Lucy Guo on Why Founders Need Delusion, Not Certainty

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The biggest mistake a founder or CEO can make is just listening and getting reports from their executives because like, what if they're not telling the truth? My executive layer was not being entirely truthful about like where things were in their org. What I've also learned is that ICs don't lie. Now I have moles in pretty much every single org that really tell me like, hey, this is what's going on.

Hey everyone, welcome back to Superwomen. I'm in my LA outpost. And today's guest is Lucy Guo. She is the world's youngest self-made billionaire, having launched and sold Scale AI. But today we're not really talking about her career in that. We're talking about how you have to disrupt your team, how you can use AI to free up a lot of your time, but most importantly, how to have moles in your office to actually give you the truth. Take a listen.

I would say generally when a team is not working or like a whole team needs to be blown up, chances are they're not actually impactful to the organization at all. I think women are held to higher standards, and that's actually why female founders How do you know, like, to keep pivoting or that this is something—

like, when do you say, I'm drawing the line, I tried that, it failed?

You really have to be delusional to start a company.

I say it all the time.

Like, you have to be delusional to start a company because your chances of failure are 99.9%.

I'm Rebecca Minkoff, and this is Superwomen. Each week, inspiring women are interviewed to uncover the unexpected journeys, the challenges, and the unwavering spirit that made them who they are today. makes them powerful. Get ready to be motivated by stories of resilience and discover the keys to unlocking your own potential. Lucy, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. Excited to be here.

So when I first heard of you, what I loved about you was you don't look like the typical person that like women have put up as like the founder. You're like a DJ, you go to Barry's, you dress like you're in fashion. You know what I mean?

Like, yeah, I love side quests.

You are the antithesis of like, I am going to be a founder and I'm going to just look like this, for a founder that has had the success you've had. And so I was like, I'm intrigued. Who is this fashion woman that should be a supermodel with those legs? And the more I've learned about you through reading about you and hearing about your success, the more I was so excited for this interview. Oh, thank you.

I'm excited to be here.

So one of the things we talked about when we had our Zoom call was the fact that You have built and scaled and sold a huge endeavor, started another, but that you said some things that struck to me as like the opposite of what we've all been told. And one of those to me was not being afraid of certain things, whether it's firing people or blowing up a team. And I say this because when I started, it was like, we're gonna be together forever. It's the 4 of us. And then you realize that someone needs to go or they leave and the devastation that comes with this. And you're, you're pretty fearless in your approach to that. So I'd love to start there. Yeah.

Well, I'd like to correct that a little bit. I would say my biggest weakness as a founder is I'm bad at firing people. I'm very good at identifying when someone needs to be fired, but I am really bad at firing them themselves. Like even one example, uh, at my current company, I had to fire someone and they just started crying in the firing room and I started backtracking quite literally. I was like, well, like maybe we can find a solution. And my HR person is staring me down like Lucy. Not again. So now I actually don't really enter firing rooms, but I'm very quick at identifying, um, because the worst you can do is have an underperformer. Because what ends up happening is that even though they're like really great culturally, let's say, the rest of the team notices. And when our team notices, they get frustrated, like, why is this person still able to be on this team? Like, they're not doing anything. And then they start asking for like more equity or like more salary because they feel like they're worth more than said person that's underperforming. And then suddenly you have a giant problem, right, where you're like running out of equity in your equity pool. You are increasing your burn rate because you're having to keep paying people more to, for retention because they're so frustrated at this one underperformer. So yeah, I mean, I think that like, even though it sucks, especially like firing friends, um, it just needs to be done.

So when you decide to blow up a team, right? I mean, that's assuming that's more than one. It's a couple people.

Yes.

What do you do in those moments? Do you have the backups ready? Like, take me through that moment because I think we've all been there as founders or as people in businesses and we're just like, I gotta do this one at a time, or I gotta give it every 3 months, or if I do it all at once and then bring in a new crew, like everything changes.

