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In April 2025, Lucy Guo became the youngest female self-made billionaire after Meta paid $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI, the company she cofounded with Alexandr Wang in 2016. Though Guo had left the companywhich builds infrastructure and software to create AI applicationsover disagreements with Wang in 2018, she retained her 5% stake in the business, which skyrocketed in value after Meta’s investment. In 2022 she reemerged with Passes, a platform that helps creators monetize their social media followings by selling access to exclusive offeringsfrom products and merch to pay-by-the-minute private phone calls. As of February, the company has raised a total of $49 million. Guo tells me that Passes is growingits payments to creators have totaled nine figures so farand profitable. But its expansion has come with some controversy. In 2024, Passes was sued by rival platform Fanfix over alleged anti-competitive practices, and since February it has been facing a class-action lawsuit accusing it of distributing child pornography. We talked about the lawsuits, as well as what her platform offers creators that they can’t get on Patreon or even OnlyFans. She says the platform’s main differentiator is that her long-term vision for Passes isn’t just engagement, it’s . . . . . . using AI to grow creators’ earning potential and then managing their wealth. Why did you found Passes? I wanted to create a platform where creators could monetize their brand. Creators have such super fans that there’s no customer acquisition cost when it comes to marketing a product, which is unique. The best example was when Kylie [Jenner] made a lot of money through her lipstick brand, and her marketing plan was literally “I’m just going to drop it and people are going to buy it.” Then we saw these other brands pop up like Logan Pauls Prime, and even Mr. Beasts with Feastables, that makes up most of his net worth. I was actually debating whether to start off with a platform like Passes or build something like a YC Safe( a Simple Agreement for Future Equity document developed by Y Combinator to help early-stage startups raise capital from investors), where creators would be able to get equity into brand deals that they work with. Why did you consider that option? It is the way to long-term generational wealth. Equity is more important than upfront cash, and I don’t think Hollywood and managers necessarily understand equity yet. No creators would listen to us if we pushed on equity unless we started making them money. The reason creators listen to their managers is that the manager is their main source of incomeso we needed to become their main source of income. Over COVID, I noticed a lot of friends were making money from Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee. I thought it was the perfect time for creators to connect with their fans and offer an exclusive, authentic experience, and I wanted create the infrastructure for that. What differentiates passes from say, a Patreon or an OnlyFans? Quite a lot. We have paid livestreams, paid one-on-one calls where fans pay per minute. You can sell your own merchandise or you can create merchandise on our website and sell it without having to own inventory. We’re building out new features in the fintech space. We offer health insurance. We want to create these unicorn creators and get into wealth management. Say a creator is on OnlyFans or Patreon, how do you convince them to switch over to Passes? We don’t compete with OnlyFansthey’re a completely different platform. We don’t allow nudity, so when someone’s on OnlyFans, we tell them that if they switch over to Passes, theyre probably not going to make any money. There are plenty of non-pornographic content creators on OnlyFans. Yeah, for sure. But even if they’re doing other stuff, I think their fan base has the hope of getting something else. Because of that, people are willing to spend more on OnlyFans because they just know they’re not going to get anything on Passes. As for Patreon, the pitch is pretty easy. We take less of a percentage from creators earnings, we have more features, so there’s more ways to monetize. We’ve seen creators switch over from Patreon and make 30 times more. Youve said elsewhere that creators who make a lot of money on Passes often have something like 100,000 followers on social media. The most-followed people in the world dont necessarily have the closest relationships with their fans. Why is that? Creators that have millions of followers are very busy. They’re focused on shooting movies or flying out for brand deals. Creators that have between 100,000 and a million followers aren’t getting as many opportunities. They’re desperate for a way to monetize their fan base, and they happen to have more superfans because they’re creating more content to gain traction and grow their follower numbers. They’re creating more content, and more content equals more money. There was a 2024 lawsuit brought on by another creator platform, Fanfix, which alleged that Passes used confidential information