Phoebe Gates launches e-commerce startup — here’s what her famous parents think

Phoebe Gates, the youngest daughter of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, is the co-founder of a new e-commerce shopping tool that launched this week — and the subject of a profile in The New York Times that details her startup ambitions and unique upbringing. Gates and her former Stanford University roommate Sophia Kianni launched Phia, a web browser extension and app designed to scour the internet for the best deals on fashion items. The inspiration came from Gates’ and Kianni’s own experience as dedicated resale shoppers looking for better prices. Phia has attracted venture backing, high-profile mentors including Kardashian… Read More

Apr 25, 2025 - 17:40

Phoebe Gates launches e-commerce startup — here’s what her famous parents think

Phoebe Gates, the youngest daughter of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, is the co-founder of a new e-commerce shopping tool that launched this week — and the subject of a profile in The New York Times that details her startup ambitions and unique upbringing.

Gates and her former Stanford University roommate Sophia Kianni launched Phia, a web browser extension and app designed to scour the internet for the best deals on fashion items. The inspiration came from Gates’ and Kianni’s own experience as dedicated resale shoppers looking for better prices.

Phia has attracted venture backing, high-profile mentors including Kardashian mom Kris Jenner, and a podcast deal for the founders.

In a nod to Bill Gates’ own pursuits around combatting climate change, Phia’s website makes mention of the sustainability aspect of shopping secondhand and reducing waste and carbon.

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The profile sheds some light on Gates’ entrepreneurial pursuits at the age of 22 and as the daughter of such famous and wealthy parents. Here are a few highlights:

Gates acknowledges the privilege of her upbringing and how some will connect any success she achieves back to her family. But she told the Times she does deal with “a huge amount of internalized pressure.”
The Times calls Gates “extremely competitive” and says, like her father, she has A.D.H.D. But unlike the rest of her family, she is an extrovert. And Bill Gates said she is the child who is “the most different than I am … because she’s so good with people.”
Bill Gates’ view of the startup idea was that “a lot of people have tried” e-commerce and “there’s some big guys in there.” He was worried she might ask for money. “And then I would have kept her on a short leash and be doing business reviews, which I would have found tricky, and I probably would have been overly nice but wondered if it was the right thing to do? Luckily, it never happened.” Phoebe Gates used him for advice, mostly on personnel issues, the Times said.
Melinda French Gates advised her daughter to raise her own capital. “She saw it as a real opportunity for me to, like, learn and fail,” Phoebe Gates told the Times. The Phia founders started with $100,000 from Soma Capital, a $250,000 Stanford social entrepreneurship grant, and eventually, after a lot of rejections, another $500,000 from angel investors.