Bill Gates’s youngest daughter has revealed that her ‘privileged nepo baby’ status gave rise to feelings of intense insecurity throughout her student years.
The 22-year-old, who studied Human Biology at California’s Stanford University and graduated last year, discussed her father’s extraordinary success and the pressure that brings on her new podcast, The Burnouts, alongside her business partner and close friend, Sophia Kianni, 23.
Phoebe, daughter to the Microsoft co-founder, 69, and his philanthropist ex wife Melinda Gates, 60, said: ‘I had so much insecurity and such a desire to prove myself at Stanford.
‘I came in, I was like, ”I’m so privileged, I’m a nepo baby”, like I had so much insecurity around that. I feel it’s so hard when you’re a freshman in college because you have no experience. You have nothing.’
Despite her billionaire father’s gravitas, the graduate, who is dating Sir Paul McCartney’s grandson, Arthur Donald, said she was ‘flat-out rejected’ from a business class after devising her first pitch, Bluetooth tampons, giving women health status updates throughout their periods.
‘This was our first big failure of many, many, many,’ Phoebe admitted. ‘I don’t think it’s really a shocker that we got flat-out rejected from this class – they asked us, ”What problem does this solve? How would it make money?” We couldn’t answer those questions.’
It wasn’t just her Stanford professors who doubted Phoebe’s entrepreneurial skills, but Bill also blocked his daughter’s request to drop out of school to pursue her debut company despite him doing something similar 49 years earlier.
Phoebe, who will soon launch her company, digital fashion platform Phia, which she describes as a ‘new way to shop’ online, with Kianni, said: ‘I remember even when we wanted to start the company, him being like, ”Are you sure you want to do this?”
Phoebe Gates, the youngest daughter of Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates (pictured together), has discussed the downfalls of being a ‘privileged nepo baby’
The youngest child of Bill and Melinda Gates studied Human Biology at California ‘s Stanford University and graduated last year
‘Because both of my siblings were incredibly intelligent and took very typical career paths – my brother’s a genius, my sister has two kids and a horse-back riding career and is in residency [as a Junior Pediatrician] – but there wasn’t this adverse risk of failure.’
Phoebe and her siblings, Jennifer, 28, and Rory, 25, will famously receive a minute percentage of their father’s fortune because Bill will instead divert his mammoth fortune to charitable organisations.
The 22-year-old continued: ‘So my parents were really cautious when I was like, ”I want to do Stanford abroad and do this remotely and finish up my degree and do the start-up”.
‘They were very much like, ”You need to finish your degree. You don’t just get to drop out and [start] a company.” Which is so funny because my dad literally did that – that’s like the reason I’m able to go to Stanford, have my tuition paid.’
Bill dropped out of Harvard in 1975 after three semesters to start Microsoft, a decision which helped earn him his estimated $107 billion (£83 billion), according to Forbes.
Phoebe added that, despite having a close relationship with her father, she has few recollections of him discussing Microsoft with her.
Pictured: Bill and Phoebe Gates on the red carpet at the TIME 100 Gala in New York City in June, 2022
The 22-year-old is in a relationship with Sir Paul McCartney’s grandson, Arthur Donald (seen together at he Albies hosted by the Clooney Foundation for Justice at the New York Public Library in September, 2024)
Episode one of the Burnouts by hosts Phoebe and Sophia is available to listen to on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts
‘I literally never remember my dad talking to me about the start of Microsoft. I literally mostly just remember him talking about the Foundation,’ she said.
Instead of depending entirely on knowledge passed down from her father, Phoebe claimed that she is securing her future through a solid work ethic.
She said: ‘I really like the results we’re seeing – and this is not just true for business, but any career you’re in: it is just the result of habits.
‘The tracking we’re seeing with our product is really just the result of our habits; it’s the result of loving your work, waking up early, working ’til damn late on this company because you love it.
‘It’s not work-life balance: this is your life, and you really enjoy it. It has to be fun, and you have to have the habits built around that.
‘And controlling – being able to control that part of your brain that wants to stay in bed and being like, I don’t want to eat but I need to go eat lunch because I need to be productive this afternoon.’
Gates offered the example of embracing rejection as a habit she and Kianni adopted to enable success.
She said: ‘A habit that we had that I thought was so good at the beginning was just constant outreach and constant acceptance of rejection.
Phoebe revealed that her billionaire father denied her requests to drop out of Stanford, despite him dropping out of Harvard after three semesters
Phoebe will soon launch her debut fashion company Phia alongside her close friend, Sophia Kianni
Pictured: Melinda and Phoebe Gates at the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s 2023 Albie Awards in New York
‘When we were trying to get our first partnerships for Phia, we would outreach like… we maxed out the LinkedIn credits. And they wouldn’t grant us more because we hit the limit.
‘We’d get people respond like, ”Please leave me alone and never email me”. We’d still respond again.
‘I really feel the greatest lesson from this is vulnerability is not embarrassing. Yes, our cold email outreach template was awful at first, and it was a complete flop, but I’ve connected with some of those people now, and they were like, ”Good for you for reaching out in college.”
The 22-year-old added: ‘The biggest things we’ve learned is have that vulnerability – you just need to take shots on goal.’
Listen to The Burnouts with Phoebe and Sophia here.