Yeah, I would say generally when a team is not working or like a whole team needs to be blown up, chances are they're not actually impactful to the organization at all. On the off chance that it has like some impact, usually I'll have a backup plan. And that backup plan is like, uh, I have an employee that's being underutilized, or they're willing to step it up and work double the hours to be able to take over the job. And obviously this comes with like equity and pay increases. But in general, you don't need to replace like a team of 6 people with 6 other people because there's a reason why the team is being blown up. And that's that they're not that efficient.

And what taught you to be so good at noticing that? Because I feel like a lot of us aren't.

Yeah, I mean, I think that a lot of teams, it's like a very quantifiable, right? For example, sales is like, are you increasing revenue? If you're not increasing revenue or you're increasing revenue at a slow rate. So for example, if like one person could be increasing revenue at the amount that the entire team is doing so, then it's time to blow up the org. Um, I think that like as a founder, I'm the type of founder that like does everything at first myself, so I know like exactly what is possible for a person to do. And obviously like I'll discount that a little bit because for example, if you're doing sales, it's much easier to do sales as a founder than it is as an employee, right? Like everyone wants to talk to the CEO, so you can discount it by like let's call it 30%. But at the end of the day, it's like Because if you know how to do the job yourself and they're not doing it well, then you have an idea of what is the bar.

And have you ever done that and then you have to go back to doing all those things? And is that painful for you or you enjoy it?

All the time. Um, I would say that I don't find it painful, right? Because it lets me, like, let's say I did it initially, like, you know, the seed stage of the company, raise a Series A, hire a team, team's underperforming and I have to go back and do it. I recalibrate. Because there might be outside factors that might have made the job harder. For example, uh, more competitors pop up. Um, so that's just like one example. But I do think as a founder, like, I still do most things in the org. Um, I touch it a little bit, right? Because I wanna constantly have calibration to understand, is the organization performing, uh, as efficiently as it could be?

Right. And I know you're probably sick of talking about this, but with AI creating so much space for support and agentic AI, like how How has that changed how you now structure a team?

So with hiring especially, I actually see like how they can use agentic tools, um, or like have they been using agentic tools to be able to make their jobs more efficient. Um, so like, are you playing around with Claude Code? Are you playing around with Cursor, et cetera? Because now technically anyone can vibe code, right? And there's ways to make your job more efficient through that. Um, I think that every employee is a 10x employee now. So I actually ask that team—

What does that mean? 10x employee.

I would say like they can do the job of 10 people, right?

Wow.

Um, like I don't know if you've tried Claude Design, but it's actually absolutely phenomenal.

I'm still on my— I'm still on Chat and I have to switch over and I'm just— I'm—

Claude is really good for— so the reason why they're doing so much more revenue is because they really built these like great enterprise tools. Like Chat is made more for consumers and that would be like Claude Code, for example. Like pretty much every org uses Claude Code because it makes every engineer a 10x engineer. Um, now Claude Design has come up and like it's making every designer a 10x designer, which is awesome. So I think that like when you're thinking about the organization, you don't need to be hiring as fast. Um, which is cool also because now companies can be started at much lower costs, which I think lowers the barrier of entry for everyone and actually gives like, for example, women a higher chance of success because women have a harder time raising funding, but now they don't need to raise as much funding and they can get just as far along.

So I would, in this meeting that I was at this morning, one of the founders was like, now the goalpost is gonna move for women though. Their EBITDA is gonna have to go up because they have less engineering costs, less people needed in the organization. And is that gonna be like a stressor we didn't imagine happening of like, okay, now you gotta make 10x the more money or whatever that multiple is?

Yeah, I, I would say that this is not a woman-only problem. This is an everyone problem, right? Because that is why VCs are actually investing in AI companies at higher valuations because they believe that You will need to use less capital to be able to 2x that valuation. Everyone's like, oh, do you think we're in a bubble? Because like these valuations have gone crazy. And I would argue no, because the cost to get a company to like unicorn status has drastically decreased.

I'm sure you're in rooms where these conversations, where the decisions that are impacting like millions of people are because of your background and your businesses and what you've done. What do you say to the people that are just like, I'm intimidated by it, I'm scared, I don't even know where to start?

