{"id":5342,"date":"2026-08-15T18:40:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T18:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5342"},"modified":"2026-08-15T18:40:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T18:40:58","slug":"i-have-a-chip-on-my-shoulder-phoebe-gates-wants-her-185-million-ai-startup-phia-to-succeed-with-no-ties-to-my-privilege-or-my-last-name-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5342","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I have a chip on my shoulder.\u2019 Phoebe Gates wants her $185 million AI startup Phia to succeed with \u2018no ties to my privilege or my last name\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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But she\u2019s determined for the venture to stand on its own, with \u201cno ties to my privilege or my last name,\u201d Phoebe Gates told Yahoo Finance\u2019s Opening Bid Unfiltered <\/em>podcast in an episode published in February.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more $38 billion Twilio CEO wakes at 4:30 a.m., works Sundays, and runs laps around his house between meetings to blow off steam<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI have a chip on my shoulder,\u201d she said, describing her drive to prove she can win over private equity in Silicon Valley based on merit, not inheritance or legacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Phoebe Gates\u2019 comments came during the resurfacing of her father\u2019s connections to Jeffrey Epstein, although representatives for Bill Gates have repeatedly denied his involvement and any related accusations. Phoebe Gates didn\u2019t comment about the allegations, but French Gates earlier this year said her ex-husband \u201chas to answer\u201d for Epstein files mentions just weeks after it was revealed she had received $8 billion toward her philanthropic organization, Pivotal, as part of her divorce settlement.<\/p>\n

Phoebe Gates did acknowledge her father\u2019s business success, saying: \u201cFrom my dad, I\u2019ve really learned that your team is the core of what you\u2019re building. You can\u2019t do anything without an incredible team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But this week, Bloomberg<\/em> reported Phoebe Gates has been under her own fire. She her cofounder and Stanford University roommate Sophia Kianni reportedly pushed for features in the e-commerce startup\u2019s software that took credit for sales it didn\u2019t drive, which is a practice called \u201ccookie stuffing.\u201d In July, the company claimed it had only known about the situation for 24 hours, but Bloomberg<\/em>\u2018s latest investigation shows they had known about it for seven months, according to people familiar with the matter. <\/p>\n

For a July investigation, Bloomberg<\/em>, which tested the extension across more than 50 websites alongside Capital One Shopping and independent researcher Ben Edelman, Phia silently opened a background tab during checkout and injected its own referral code, overriding legitimate referrals from other publishers in violation of many affiliate networks\u2019 policies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAny features causing misattributions were immediately removed over a month ago on July 7,\u201d a Phia spokesperson told Bloomberg<\/em> for its most recent investigation. \u201cWe are reviewing every transaction, we are fully committed to and have already begun issuing all transaction reversals to brand partners as a result of any misattribution, and we are hiring a head of compliance to make sure something like this never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Phoebe Gates paved her own path<\/h2>\n

Phoebe Gates cofounded Phia, an AI shopping assistant, with Kianni. The shopping assistant plugs into browsers like Chrome and Safari to compare prices and surface deals across tens of thousands of retail and resale sites in real time. It essentially serves as your own personal deal finder: Say you\u2019re looking at a $200 dress from Anthropologie, Phia can find and compare prices at secondhand sellers to help customers find a better price.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur target consumer is a young woman who\u2019s hustling. She shops like a genius, but she doesn\u2019t want to waste her time doing it,\u201d Gates told Fortune<\/em>\u2019s Most Powerful Women editor Emma Hinchliffe in April 2025.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump embraces a political strategy of being in charge of everything but responsible for nothing when things go badly<\/a><\/p>\n

The New York\u2013based startup launched its app in 2025 grew quickly, garnering hundreds of thousands of downloads in its first months as investors pile into AI \u201cagents\u201d that automate digital tasks. A $35 million funding round this year led by Notable Capital, with participation from firms including Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures, pushed Phia\u2019s valuation to about $185 million less than a year after an initial $8 million seed round.\u200b\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Gates and Kianni first brainstormed startup ideas in their Stanford dorm room, cycling through concepts before landing on a consumer tool that included Gates\u2019 interest in women\u2019s empowerment (likely modeled after her own mother) and Kianni\u2019s sustainability focus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In line with Gates\u2019 insistence she builds her own venture without the benefits of her last name, the young founder hasn\u2019t taken money from her parents for Phia. Instead, she\u2019s insisted on raising outside capital even as some investors remain fixated on her personal life instead of her business venture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Gates and Kianni have said the topic of their potential future children has come up in meetings before, which was understandably frustrating for the entrepreneurial duo. But French Gates\u2014a women\u2019s rights activist\u2014gave Gates some stern advice: \u201cGet up or get out the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have investors ask us all the time, \u2018Well, what happens when you two go have babies?\u2019 And I remember one time crying about that. I called my mom, and she was like, \u2018Get up or get out the game, sis.\u2019 I was like, damn,\u201d Gates said on an episode of the Call Her Daddy <\/em>podcast published in April 2025.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now a saying Gates reminds herself of when navigating meetings with investors, all while attempting to buck any nepo baby accusations. This isn\u2019t just another legacy project, Gates argues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chip on my shoulder is not only proving myself but building something, you know, novel and unique that consumers actually love,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Read more What Bessent\u2019s economic isolation of Iran could look like<\/a><\/p>\n

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A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on February 21, 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

More on Most Powerful Women: <\/h2>\n
    \n
  • as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree\u2014and she says \u2018respect went up\u2019 because of it<\/li>\n
  • JPMorgan built a pipeline of female CEO candidates that was the envy of Wall Street. <\/li>\n
  • $19.2 billion in megagifts last year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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