Overview

• During the summit, Melinda French Gates emphasized that Phoebe must secure capital independently to validate her business concept.
• She argued that external investment and the experience of rejection are crucial for building entrepreneurial resilience.
• Phoebe Gates’s Phia, a fashion-tech platform co-founded with Stanford roommate Sophia Kianni, has already raised $850,000 from sources including Soma Capital, a university grant and angel investors.
• The choice reflects the Gates family’s plan to allocate each child less than 1% of Bill Gates’s $101 billion fortune while directing over 99% to the Gates Foundation.
• With female-founded teams capturing only 2.3% of global venture capital last year, Melinda’s stance highlights the systemic funding challenges women entrepreneurs face.