I would say that there's like pros and cons, right? Like if If you are an entry-level employee, like you have an entry-level skill set, like you need to figure out how to like become a mid-level person through AI. Um, the nice thing is AI can really help here, but new jobs have always been created with new technologies. And I believe that like new jobs are being created and that more opportunities are going to become available to people. For example, like in the past, ideas people were useless. Like everyone has an idea, but it's all about execution. Now you, if you have a good idea, you can go on like Replit or Cloud Code or Cursor and literally like vibe code your way to your idea. Um, there's so many people, like there's so many stories actually right now of people that are making businesses or like really simple apps that generate, let's call it like $1 million a month. They're not startups that can scale, and I don't think that like any of these tools, if you don't have an engineering background, you can build a unicorn company, but you can certainly build a lifestyle business, and that's life-changing. So I think that like Now, if you're creative and you're willing to learn these tools, you have the opportunity to make like life-changing income.

I almost feel like for a while it was like, I guess everyone's gonna be an influencer or a TikTok star, and now it's gonna be like what you just said. I'm gonna build an app that's gonna do $1 million a month and I'm gonna go live in Costa Rica.

Although I do think that like a lot of people are still doing the influencer TikTok sort of thing, but arguably it's like, you know, that's free marketing if you're able to pull that off.

100%.

Yeah.

100%. So again, back to our, our pre-call, you said something which I loved, that you have moles in your companies. Mm-hmm. Will you talk to me about that and how do you approach the mole? How do you get them to not be a double-sided spy?

Yes. So this goes back to, uh, the fact that like if you have layers in a company, so like most companies are not flat orgs, right? Like you have managers and you have your executives. Things get polished up on the way to the top because everyone wants to look like they're doing a good job. So, um, like, you're like, let's call it chief marketing officer wants to like give you good updates and make it sound like they're amazing because they don't want to get fired. So what I've noticed, or like what I had a problem with, was that my executive layer was not being entirely truthful about like where things were in their org. What I've also learned is that ICs don't lie. They have no reason to lie. So I—

When you say IC, what's that?

Individual contributors.

Okay.

Yes. So, uh, now I have moles in pretty much every single org that really tell me Like, hey, this is what's going on, here's the drama between like these 2 people, etc. And you get an idea of like what are the problems of the team, like what they wish were changed, etc., uh, in terms of like processes. It's really helped me understand like what exactly is going on in the company. And I think like the biggest mistake a founder or CEO can make is just listening and getting reports from their executives, because like what if they're not telling the truth? Yeah.

Well, how do you have the conversation with the upcoming mole? Like you sit down and you say—

No, I just have one-on-ones with them. Yeah. Or I talk to them daily.

Right. Okay. So it's not an official, like, you're my mole?

No.

Okay.

Yeah. They have no idea they're the mole.

Okay.

They're just like, oh wow, the CEO loves me.

And then does that worry their manager? Uh, like from a cultural perspective? So, and I say this because for a very long time I thought that to be a successful founder, I had to be like the mom within the group. And I would say, you know, come in, tell me your, your problems, your issues. And then I would get in between an executive and a junior person that would cause its own struggle. And like, I was causing chaos. So how do you do that and not cause that?

I would say yes, it did. As in, I learned later from a lot of the individual contributors that the executives were telling them that they weren't allowed to talk to me, and they would get extremely upset when they found out that they were talking to me. So honestly, like in those cases, keep it more low key, just keep it on Slack. But it, it's a fine line balance, and I definitely like had an issue. And like all of it really came out, I would say, um, after I did a cleanup, right? I was like, oh wow, like they were getting in trouble for talking to me and telling me what was really going on. That's crazy.

Hey everyone, sorry for the quick pause. I want to share something really exciting. Superwoman has a brand new YouTube channel. It's still under construction, but big things are coming in 2026. You'll find past episodes, new episodes, and some bonus content I cannot wait for you to see. Just search Superwoman Media on YouTube and hit subscribe so you don't miss a thing. Okay, back to the pod. Yeah, I had entire teams that weren't allowed to talk to me, and I could— I was like, wow, I just must be like, no one likes me, no one wants to like, yeah, so like get my opinion.

