Last updated: September 13, 2024
We’re in a loud restaurant and a woman named Lucy Guo is here.
Forbes says she is worth US$500M and I want to ask about her new company.
But instead I blurt out “Why do you date so many hot women?”
I’m so bad at this.
I had written down a bunch of questions in my notebook.
I planned to ask Lucy Guo about the creator economy or her Miami drama and her new life in Los Angeles.
But as I lean in and shout into my little microphone over the blasting music, I think I should start by talking about her dating and being bisexual because maybe that is what the Internet wants first.
Lucy laughs, either at me or at my question.
“Being very out about my sexuality helps,” she says.
So I guess we’re going to start here now.
“My friends are always trying to set me up. And then I think that most women question their sexuality. I don’t think anyone is really straight, or a very small percentage of the population actually is, because sexuality is a spectrum.”
I’ve known Lucy socially for a few years so my first question isn’t entirely ridiculous.
She is bisexual and she is not shy about it. You will know this quickly if you read her posts or follow her Instagram Stories.
Lucy tells me she was in denial for a long time.
“In high school, I probably knew, but I was like, ‘Oh, it’s just this one-off thing.’ This one-off thing, you know? And then it became a little too many one-off things.”
She has taken first dates to South Africa and to Paris.
I took a first date to Tokyo once. And we both like women. So perhaps we are kindred spirits.
Lucy’s success in her dating life comes from being authentic. And now she’s banking on authenticity to make her next fortune in the creator economy.
Lucy Guo is the founder of Passes, a new company that helps creators make more money.
I have a friend who signed up for Passes and basically became a millionaire. I am here to talk about this because it changed my friend’s life.
This is not an ad for Passes but Lucy is also my friend so I’ll try to stick to the facts.
“Brand deals are fickle and unreliable,” Lucy tells me. “Creators are realizing they need more control.”
Passes is like Patreon but better. Or like OnlyFans but without any porn.
Lucy will hate these comparisons but I’m trying to tell you what Passes does as easily as possible.
Creators or influencers use Passes to sell things directly to their fans. Things like content and photo sets and memberships and 1-on-1 calls and live experiences and merchandise.
Taylor Swift sells records and t-shirts and concert tickets to her fans. And Lucy’s new company Passes lets everyone sell stuff to their fans too.
I tell Lucy about that friend of mine who recently joined Passes. My friend went from $10,000 per month on Instagram to grossing $350,000 per month on Passes.
Which honestly is wild.
But Lucy nods like this is normal. She is not surprised.
And now she shifts in an instant from the Party Lucy to the Business Lucy and she tells me in perfect corporate talk:
“We’re seeing this a lot. We’ve created a system that’s better than anything out there. Creators can message better, they can sell things to their fans, do livestreams, and even see what content performs best with A/B testing.”
Lucy then lists off the ranges of creators they have making big money on the platform: Musicians. Therapists. Astrologers. Athletes
I dislike astrologers and I don’t think they are serious people but I do not tell Lucy this.
“We work with all kinds of creators. Anyone that wants more data on their audience should sign up for Passes.”
My interview now feels slightly like a commercial so I tell Lucy that I sometimes host events with creators and influencers. And I’ve met a few of these creators with over 1 million followers who can still barely pay rent.
I can’t believe that, that these creators or influencers with massive social capital just can’t work out the money thing.
“Brand deals don’t pay on time,” Lucy tells me. “They can take six months to pay out. And then creators end up struggling. I have a friend that makes six figures a year, easily, but the brands don’t pay her on time. They take six months to pay out. Then with bad money management, she ended up working at a fast food chain, which is crazy.”
Passes solves this by cutting out the brand deals and just going direct to the fans.
“We’ve seen people with only 30,000 followers make $30,000 a month.”
But it’s not just buying pictures or livestreams. I tell Lucy about how I saw one of the creators offering to follow someone back on Instagram for $1000.
I think this is a genius idea. Imagine if a new D2C company could buy a bunch of follow-backs from influencers. Maybe that would be interesting when people checked out their profile? To see that people they like follow the brand.
“It’s just an idea one of our creators had,” Lucy says. “Now others are copying it. It’s become very monetizable. Anything can be for sale I guess.”
I ask about how Passes makes money and Lucy breaks it down.
Passes takes 10% of all the revenue booked through their platform.
So 10% of all monthly fees, charges for private chats, photos, whatever. That includes credit card fees and chargebacks.
More people have arrived at the restaurant and the birthday girl stops by to say hello. Lucy shifts back into Party Lucy mode to be social and tells us that she identifies as a Leo even though she was born to a different star sign.
I get distracted by the astrology reference and I run out of questions.
Lucy invites me to stay and hang out but I’m hungry and want to be alone so I sneak out to a nearby Thai restaurant to type all of this out.
Sitting in the restaurant I reflect on our conversation.
Lucy isn’t just pulling attractive dates… she’s pulling the creator economy into a brand new era.
lollll sorry I could not resist!!
But seriously. I think it’s cool that Lucy’s doing all this while being unapologetically herself.
And I like her business. There are a lot of creators who want to monetize their audience and build careers with their content.
Lucy is building a company where creators can be their own brands.
And where being unapologetically yourself isn’t just admired… it’s rewarded.
THE END
Originally posted on my Twitter / X
Hi from Nick! I’ve been doing these interviews with people like this one and posting them on my Instagram and Twitter / X. I’ll add some others into the Profiles category. Leave me a comment if you liked this and I’ll try to add some more.