‘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 has raised more than $43 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 in February.

“I have a chip on my shoulder,” she said, describing her drive to prove she can win over private equity in Silicon Valley based on merit, not inheritance or legacy.

Phoebe Gates’ comments came during the resurfacing of her father’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein, although representatives for Bill Gates have repeatedly denied his involvement and any related accusations.

Phoebe Gates didn’t comment about the allegations, but French Gates earlier this year said her ex-husband “ has to answer ” 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 .

Phoebe Gates did acknowledge her father’s business success, saying: “From my dad, I’ve really learned that your team is the core of what you’re building.

You can’t do anything without an incredible team.” But this week, Bloomberg 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’s software that took credit for sales it didn’t drive, which is a practice called “cookie stuffing.” In July, the company claimed it had only known about the situation for 24 hours, but Bloomberg ‘s latest investigation shows they had known about it for seven months, according to people familiar with the matter.

For a July investigation, Bloomberg , 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’ policies.

“Any features causing misattributions were immediately removed over a month ago on July 7,” a Phia spokesperson told Bloomberg for its most recent investigation.