After everything, I was like, okay, we're all gonna be like, like we're sitting together, I'm gonna be like by the stairs and just be super friendly to everyone. I told like, you know what, all hands, so like, please everyone, please to me, you're always welcome to say hi. Like, I want you to say hi to me. So it's been great. And just spend more time with them. Like, you know, sit at the bench and eat lunch and dinner with them. Uh, they'll feel like more camaraderie.

Totally. So from learning things from these unknowingly moles, how do you then go back and make changes? Because I'll share an example where I have people that talk to me and then I'll go say something to like their manager, or I'll draw out the scenario And then I'll say, and this is where I go wrong, but I'll say like the same words that the IC said to me. And then in the past someone's been like, well, how did you know that? You said that the same way that they did. And I'm like, right, right. Yes. Now I don't know what to say.

Yeah. I usually say like multiple people have told me.

Right.

Which obviously like they end up going to their entire team then, but at least it doesn't get one singular person in trouble.

And when that's happening, take me through how you approach that difficulty because It's your company. You should get to know everything. This person shouldn't be lying to you or shielding your team. So when they are saying, well, who told you that? Like, do you ever just say like, it's my right to know I'm a founder? I haven't done that, but I'm thinking about doing that.

Uh, I haven't said that actually. No, I usually just say, um, like I've heard from multiple people, but then if it gets to that point, like, should that person even be at your company? Right? Like no one should be preventing anyone at the company from talking to you. I believe in radical transparency. If, if someone isn't in line with radical transparency as a company, then we're just not aligning on company values as well. And you need to align with your leadership team on company values.

Totally. Yeah. So speaking of values, you care a lot about your health.

It's more so, I think I'm— I like being good at things and I take pride in certain things like having Olympic qualifying times on a treadmill. So I eat such shit. Like I was at the, uh, county fair yesterday and I literally, out of all the food that was there, I decided to buy Spam. So, oh my gosh. And that's when I'm like, am I like healthy? Like I eat a lot of Spam, by the way. I love Spam.

Okay.

Yeah, I love Spam. I love junk food, McDonald's, um, Burger 3000, the best burger in LA right now. So I don't eat healthy, but I also like, I like being athletic because I'm good at being athletic. So that's why I do like berries every single day. That's why I use my hyperbaric chamber for like recovery, et cetera. And I like look, like looking at my stats, like I have like a resting heart rate of like 48 to 49, which makes me feel good.

Right.

Yeah.

Have you always been that way?

I've always been very competitive. And I think in general, competitive people like tend to love things that they're good at, right? So that's me where I'm like, if I have like any natural talent towards something. Uh, I know that if I work hard, I'll be really good at it, so I'll work hard at it.

And where do you get the energy to sustain that? 'Cause again, I know, I think from what I've listened to, like you can be out, you are hosting an event for your own like group and you're out till 4 in the morning. You get up at 6:00 AM, you go to Barry's, you work a full day, you lead a team. Like how, how do you do that?

Well, I need at least 3 hours of sleep, so I'd be going to sleep.

Oh, just 3.

Okay.

7:00 AM.

No big deal.

Barry's. Uh, so I actually think it's genetic if I'm being like all Completely honest, like, my parents are so disciplined. Uh, they would like, you know, work until midnight, 1 AM, and then they wake up at 5, 6 AM. And I've seen them do this pretty much my entire life. I just— yeah, like, I didn't actually really think about that, and I didn't think it was odd because it was my entire life, so that was normal, right? Until people were like, how are you not sleeping? Blah blah blah. Like, I'll post my Eight Sleep stats, right? And like, my average amount of sleep is 5 hours, which is actually improved because, um, back in 2019, 2020, um, I wore Whoop and my monthly average was like hours a night. So it's gotten a lot better. But yeah, I just thought about it. I was like, you know, like now that I'm thinking about it, like my parents are exactly like me. So in that sense, I think that they just—

They need to study you so that they can give us all your genes.

I think I just have like that sleep gene.

And eat McDonald's, which blows my mind that you can do it. So one of the things that I'd love to touch on is your perspective on fundraising. It's been doomsday for women and the stats have gotten worse. And I'm curious, for a woman who's raising or has raised, like, your perspective on that.