to post clients and made misleading claims about creators’ earnings on the platform. That obviously doesn’t match up with what you just said. I’m used to San Francisco and the tech industry, where you’re competing off of merit and everyone’s just trying to create the best product possible. Hollywood is very litigious and in the Hollywood scene, people are willing to make up lies in order to compete. You’re also currently being sued in a class action suit over claims that Passes knowingly distributed child sexual materials. How are you responding to that case? We did our own internal investigation and found that the claims and the case do not match up with evidence that we have found thus far. I think this is just another one of those scenarios where people are trying to shake us down and attempt to get money. That case was dismissed in Florida. [Editor’s Note: The lawsuit was dismissed in Florida, but transferred to California, where it remains active.] You did make changes to the platform as a result, though. Now people under 18 cant join. We had the idea that everyone should be able to monetize. When you look at YouTube, a lot of families are monetizing their content. But at the end of the day, it was a handful of creators that generated near 0% of revenue on Passes. So we decided it was very risky and just not worth it. Youre a high-profile founder. What is it like for you personally when legal challenges come up? Now I’m immune to it. I was very surprised at first. What IÙve learned in lawsuitsand this blew my mindis that you have to assume everything in the claim is true and try to poke legal holes in that. You can’t just hand over proof that the allegations are wrong and move on. That just makes it so easy for people to sue off others of complete lies. I think the hope when people do that is that the cost of another party defending the lawsuit is greater than just settling. I refuse to settle because I would rather spend more and prove things are not true. What can you say about the future of Passes? Wealth management. Creators always ask us, how do I turn passive income into passive equity? Who are the best wealth managers to work with? How do I set myself up for life? This is all stuff we should just be able to do. We’ve already paid out creators nine figures. Every time we send a payout to their bank account, we have to pay a fee. It just makes sense for us to be a bank because then we can give them high-yield savings accounts. Do you have any predictions about the creator economy? The creator economy is growing, and we are going to see more creators in the future just because trends follow kids. When you talk to kids nowadays, they all want to be creators. We’re going to be seeing a lot more creators, especially in a range where we monetize well, which is the 100,000-follower range. What do you think about this emergent class of AI-generated “talent”I’m thinking of figures like the AI actor Tilly Norwoodin the context of Passes and the creator economy? I am not that bullish on AI creators. There have already been a few and everyone thought it was going to be the next big thing, but really we got Lil Miquela and some others. What’s much more likely to happen is that people are going to be licensing their likeness out so they can spend more time creating content and interacting with their fans. For example, if a brand wanted to fly me out, I could just license my likeness out instead of that. I could scale myself better so I have more time to do things that I love. We’re not going to see AI creators replace actual creators because it’s hard to have a human connection with someone that you know is fake. Do you think you can have a human connection with a licensed image of a creator? I think so. But you can’t dilute your brand too much. At the end of the day, it’s still that creator you have a connection with. You’re following them on Instagram and you love them. How are you using AI to connect creators with the right brand deals? We have a feature called smart pricing that basically automatically prices pieces of content creators make based off factors like fan history and the type of content it is, to help optimize their earnings. When creators use this, their earnings go up by 3x usually. Hopefully this quarter, we’re rolling out AI agents for creators. We want creators to be able to focus on creating content. These agents do everything from AB test captions to scheduling mass messages and running strategy under pages. Do you think we’re in an AI bubble? I don’t think we’re in an AI bubble. Valuations are higher now because you can build companies at a lower cost. I was in San Francisco other week, and there was this company that scaled from zero to $90 million in revenue in four months. They have Cursor AI doing 99% of their code. Because of all these AI tools you now need less money to get to scale. Valuations are predictive. It’s like, okay, we’re going to give you 10x what revenue is because we believe you’re going to be a 100x revenue. And I think a lot of investors are thinking this way. You don’t need to burn as much capital to get there.
