‘Are you sure?’: Bill Gates response to daughter Phoebe's new fashion website

Phoebe Gates recently launched her podcast "The Burnouts" with business partner Sophia Kianni, and launched a fashion website called "Phia."

Microsoft founder Bill Gates's youngest daughter, Phoebe Gates, recently revealed that her billionaire father had been hesitant when she first decided to become an entrepreneur, reported the New York Post.

Bill Gates and his daughter Phoebe (Instagram/@phoebegates)

Phoebe shared that her parents, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, were worried about her entrepreneurial ambitions initially. She quoted her father asking, "Are you sure you wanna do this?" when she first decided on her career.

Bill and Melinda Gates insisted that Phoebe complete her education first. Phoebe Gates graduated from Stanford University in the spring of 2024 with a degree in human biology but is now pivoting into the world of sustainable fashion with her new brand “Phia”.

Phoebe Gates on nepotism

While she stated that the term “nepo baby”, had made her insecure, she also was motivated to prove herself.

She said, "I'm my parents' daughter, that gives me immense privilege, but it's not what I'm defined by. I want to have my own identity, I want to be my own person, I want to branch away from that, but how do I do that in a way where I can yield some sort of change?" With "The Burnouts" and "Phia."

She also credited Stella McCartney, daughter of Beatles legend Paul McCartney, for being an inspiration, saying, “Her and my mom are actually good friends. She took that [her privilege] and instead of being like, 'Oh, people define me by this,' she was like, 'OK, I have explained. this immense privilege, now I'm going to use it to leverage something.”