When Phoebe and her Stanford roommate, Sophia Kianni, shared their plans for entry into the ecommerce arena, Gates admitted in a New York Times interview, “I thought, ‘Oh boy, she’s going to come and ask’.”
Gates, who previously told Raj Shamani he’s giving his children “less than 1%” of his wealth to encourage independence, said he would have backed Phia financially.
“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,” he added.
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She, however, did seek her father’s guidance—mainly on team-related matters, he added.Phoebe shared that her mother, Melinda French Gates, also encouraged her to secure funding independently. “She saw it as a real opportunity for me to, like, learn and fail,” she said.
Phia is a free AI-powered shopping extension that allows users to hit the “Should I Buy This?” button while browsing. It delivers instant price insights across more than 40,000 retailers, indicating whether a price is high, typical or fair, and recommends better-priced matches or similar alternatives.
Phia’s core team includes four full-time engineers, an operations manager, and a designer currently finishing her final year at Rutgers University. Each team member holds equity in the startup. The company plans to generate income through affiliate links.
