Melinda French Gates won’t fund daughter’s startup despite $31B fortune

"I have a daughter who just started a business this year," Melinda explained at the Power of Women’s Sports Summit. "She got capitalized not because of my contacts, not because of me. I wouldn’t put money into it."

Although she did not directly name her daughter, Phoebe Gates, the youngest of her three children with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, recently launched an AI-powered fashion app called Phia, as reported by Fortune. Developed with her Stanford roommate, Sophia Kianni, the app compares clothing prices across 40,000 websites to help users find the best deals.

Melinda explained that if the business is legitimate, others should be willing to invest in it. She emphasized that her daughter needs to learn how to deal with rejection if funding does not come through. "That’s what I told her," Melinda said. "She’s growing from this."

Melind French Gates and daughter Phoebe Gates. Photo courtesy of Phoebe's Instagram

For Melinda, encouraging Phoebe to chart her own course in fundraising is about more than independence; it is about building resilience in a world where women face significant barriers to success.

"It is very, very hard to get your business funded if you’re a woman," she said. "And so you do have to learn a bit how to have the courage to play the game and to stick with it."

This message mirrors advice Melinda gave Phoebe when she faced frustrations about investors questioning how motherhood might affect her startup. "Get up or get out the game," Melinda bluntly said.

This approach aligns with the values shared by both Melinda and her ex-husband, Bill, concerning their wealth. The Microsoft co-founder previously revealed that their children would inherit "less than 1%" of his fortune, stressing the importance of earning their own way in life. Bill also opposed Phoebe’s wish to drop out of college and pursue business ventures like he did when he left Harvard to co-found Microsoft.

Phoebe, now 22, has reiterated her desire for financial independence from her billionaire parents. "We don’t want this to be something that’s funded by my family – we want this to be a real company," she told the New York Post earlier this year.

"That’s really important for us ... while I have a ton of privilege coming from my family, it’s about having a product that stands on its own."

Melinda's net worth is estimated at $30.7 billion, while Bill’s stands at $117 billion, according to Forbes.