‘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’

Phoebe Gates wants to build her AI shopping company while keeping one thing out of her pitch deck: her last name. The 23-year-old youngest daughter of billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates and philanthropist Melinda French Gates recently raised $35 million for Phia, which is now valued at around $185 million. 

But she’s determined for the venture to stand on its own, with “no ties to my privilege or my last name,” Phoebe Gates told Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast in an episode published Thursday.