Inside billionaire Lucy Guo’s intense daily routine: 5:30 a.m. wake-ups, double gym sessions, and no lunch breaks

Lucy Guo might be a billionaire, but instead of a life of luxury and comfort, she swears by a relentless work ethic and strict daily routine.

At just 30 years old, the California-born-and-raised entrepreneur has achieved what many will spend their lifetimes chasing. In April, Guo’s net worth soared to $1.3 billion after her first business, Scale AI, wrapped up a deal with tech giant Meta that valued the company at $25 billion. She was named the youngest self-made woman billionaire, a title previously held by pop star Taylor Swift.

“Honestly, I still feel the same as that little girl, like my life pre-money and post-money, it hasn’t really changed that much,” Guo told CNBC Make It in an interview.

Guo co-founded Scale AI, an AI data labeling company, alongside Alexander Wang in 2016. Guo, who headed up the operations and product design teams at the Silicon Valley startup, left the company in 2018.

“We had disagreements around products and sales,” Guo explained. “Where Alex was very sales-driven on bringing in more customers, I was very focused on like ‘hey, we need to prioritize the products or helping make sure that scalers [employees] get paid on time, their hours are being counted correctly, but that wasn’t where the resources were being poured in.”

However, Guo held on to her stake, which is worth just under 5%. When Meta agreed to acquire 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 game for long and founded Backend Capital, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage tech startups in 2019. Her most recent company, Passes, a content creator monetization platform founded in 2022, has raised over $65 million in funding.  

Since becoming a billionaire, Guo hasn’t taken her foot off the work pedal. “I am still working very long work days,” she said.

Guo belongs to a category of founders who optimize their days to be as productive as possible, and her newfound billionaire status isn’t an excuse to slow down.

An average day for Guo includes waking up at 5:30 a.m. and going to Barry’s Bootcamp for two workout sessions back-to-back. Lunches are a luxury for the startup founder, and she often eats during meetings as her schedule doesn’t always allow for a break, she said.

“I think most people could have work-life balance if they cut out what most people waste their time on when they get back home, which is, a lot of people doom scroll on TikTok, a lot of people just sit and watch TV mindlessly,” she said.

In the interest of work-life balance, Guo gives herself one day off on the weekends, where from noon to 6 p.m., she’s totally focused on spending time with her friends, and then it’s back to work straight after.

“I think I have more hours in a day because I’m gonna be honest, I’m totally blessed. I don’t need that much sleep…even though I’m working these long hours, I feel like I have work-life balance.

“I could theoretically work until midnight, and then I could go out to the club until 2 a.m., and then I could go to sleep, and then wake up at like 6 a.m. and do Barry’s.”

The young founder embodies the Silicon Valley mantra of working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, similar to China’s infamous 996 work culture, which includes working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week.

“9 a.m. to 9 p.m., to me that’s still work-life balance,” Guo commented. “At 9 p.m., you can go to dinner with your friends. You can invite them to a potluck. You don’t need to sleep from nine to nine. That’s a ridiculous amount of sleep.”

“If anyone thinks that’s not work-life balance, I don’t know what to say because you literally have 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. to hang out with your friends, and then you sleep from 2 a.m. to nine. That’s seven hours of sleep, which is more than enough.”

But not everyone agrees with the pursuit of a 996 work schedule. Some founders previously pushed back against the trend, telling CNBC that the views are outdated and unnecessary to achieve success.

An always-on culture decreases retention and creates a revolving door of talent, Sarah Wernér, co-founder of Husmus, told CNBC.”

Suranga Chandratillake, general partner at Balderton Capital, added that 996 is about “a fetishization of overwork rather than smart work…it’s a myth.”

Startup founders’ working hours are a much-contested issue. Recently, some venture capitalists were even pushing European founders to step up the work pace to keep up with their counterparts in the U.S. and China.

“In general, when you’re first starting your company, it’s near impossible to do it without doing that [996], like you’re going to need to work like 90-hour work weeks to get things off the ground,” Guo said.

As a company grows, hires more talent, and finds stability, Guo says it is possible to work less later on.

She noted that becoming a billionaire isn’t about intense working hours. If you consistently invest hundreds of thousands into the S&P 500, it could grow to billions by the end of your lifetime, according to Guo.

“I don’t think you need to work those hours to become a billionaire, per se. It’s how you opt to do it. If you opt to start a tech company, you’re gonna be working those hours in the beginning. If you’re like, main method is doing it via investing, you’re not gonna be working those hours,” she said.

Guo’s latest startup, Passes, became embroiled in controversy in February after a class action lawsuit was filed against her and the company, alleging that she distributed child sexual abuse material on the platform to paying subscribers.

“I think it’s a total shakedown. I never met this person, never talked to this person,” Guo said about the lawsuit.

A spokesperson from Passes told CNBC Make It via email: “As explained in the motion to dismiss filed on April 28, Ms. Guo and Passes categorically reject the baseless allegations made against them in the lawsuit, which was only filed against them after they rejected a $15 million payment demand.”

Clark Smith Villazor, the New York-based litigation firm that brought the lawsuit against Passes, has yet to respond to CNBC’s request for comment.