So I'm really surprised the stats have gotten worse. And the reason I say this is because, um, AngelList has really democratized being able to create funds. So now you can just be a solo GP, right? And it's been a lot easier. Like, there are literally fund of funds that are dedicated to funding female GPs. And theoretically, at least from what I have been told and what I have seen, is that female GPs invest in other women. So that's disappointing to hear if that's true. My perspective on fundraising in general for women though is that like Everyone wants to invest in women, from just like being able— like looking good, or like being able to like, as a VC, brag like, oh, like 50% of the founders we invested in are women. Um, I think women are held to higher standards, and that's actually why female founders outperform male founders at the end of the day. But you have to basically have this like quantifiable resume that shows that like, I will not fail at building a company. And I always say that like, if you took like 2 kids out of MIT, one was a female and one was a male, the guy be more likely to get funded. But if you take someone with like 5 years of experience and they worked at like, you know, Stripe, OpenAI, um, Ramp, et cetera, like all the top startups, the woman is much more likely to get funding because everyone wants the stats of funding a woman, but they're just more uncertain about us, I think, subconsciously.

I wonder if there's also something to it, like, I don't know, I don't know if you noticed this, but when someone is constantly projecting bad news or bad PR about themselves, that tends to be what the perception is. Where like guys aren't going around who didn't get funding being like, I'm a guy and I didn't get funding. And the guys that are getting funding are announcing it and women are just like, I didn't get it, I didn't get it. And so there's this perception that maybe is more real. Mm-hmm. Like that people think like, oh, women really aren't, when in reality it might be. And whoever is telling us these numbers is also part of the The—

yeah, because the problem really theoretically, there are a lot more because like there was an issue in Silicon Valley, right, where none of the GPs were women. Like every single VC fund was getting hit with it, like, oh, why are all your GPs like men? And I do think subconsciously it is harder to get, like, like you are set to a higher bar. But now there's so many female GPs and so many fund of funds that invest in like women-led funds. So I'm like, if that stat is true, I'm surprised.

I, I hope I'm not relaying an anecdote.

Yeah, but it could be true because I, I actually have heard that also.

Like it went from 2 to 1.8. Yeah.

Like, yeah.

So I heard that too. And my only hypothesis there is that like women GPs, like let's say you're a new female GP, right? And like you just started funding, you really want your fund to do well. So you subconsciously are also doing the same thing. That, or like let's say you're a follow, like your strategy is like $100K checks, but you're looking for a signal from a tier 1 VC investing and tier 1 VCs are investing more in men and you follow onto those investments, then like, yeah, it's gonna go down.

So what gave you confidence to play in this space? Because I feel like, again, tech still skews masculine, right? Um, it's changing, but like, where did that desire come from and how did you walk into a room with the confidence that you— it seems very like you come off as like, it's just, that's how you are in the best way.

Yeah. So I mean, I think I've just been in tech my entire life. Like I've been building websites. And like figuring out how to make money since I was in elementary school. So in that sense, that was normal. I would say like really where I grew the confidence would probably be at hackathons. Um, they're these like 24 to 48 hour coding competitions. Um, I went to a lot of them in college. Like pretty much all the top colleges host them. Like there's HackMIT, CalHacks, like LA, I think LA Hacks, HackLA, whatever it's called, MHacks. Like every top college hosts it. PennHacks. At these hackathons, like, I mean, I would build the app and then win, right? So like I just collected literally iPads and like other random toys. And I think that I knew I was good at product and good at design because other people were giving me awards for it. So, uh, there's that. But I also think in order to build companies and be in these rooms, like you just need like relentless belief in yourself. Um, like you really have to be delusional to start a company.

I say it all the time.

Yes. Like you have to be delusional to start a company because their chances of failure are 99.9%. And it makes much more sense to like start a lifestyle business. It makes much more sense to like work at a company and make like millions of dollars a year, which like as a good engineer, you are making millions of dollars a year. So why would you sacrifice millions of dollars a year to go build a company? Like you're actually psychotic. Um, and the only reason you do that is because you have this like relentless belief in yourself and you're a little bit delusional to, uh, believe that like I can be one of these people that will build a unicorn.

