Bill Gates is such a strict father that he not only left a mere 0.3% of his enormous fortune as inheritance to his glamorous daughter, but when she started a new fashion business he did not give her a single dollar

When Melinda Gates said she raised her kids middle-class, she wasn’t joking. Sure, the Gates children grew up in a sprawling Washington estate with every imaginable luxury, but they were also expected to live life with a sense of normalcy.

A recent example of that balance is Phoebe Gates, the youngest and arguably the most stylish of Bill and Melinda Gates’s children, who has stepped into the spotlight as a young entrepreneur.

(Image – Instagram / Phoebe Gates)

At 22, Phoebe co-founded Phia, a fashion-forward e-commerce tool she created with activist Sophia Kianni.

The app is pitched as “Google Flights for fashion,” offering a streamlined shopping experience with “no ads, no endless searching.” What’s surprising, though, is that Phoebe didn’t take a single dollar from her billionaire father.

Naturally, one might expect Bill Gates to be involved, at least financially, in his daughter’s business. But Phoebe made it clear she wanted to carve her own path.

(Image – Instagram / Phoebe Gates)

Recalling the moment she pitched the idea to him, Bill Gates told The New York Times, “I thought, ‘Oh boy, she’s going to come and ask.’” He added, “And then I would have kept her on a short leash and be doing business reviews, which I would have found tricky. I probably would have been overly nice but wondered if it was the right thing to do. Luckily, it never happened.”

Phia is designed to help users compare prices across online platforms, showing whether an item is overpriced and offering cheaper alternatives. From fashion to jewelry, the app aims to save users both time and money.

(Image – Instagram / Phoebe Gates)

(Phoebe with her partner Sophia and Kris Jenner. Image – Instagram / Sophia Kianni)

(Phoebe with her mother Melinda and elder sister Jennifer.)

Interestingly, Melinda French Gates hasn’t taken an active role in her daughter’s career,Instead of borrowing from her father, the world’s thirteenth-richest man with a net worth of $107 billion, Phoebe secured $100,000 in funding from Soma Capital and received a $250,000 grant from Stanford’s social entrepreneurship program.

Additional backing included $500,000 from angel investors and access to a powerful network of female mentors.

As for Bill Gates and his truckloads of money, while he hasn’t cracked open his vault to fund Phoebe’s business, he has dramatically increased her future inheritance.

What was initially set at $10 million has now grown fiftyfold to a staggering $500 million for each of his children.

The three Gates kids are expected to inherit around 0.3% each of their Microsoft co-founder father’s $168 billion fortune (according to Bloomberg).

Ref: Bill Gates is such a strict father that he not only left a mere 0.3% of his enormous fortune as inheritance to his glamorous daughter, but when she started a new fashion business he did not give her a single dollar

Photo Credit-Instagram/Phoebe Gates, Instagram/ Sophia Kianni, Facebook/ Melinda France Gates