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E-Commerce
Its official: Samsung has found a way to turn fridges into giant, unavoidable ads. In a move that comes as a shock to pretty much no one, Samsung announced on October 27 that its premium line of Family Hub fridges, which each come with a giant, AI-powered, embedded screen, will start displaying a widget featuring curated ads. By early November, anyone in the U.S. who owns a Family Hub fridge with a 21.5″ or 32″ screen will start seeing the ads, even if they bought the appliance well before the news was announced. Commenters on Reddit and Tiktok are reacting with outraged shock to the concept of their kitchens becoming the next venue for the performance of late-stage capitalism, and for good reason. But the fact that Samsung has made this move isnt exactly surprising, despite the fact that it explicitly promised not to do so mere months ago. When we incorporate screens into every mundane aspect of our daily routines, it stands to reason that companies will view those tiny, coveted windows into our everyday lives as an advertising opportunity. A Samsung Family Hub model fridge in-situ. [Photo: Samsung] Samsung walks back its promise Back in April, Samsung told The Verge that it had no plans to incorporate ads into its series of screen-ified fridges, washers, driers, and ovens. By September, though, it had already walked that promise back. In a statement to Android Authority at the time, Samsung shared, As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen that value, we are conducting a pilot program to offer promotions and curated advertisements on certain Samsung Family Hub refrigerator models in the U.S. market. Now, according to Samsungs new announcement, fridge ads will begin appearing in the form of a widget that also cycles through weather, news, and calendar updates. In a statement to Fast Company, Samsung clarified that users will have the option to turn the widget off entirely via their settings, or dismiss certain ads at will. Still, the feature is rolling out automatically to everyone who already owns the fridge and chooses to update its software, despite the fact that nearly all customers bought these appliances before they knew that such a feature was a real possibility. If this was really a user-centered UX, shouldn’t they get to opt-in to ads, rather than be forced to opt-out? For now, the ads are only related to Samsung products and services. But Samsung hasnt exactly promised that the ads will stay internal. In an interview with The Verge, Shane Higby, Samsungs head of home appliance business in the U.S., said that future promotions will depend on the feedback and insights gained from the program. Higby added that the current ads are contextual or non-personal and that the fridges are not collecting personal information or tracking consumers. (In other words, your fridge isnt keeping track of how many carrots you have left in order to sell you more carrots.) Still, users have reason to feel a bit wary about that possibility, given that major companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon have all faced recent lawsuits alleging that their home devices were eavesdropping on users. Samsung told Fast Company that the ad program is part of an effort to “strengthen the value” of its home appliances for customers, but it’s unclear exactly what value customers get out of this supposed exchange. The writing was always on the wall Online, reactions to the Samsung Family Hub fridge ad feature are overwhelmingly poking fun at the dystopian idea of an appliance thats trying to sell you something. One TikTok video from September with more than half a million likes shows a man trying to open a locked fridge with the caption, POV: its 2025 and you forgot to pay your Samsung fridge subscription fee so now you have to watch 67 unskippable ads to retrieve a glass of choccy milk. On the subreddit r/technology, most users are in agreement that, if a fridge is going to try to sell ads, it should cost significantly less than a normal fridge, not more. I am definitely paying 5x for a fridge that solicits me! one user joked. Can it also target specific ads to all my family members? or maybe that is the $6000 fridge that I need? Can I get an add-on option where it also keeps food cold? Another added, Fridge should be $100 (delivered!) then if they expect me to put up with that crap. These reactions are certainly a fair response to Samsung trying to sell you a microwave while youre just trying to grab a snack. But the writing was probably always on the wall for a company that started replacing physical buttons on almost all of its appliances with smart screensand has literally made its modern tagline Screens Everywhere. As consumers, its our job to show Samsung that were not intrested in seeing our own kitchens turn into a marketing opportunityand we can do that by collectively opting to purchase regular old appliances that couldnt advertise to us if they tried.