And so what keeps that going? Or do you have those dark moments where you're questioning yourself?

I question like certain business decisions, let's call it. But I don't really have dark moments. Like, I have reflective moments where I'm like, hmm, that was probably a bad decision. But I view every, like, bad thing that happens in my life as a learning moment, right? Whether it's like a friendship going awry or like a product launched and like it flops.

Did you ever have it be the opposite? Like, it took me a long time. Like, I'd feel the failure. I don't— I never would wallow in it, but like, it, it stings. And then now, like you, I reframe it into a learning moment. But when did that shift for you?

I don't know if it's ever shifted. I've been an overly positive person for most of my life.

Well, okay, so we don't just need to clone you, we need to also figure out what makes you overly positive.

No, I always say, like, I think, like, I have a problem of being too happy as a person.

Why is that a problem?

Well, I mean, it's not a problem, but like, I started Googling, like, why am I so happy as a person? And it's not like bipolar disorder, it's literally just like, I don't— like, I'm just happy. Like, I can confidently say I think I'm like one of the top 10 happiest people in this entire universe.

So I was like, there must be like some psychological issues.

I was like, I think it's called like hypomania, hypomanic, something.

Oh, God, don't make it negative. Just be like, yes, I'm one of the ones.

And I'm like, I'm just really happy. Yeah. It's like there is like a, like a thing, I don't know what it's called, where the definition of it is like literally you are just too happy.

That's an unhappy person giving you that label. I don't like them. What is it you're excited to build now that you can share?

Um, obviously I'm working on Passes, which is our creator economy platform. Um, we help creators monetize their brand. It's been awesome. Um, we've had creators make 9 figures in the past few years, so I'm very excited about that and continuing to grow that. But ever since, I would say, like, you know, Liquidity, I've been having a lot of fun being able to build other apps as well. So, um, I'm working on this fintech app. Can't really say too much. Hopefully, like, you know, June, July I'll launch. But the idea is like global payments with AI built in. So we'll see how that goes. I'm working on a, um, something in the travel category, but like apparel. So travel apparel, like apparel made really good for Can't really go into details of that, but I think that that one's one I'm having actually a lot of fun with because it's different, right? Like I'd never done D2C and, um, it's fun like designing like what it's going to look like, feel, the different fabrics, like how it fits on men and women, the colors. It's a different side of my creative brain than, you know, like app building. And then I'm working on an agentic tool that is meant to replace your growth team. That sounded really dark.

Growth teams, take note. Your jobs are over. How, how does one do that many things at once?

So I think that now, because I have more flexibility, like let's talk about Elon, right? Like he's like running a bunch of different companies, but he also has very competent COOs and CTOs are doing a lot of like lifting. And that's kind of the move I'm doing where like with the apparel company, I actually placed a CEO in because I only have time to be like, you know, chief creative officer basically there. But because I'm able to self-fund it, I'm able to just do that, which is nice. For the other companies at the moment, I am acting CEO, but who knows what'll happen. Like, I think that like depending on which one I decide I wanna like focus on more, I'll stay as acting CEO or end up placing in like a very competent COO or hire someone in as CEO. Who knows?

I'm sure it's very, very different. Well, I know it's very, very different building something once you've had success or the money to like say, good, I can actually hire a CEO. Like I'm starting something on the side and it's just nice to know that I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna fund this. Right. It's very different post-acquisition. So I want you to talk me through like the difference in building with no money and the difference in building with money.

I mean, the difference with building with no money is just, it's more stressful, right? Because you actually have to go through the fundraising process and then you have this timeline to hit product market fit. And if you don't hit product market fit, the company dies. Uh, the nice thing about being self-funded is that I do think that like with perseverance, if you're a founder, you'll eventually hit product market fit. It could be in 2 months, it could be in 20 years. And I have seen people that spent, you know, the last decade pivoting. And then, um, actually a good friend of mine, he spent literally one decade pivoting and then just got acquired by Anthropic. It's all about perseverance. So like with like being able to self-fund, I am able to continually explore until product market fit. And then once that hits, then I can raise funding. And it's nice because it's less dilutive.

