Bill Gates' Youngest Daughter Making Career Splash With Doubtful Inheritance

Bill Gates' youngest daughter, Phoebe Gates, is embracing independence after her dad's inheritance revelation.

The billionaire's daughter has forged a new career path to secure her financial future, as she may not be receiving a substantial share of her father's wealth.

Bill Gates has announced that none of his children will receive more than 1% of his billion-dollar fortune, as he intends to give away a larger percentage to charity.

The 22-year-old is currently collaborating with Sophia Kianni and Tay Nakamoto for a new episode on their "Sticking With Style" podcast. There, the trio will offer helpful tips on how to upgrade their dorm room for the fall semester.

The upcoming episode is part of her business deal with Command Brand, which involves endorsing them to a broader and younger audience. 

It took a while for the Stanford Alum to find her ground in the labor industry as she experienced outright rejection during her first-ever business class pitch at her university.

"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," she noted. 

Phoebe added that her dad also rejected her decision to drop out of college and embark on building her company. Although her dad did it with so much conviction nearly 5 decades ago to build Microsoft, he insisted she finish what she started.

Now, The Daily Mail noted that Phoebe is just a few deep breaths away from her company going live. The digital fashion platform known as "Phia" is described as a futuristic hack on online shopping, offering a whole new experience.

In her 22 years under Bill's wing as a daughter, Phoebe must have learned a thing or two about owning a company. However, she is putting a twist on things by running her company completely on her terms.

She has resolved to see things through at her company by cultivating a habit built on solid work ethics and respecting the hustle. On her new podcast, "The Burnouts," she said:

"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."

She added that she and Sophia, through their partnership, have learned to embrace rejection as part of their habits should they aspire to succeed.

"The biggest things we've learned is to have that vulnerability - you just need to take shots on goal," she explained. Phoebe recalled the challenges they encountered at the beginning of landing partnerships for the Phia brand.

According to her, their LinkedIn messages would get rejected and their credits would get exhausted trying to build connections with potential partners, but they kept going.

"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,'" she noted.

It may seem shocking that 99% of the philanthropist's $101 billion is not going into his kids, but he has a reason for it, which he explained to Indian podcaster Raj Shamani, saying:

"My kids got a great upbringing and education, but will get less than 1 percent of the total wealth because I decided it wouldn't be a favor to them."

He emphasized that his wealth is not intended to be controlled or managed by his family, nor is his tech empire, which he built after dropping out of college in 1975. He is reportedly rooting for his children to find their bearings in life, free from his influence and the luck and fortune he experienced.

The good thing is that the tech guru's children are all aware of his decision, and they have had clear communication on where he stands regarding their inheritance. Bill shared:

"I do think explaining early on your philosophy that you're gonna treat them all equally and that you're gonna give them incredible opportunities, but that the highest calling for these resources is to go back to the neediest through the foundation."

The current thirteenth richest man could not hold back his admiration for Phoebe when he learnt that she secured funding for Phia outside his influence.

According to him, as seen on NDTV, the billionaire admitted that he had expected her to ask for financial assistance during the launch process, but that day never came.

Phoebe demonstrated her capabilities when she raised $500,000 from venture capitalists and angel investors after graduating from Stanford in 2024, without dropping out, unlike her father.

While Bill would have offered much-needed help to Phoebe, he was honest about the conditions that may become attached to making such an offer.

"I would have kept her on a short leash and been doing business reviews, which I would have found tricky. And I probably would have been overly nice, but I wondered if it was the right thing to do. Luckily, it never happened." Bill declared.

Bill's statement mirrored that of his ex-wife, who noted at some point that she would not consider investing in her daughter's start-up, despite the industry being a challenging terrain for women entrepreneurs.

Phoebe affirmed that her parents' admissions were very correct, and Phia, the company that is designed to aggregate clothing prices across 40,000 websites, is not relying on family funding.

Bill has shifted more of his focus to his humanitarian efforts through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since Microsoft gained momentum over the years.

The world's largest private charitable organization, chaired by him alongside Melinda until 2024, focuses on underserved areas in health and education. The foundation also expanded its focus to include poverty alleviation as one of its core goals.

However, the charity organization was renamed "Gates Foundation" after Melinda resigned as co-chair following their divorce, leaving Bill as the sole chair. The billionaire broke ground for his indelible efforts in eradicating several transmissible diseases, including malaria, tuberculosis, and polio. 

Bill and his former wife received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 for their philanthropic efforts, among other honors and awards. As of this year, the father of three revealed that he has made charitable donations totaling approximately $100 billion, with around $60 billion allocated to his foundation.

It's not hard to see where Bill Gates' confidence in giving his wealth away comes from; his kids will be fine.