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E-Commerce
Mike Zatz was not planning to leave the Environmental Protection Agency. For two decades, Zatz worked within the departments Energy Star program, managing the commercial building side of the public-private partnership focused on energy efficiency. “I loved the program. I loved what we were doing. I loved the success that we were having, he says. But in June, when the EPA offered a second round of early retirement (or deferred resignation), Zatz was one of more than 1,400 employees to step away. The offer came after President Trump and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency rolled out mass terminations and program cuts to shrink the federal workforce at large. It also came after Trump took aim at Energy Star specifically. In May, Trump announced his plans to shut the program down, part of a larger attack on energy efficiency measures since his return to office. No matter that the program was voluntary, that it saves Americans $40 billion on energy bills annually, that its notably cost-effective for a government program (for every one federal dollar invested, Energy Star delivers a return of $350), or that it has long had bipartisan support. Its in Trumps crosshairs. At Energy Star, Zatz was crucial to getting commercial buildings on board with Portfolio Manager, a free tool to track and benchmark building energy use, which helps owners and operators comply with local laws, get green financing loans for investing in efficiency measures, and earn environmental recognitions. Zatz even helped expand Portfolio Manager to Canada. Under him, the tool became the industry standard in North America: a trusted, free, essential resource. It’s not the only such tool though; there are a slate of private companies that track and benchmark building energy efficiency. And now, Zatz works for one. He recently started as the senior vice president of Global Data Ecosystems and Partnerships at Measurabl, a sustainability data platform that allows the real estate industry to measure, manage, and report on their emissions and energy performance. Zatz will use his experience building up Portfolio Manager to help grow Measurabl’s customer basethis time with a global approach. Though now in the private sector, Zatz says Measurabl has the “same vision” that the EPA had for Energy Star. It’s an example of how the private sector is filling gaps in government services following Trump DOGE-powered gutting of the federal workforce and programsand also shows how former government workers, forced out by recent administrative moves, have plenty of skills to offer such companies. Taking Energy Star’s mission global Our built environment plays a huge role in our carbon footprint; In the U.S. alone, residential and commercial buildings together account for 31% of our greenhouse gas emissions. The building sector uses 75% of the countrys generated electricity. Tracking energy use is the key to reducing these emissions, and can also save operators significant money on energy costs. By benchmarking their energy use and aligning with Energy Star standards, building operators can increase their profits, apply for efficiency rebates, and access certain loans. Apartment managers can use it to keep from passing increased utility costs to residents, and school districts can even free operating funds, making more resources available to teachers if less money is spent on energy costs. Other roles look at building energy use too, like brokers, loan underwriters, and policymakers. The potential end of Energy Star has shaken building owners and operators. Both building owners and sustainability experts have said that the private sector (or the act of privatizing Energy Star itself) cant completely replace the government programs offeringsspecifically Portfolio Manager, which is currently used to track and benchmark the energy use of more than 330,000 buildings. Measurabl is trying, though. And a crucial step toward offering a similar experience is having a free version. Even before the rumblings of Energy Star coming under Trump’s ax, Measurabl began working on its Free Sustainability Software Solution, which also collects and tracks energy use data, and even integrates with Portfolio Manager. The leadership at Measurable recognized that in order to build an ecosystem like this, you have to lower the barriers to entry. And the main barrier to entry, and to all the other tools that are out there that build on Portfolio Manager . . . like Measurabl, was that you had to pay, Zatz says. After launching that free software tool in July, Measurabl says new subscribers onboarded more than 12,000 buildings, representing 2.2 billion square feet across 40 countries. It was fastest software adoption Measurabl has seen in its 13 years in business. Along with the free version, Measurabl offers premium tools, charging for software upgrades that allow building owners to do scenario planning to decarbonize properties, automatically collect data from utilities, help prepare reports to HUD or loan providers, and generally conduct more granular analysis. Across all its offerings, it serves more than 1,000 organizations across 90-plus countries, representing more than $3 trillion in assets and 