How do you know, like, to keep pivoting or that this is something you like? When do you say, I'm drawing the line, I tried that, it failed?

I think most products, like, you can tell pretty right, like, right away because you wanna see a logarithmic curve, right? When you are after you launch, uh, like, is it spreading organically? Are people talking about it? Like, is sales easy? Like, are you getting that like 10% month over month growth? And if you're not, then chances are it's not a product people want. Are the TAMs not high enough? Like maybe you launch a product and you're getting that 10% month over month growth for 6 months, but then it plateaus out. And if you have no way of getting out of that plateau, like you probably hit your total addressable market and then it's time to pivot away. That or it stays a lifestyle business, like kind of up to you.

So I'm curious if you agree with this. I interviewed an engineer, like one of my first podcasts, and they, they really changed my perspective because everything to them was like A/B testing. Goes in the failure funnel, and it took the emotion out of failure for them. And then I applied that to my own failures and I was like, there's zero emotion now. Just, I A/B tested this shit, didn't fucking work. Do you think like an engineer with these new projects?

So like you can A/B test, um, things like small features, right? But you still need to view things as a whole. So like if you view every single thing in like life, let's say, as A/B testing, um, the sum doesn't necessarily equal the whole there. And I've seen companies where like they believe they can solve the entire like growth problem with A/B testing. Like let's A/B test a login page, then a signup funnel, then like this feature that helps drive more like posts, let's say, and then this feature that helps drive more like time spent on site. And thinking that as long as they continue A/B testing and increasing those metrics, then they'll have a unicorn. I think it's a very important thing to have. Like you should absolutely be A/B testing like pricing for conversion. You should be A/B testing your signup form, but I don't think the sum of A/B tests equals a whole So that's kind of how I view it.

That makes sense.

Um, like there is more art to things than A/B testing, right?

Yeah. Right. I just meant in approaching and looking at like when you have a failure in your life, oh, you're viewing it as A/B, you know, like I A/B tested this, this thing and it didn't work. Not, not necessarily applied to like, yeah, I mean homepages and stuff like that.

Yeah. I do think about life that way where I'm like, okay, cool. Like I tried something, it didn't work. I learned something. Let's move on. Yeah. Like I don't really care about failure. Like I don't think failure is like a bad thing.

So what do you do to fuel yourself? What do you do to like stay inspired, stay— well, you're already happy all the time, so like what do you do to fill your cup?

I think that quite literally waking up at like 5:30 AM and doing Barry's every day makes me very happy. Um, like if I miss Barry's, I'm not happy. And obviously like if, you know, I'm in a city that doesn't have Barry's, I like pre-accept it. So I'm like, okay, cool.

Is your hotel contingent upon the nearest Barry's?

Uh, yes, actually. I get really upset when there's no hotel like nearby Barry's.

Will you stay at a 3-star hotel if it's across the street from a Barry's? Yeah, no, I've done that.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

I just wanted to see how committed you are to Barry's.

Yeah.

Like in Paris, for example, like the nicest hotel is, I think, like a 3, 4-star hotel, but it's closest to Barry's. Everything else is far from Barry's and like, I don't want to like take a 20-minute Uber to Barry's. So yeah, like I will stay in a crappier hotel for Barry's.

I hope you own shares in Barry's.

I don't.

Zero.

Literally zero. So I just, I just love it. They won't even gimme free classes or free merchandise.

Barry, take note. This is terrible.

Yeah.

But I do think working out in general, like, you know, it's like an extra like cup of coffee in a day. Like boost your serotonin. Like, and for me, I love music.

Yeah.

Like I'm a DJ on the side, so like I get to wake up to a rave every single day.

So when you say you're a DJ on the side, like you're DJing at Forbes 30 Under 30, that's not really a side gig. That's like a pretty like visible place. So are you of the mindset like, I'm really busy, I have these companies, I'm launching new projects, like if you want me to DJ, I'm coming to the big stuff? Or are you just doing it wherever you can?

