When Melinda Gates said that she had raised her middle class children, she didn’t choose. Of course, Gates children grew up in a sprawling area of Washington with all the imaginable luxury, but they also had to live life with a feeling of normality. A recent example of this balance is Phoebe Gates, the youngest and undoubtedly the most elegant of the children of Bill and Melinda Gates, who entered the spotlight as a young entrepreneur.
At 22, Phoebe co-founded Phia, an avant-garde electronic commerce tool she created with activist Sophia Kianni. The application is presented as “Google Flights for Fashion”, offering a rationalized shopping experience with “no ads, no endless research”. What is surprising, however, is that Phoebe did not take a single dollar to his billionaire father. Naturally, we could expect Bill Gates to be involved, at least financially, in the affairs of his daughter. But Phoebe clearly said she wanted to cut her own path.
Recalling when she presented the idea to him, Bill Gates told the New York Times: “I thought:” Oh my boy, she will come and ask. “” He added: “And then I would have kept her in a short leash and asked for business criticism, which I would have found.
Phia is designed to help users compare prices on online platforms, showing if an article is too expensive and offers cheaper alternatives. From fashion to jewelry, the application aims to save users of both time and money. The idea first triggered when the two best friends of 20 presented it for an entrepreneurship course, inspired by their own experiences. Phoebe remembers spotting an area dress she had bought for $ 500 at only $ 150 on Realreal. Meanwhile, her friend, Iranian-American Kianni, was already a seasoned pro during transactions thanks to resale purchases. Imagine their euphoria when they discovered a shared passion so strong that they were ready to drop everything and dive, if it was not for their mother!
Despite faith in his idea and his trading partner, Phoebe is well aware that his privileged experience will always throw a shadow of doubt about his achievements. “Growing up, I realized that people will always have thoughts about me,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. “If the company succeeds, people will say:” It is because of its family. “, She continued,” but I also feel a huge internalized pressure. “
Anyway, young co-founders are solid. They obtained the support of a venture capital company, received the mentoring of big names like Kris Jenner, and according to the independent animator, Alex Cooper signed Phoebe and Sophia to his media company. The duo will soon launch their own podcast, the Burnnets with Phoebe and Sophia.
Image – Facebook / Melinda Gates French
Interestingly, Melinda French Gates did not play an active role in her daughter’s career, although Phoebe still calls her “My Rock”. “She saw it as a real opportunity for me to, like, learn and fail,” said Phoebe. Instead of borrowing from his father, the richest thirteenth man in the world with a net value of $ 107 billion, Phoebe obtained $ 100,000 in Soma Capital funding and received a $ 250,000 subsidy from the Stanford social entrepreneurship program. Additional support included $ 500,000 from providential investors and access to a powerful network of female mentors.
As for Bill Gates and his silver trucks, although he did not open his trunk to finance Phoebe’s affairs, he has considerably increased his future heritage. What was initially set at $ 10 million has now reached fifty times to reach $ 500 million for each of their children. The three doors that children should inherit about 0.3% each of their fortune of $ 168 billion in the co-founder of Microsoft Father (according to Bloomberg).
About Phia
Phia is an original idea of Phoebe Gates and the social entrepreneur Sophia Kianni. This tool powered by AI helps users to instantly compare prices from the items they sail. Currently compatible with more than 40,000 shopping sites, he supports fashion purchases in a wide range of brands, from Louis Vuitton to Nike.
The young startup employs four full -time engineers, a director of operations and a designer, who all hold equity in the company. “We, like so many consumers, want to buy more intelligently and get the most out of our money,” said Kianni. “There are excellent second -hand options, but they are dispersed on hundreds of websites, and no one has time to look for them all. Our patented model solves this point of pain by providing instant information and better options to help customers make smarter and faster decisions with their money. ” According to Fashion Network, Phia’s technology has been developed internally by engineers with experience at Pinterest, Meta, Amazon and other large companies.
Phia is officially out of its pre-launch phase, and the free iOS application is now available for download.