22 billion square feet of real estate under management. The company has raised a total of more than $235 million in funding since its founding. Measurabl and Energy Star actually overlap. Even when he worked at Energy Star, Zatz knew of the company, because multiple Energy Star partners are also Measurabl clients. Measurabl was named Energy Stars Partner of the Year six times. And Measurabls software uses and integrates with Portfolio Manager, allowing data to sync between the two. But to really expand, especially around the world, Measurabl needs to build up its partnerships and connect to all the players in the building industrynot just building owners (which includes Fortune 500 companies to schools to religious congregations) but builders, utilities, state and local governments, product manufacturers and retailers, sustainability consultants, architects and engineers, and so on. This is the kind of ecosystem Zatz created at Energy Star. Now at Measurabl, Zatz isn’t looking to completely replace Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager. In fact, he hopes it stays around, not just because hes spent nearly 20 years working on it. As far as Measurabl and the ecosystem were trying to put together, I think certainly it will be beneficial to us to have Portfolio Manager running as a tool,” he says. How government tools are constrained Portfolio Manager is a useful tool, allowing owners and operators to track changes in their water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy costs over time. It gives buildings a score between 1 and 100, and lets them compare their energy use to simila buildings. But as a government tool, it was also constrained. People were not shy about asking for enhancements. We had a running list of hundreds of enhancements that we wanted to do, and in any given year we could only get to a dozen of them, maybe two dozen, Zatz says. Even before Trump’s attacks, Energy Star’s budget had been shrinking. A decade ago, its funding was $54 million; today, it’s $38 million. (Another constraint was the fact that in previous government shutdowns, like in 2018, Portfolio Manager was also shut down; now its marked as essential to keep running.) Portfolio Manager was intended to offer buildings the basics. And it was never built to compete with anything, Zatz adds, but to foster more ideas. The EPA knew that the private sector could put more resources towards developing tools, and also create sustainability jobs. We wanted to build sort of the core, something that everybody could use, Zatz says of Energy Star, but we wanted it to then be something that could feed into other things that would be even more beneficial to the wide variety of stakeholders. Along with building owners and operators, others like lenders, insurers, investors, and auditors like to track this kind of sustainability data. This is where private companies like Measurabl can come in to offer more features. Energy Stars Portfolio Manager looks at Scope 1 and 2 emissions, for exampledirect emissions from a company’s operations and from buying the electricity, heat, or cooling to power those operations, respectively. But cant incorporate Scope 3, the indirect emissions from up and down a company’s value chain, like business travel or employee commutes, investments, and so on. Thats something Measurabl can offer, Zatz says. Portfolio Manager didnt have the bandwidth to keep a list of which buildings are subject to which emissions laws up to date, but Measurabl can. Zatz says Measurabl can work off the same model that has made Energy Star so successful: building up partnerships, creating an ecosystem of industry stakeholders, and providing data that anyone can see in useful, clear ways. And when it comes to bringing this tool to buildings around the world, he says it’s in the best position to do so. Measurabl has the most sustainability data in the industry, second only to Portfolio Manager, he says. Zatz will bring his contacts to the private company to help expand that reach: “I love that in this role, I can keep working with a lot of those same people as partners,” he says. In markets where buildings are already on Portfolio Manager, he’ll leverage that relationship to grow Measurabl. And he’ll also use his decades of experience building Portfolio Manager’s reputation to bring Measurabl to new places, “to take the same concepts and put and send them overseas, where these things don’t really exist.” Portfolio Manager wouldnt have been expanded that way anyway, even before the Trump administrations threats. “It was not in the vision of the EPA to make it global, Zatz says. But still, he emphasizes he hopes it sticks around for the U.S. and Canada. Zatz will miss the EPA, and hell miss, most, working as a public servant. Working for Measurabl, a private company, he wont be considered such anymore, but I still view it that way, he says. He hopes the real estate industry sees him in that way, too. Im hoping Ill have that same support from them, and hopefully we can continue to build on Portfolio Manager, he adds. And if not, well hopefully be there to help the industry if, God forbid, something bad happened with the Energy Star program.
Category:
E-Commerce
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