And no, so I do it for the big stuff. Like, in order to grow as a DJ— and DJs are really hardworking, like actually some of the hardest working people you'll meet because they're constantly on tour, right? Like, you are working at like 4 different college bars every single week. You're on the road nonstop to blow up your career. I'm like very grateful and lucky that I don't have to So, um, for me it's just like if I get offered to do something really cool or convenient, I'll do it. I'm pretty like strict on my rate though. It's like, you're gonna pay me to go and do this. But yeah, like I would say I'm taking it seriously in a sense of like I want to play cool gigs. Like I just played Ultra Miami, which is awesome, right? I played— just played the Getty Villa, which was also awesome.

And you taught yourself?

I mean, yes and no. I would say like I have a lot of DJ friends, so I basically bought CDJs from Guitar Center because I was bored one day.

What is a CDJ?

Um, it's like the mixer.

Oh, okay, okay.

Or like the— like, and then you have like your mixer in between. Then I just called up my DJ friends and I was like, hey, can you come over and give me a lesson? And they spent 5 minutes explaining the buttons and I was like, wait, this is really easy. It's all about like song selection. So then I— but I'm also like making music right now.

Singing or making music?

I can't sing. I mean, like, I have a song where we like have my vocals on it and it's just terrible. I need to find a vocalist. Um, but, uh, no, I'm like remixing music and creating originals right now.

Yeah.

So I do want to like actually actually build up like me as a DJ. Because like, if you just DJ, you're never gonna really be that big. Like, you have to like release music. So I am working on that as well on the side.

Oh my gosh, I don't know, I, I want to keep up with you. I'm so impressed with you. So would you say that that fuels your cup, like being—

I think it makes me really happy. Like, yeah, it makes like extra happy.

Totally, I love it. Do you have a piece of advice that you want to pass on that either you learned or someone else gave to you that you think is worth, worth mentioning?

I guess 2 pieces of advice. Number one is I think happiness is a secret to longevity. If you look at like the oldest people on this planet, they all say they're just really happy because they never dated men, but they all drink and smoke and do whatever. Um, and then number 2, I would say like if you're young, you should be making friends with everyone around you, especially if you're in college. I think college is like the number one place to find your future coworkers, co-founders, uh, et cetera. Because there's nowhere else and no time else in your life where you're gonna be in a place with like a high density of people that are incredibly intelligent that all wanna make friends, like become friends because they all entered college with no friends, right? Like once you like go get a job, like people have friends already established. College is literally the one place where people are like, oh crap, I have to make a whole new set of friends. And these people also happen to be highly intelligent people that are probably just as motivated as you, depending on the college. But if you're listening to this podcast, I'm gonna assume you're going to a great college.

You're very smart if you're listening to this podcast.

Exactly.

So where can people find you, follow you, and what should they support of yours at the moment? Or should they just be waiting for the June, July launch? Oh yeah, just keep out—

like, yeah, keep an eye out for things. Um, but if you wanna keep up with me, I'm pretty much only active on Instagram now. But my Instagram is GuoForIt, G-U-O-F-O-R-I-T, because you just YOLO and go for it in life and like your dreams, your goals. No, because if you don't like take that jump, then you're never gonna like make it, right?

You're never gonna make it.

You guys, exactly. You have to be okay with failure to like beat your limits.

It's so true. Thank you for coming on today. Is there anything I didn't ask you that you wanted to share?

I'm really bad at thinking of things like that. I'm just like, you can ask me anything, I'll answer.

But okay, I didn't know some people have like things that are just like, I really Feel passionate about this? Yeah.

Okay.

No.

Okay. Thanks so much for watching today's episode. Before you head out, I wanna invite you to my brand new YouTube channel for all things Superwomen. It's a fresh space I'm building out for 2026, packed with past episodes, future episodes, and some special new content we're cooking up. Just search Superwomen Media on YouTube and subscribe so you're there for everything coming next. I'll see you over there. Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you've enjoyed it, take a second to rate and review the show wherever you're tuning in. It really helps others find the podcast. You can follow me on Instagram @RebeccaMinkoff and @rmsuperwoman, or for a slice into my personal life, @BeckyMinkoff. And don't forget to check out my book, Fearless: The New Rules for Unlocking Creativity, Courage, and Success. See you next week.