like, okay, we’re going to provide you 10x what income is as a result of we consider you’re going to be a 100x income. And I feel a number of buyers are considering this fashion. You don’t must burn as a lot capital to get there.
