Phoebe Gates regularly asks candidates one question during interviews. The co-CEO of the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered shopping assistant Phia has revealed that she asks this question to candidates during interviews for roles at her startup. The youngest daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and philanthropist Melinda French Gates said that this question helps her to understand how applicants approach problem-solving rather than testing their factual knowledge.Speaking on the Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast with Yahoo Finance, Gates said, “I stole this from another founder. ‘How much do you think California state spends on healthcare? And do a bottoms-up approach for how you would build that out.’” She added that the question is being asked across departments. Phobe noted, “I’ll ask that for every single role. I’ll ask that for sales, I’ll ask that for marketing, I’ll ask that for engineering.” Gates said the goal is not to check whether candidates know the correct figure but to evaluate “how someone goes through a logical approach to solving that question.”As Phia expands, Phoebe Gates said she uses additional questions during the hiring process. When interviewing sales candidates, she asks about the “craziest” thing they have done to close a deal. “That teaches you a lot about how far they’ll go, how dedicated they are to do something,” she said.The 23-year-old recently raised $35 million in Series A funding for Phia, the AI shopping agent she co-founded in April 2025 with her Stanford University roommate, Sophia Kianni. Since launch, the startup has attracted more than 1 million users and reported an elevenfold increase in revenue. The company is currently valued at about $185 million.Phia is a mobile app and browser extension designed to help shoppers reduce spending by displaying resale and secondhand alternatives to the products they are browsing.
What Phoebe Gates said about funding from Bill and Melinda Gates
Gates also noted that Phia has not taken funding from her parents, saying, “I have a chip on my shoulder,” during the same podcast. She added that one of the key lessons she has learned from her parents is how to build strong teams.“From my dad, I’ve really learned that your team is the core of what you’re building. You can’t do anything without an incredible team,” she added.Instead of investing financially in the venture, Bill Gates has contributed his time and experience to support his daughter’s startup. Shortly after the company’s launch in 2025, the tech billionaire shared on LinkedIn that he was assisting the team with customer service efforts in the early stages. Announcing his involvement with Phia, Gates wrote: “I’ve entered the startup world again.”“When your daughter asks if you’d be willing to work a shift in customer service at her startup, the only right answer is yes. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how technology can make systems more efficient, equitable, and accessible. But I’ve learned over the years that the best way to understand how something works, or where it breaks, is to go straight to the people using it. That’s why I’ll be joining the Phia customer experience team for a day this week”, Bill Gates wrote in a LinkedIn post last year.
