Phoebe Gates: Career, Advocacy, and Inheritance Guide

Few people with the last name Gates get to define themselves entirely on their own terms, but Phoebe Gates is making a credible attempt. The 22-year-old Stanford graduate co-founded Phia, an AI-powered fashion discovery app that launched in April 2025 and quickly drew hundreds of thousands of users.

Born: September 14, 2002 ·
Age: 22 (as of 2024) ·
Known for: Founder of Phia, women’s health advocate, social media influencer ·
Instagram followers: 596K ·
TikTok followers: 287.5K ·
Education: Stanford University graduate

Six key biographical points, one pattern: Phoebe Gates has built a coherent public identity around entrepreneurship, advocacy, and academic credibility rather than leaning on her family name.

What Does Phoebe Gates Do for a Living?

Founder of Phia

• Phoebe Gates is the co-founder of Phia, an AI-powered fashion discovery and shopping app (LinkedIn profile).
• Phia launched in April 2025 (ELLE interview) and reached 500,000 users and more than 5,000 direct brand partners by September 2025 (Fortune exclusive).
• The app’s browser extension compares prices across around 40,000 linked sites (Business Insider report).
• Gates co-founded Phia with Sophia Kianni, whom she met as a roommate at Stanford (Business Insider report).

Women’s Health Advocate

• Gates’s LinkedIn describes her as working at the intersection of technology, women’s health, and empowerment (LinkedIn profile).
• She collaborates with healthcare leaders, activists, and experts advancing reproductive freedom and gender equality (LinkedIn profile).
• Her advocacy centers on maternal health, sexual and reproductive health, and gender-based violence.

Social Media Influencer

• Gates has built an audience of roughly 596,000 on Instagram and 287,500 on TikTok.
• She hosts The Burnouts podcast (LinkedIn profile), where she discusses topics around ambition, burnout, and young adulthood.
• Her social content blends personal style, health advocacy, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of startup life.

How Much Will Phoebe Gates Inherit?

Bill Gates’ Estate Plans

• No specific inheritance amount for Phoebe Gates has been publicly disclosed.
• Bill Gates has stated publicly that his children will receive a small fraction of his wealth, with the bulk directed to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
• As the youngest of three children, Phoebe’s share—whatever it may be—has not been detailed in any public estate planning document.

Philanthropy Focus

• The Gates Foundation, with an endowment exceeding $70 billion, is the primary beneficiary of Bill Gates’ fortune.
• Bill Gates has said his children will inherit approximately $10 million each—a sum that represents less than 0.01% of his net worth—though this figure has not been updated in recent years and may not reflect current plans.
• Melinda French Gates has also committed the majority of her wealth to philanthropic causes, including women’s rights and reproductive health—areas that align directly with Phoebe’s own advocacy work.

The implication: Phoebe Gates operates with financial backing that most founders lack, yet the public inheritance narrative often obscures the actual work she is doing with Phia.

Is Phoebe Gates in a Relationship?

Public Relationship Status

• As of the latest available information, Phoebe Gates has not publicly confirmed a romantic relationship.
• She attended Stanford and has been seen in public with friends but not a partner (Wikipedia entry).
• Her social media content focuses on fashion, advocacy, and startup life rather than a personal partner.

Privacy

• Gates has kept her personal life relatively private compared to other public figures of her generation.
• She does not appear to have publicly addressed questions about her relationship status directly.

The pattern: she maintains a deliberate boundary between her public persona as a founder and advocate and the private details of her personal life.

What Degree Does Phoebe Gates Have?

Stanford Education

• Phoebe Gates graduated from Stanford University in June 2024 (NYLON diary).
• She earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology (NYLON diary).
• Gates attended Stanford from 2021 to 2024 (LinkedIn profile).

Academic Focus

• Human Biology is an interdisciplinary major that combines biology, social sciences, and public health.
• The degree aligns directly with her advocacy work in women’s health and reproductive rights.
• Gates considered dropping out of college to build Phia full-time, but her parents said no (Business Insider report). She finished her degree remotely in 2024 before working on the startup full time (Business Insider report).

What Happened to Phoebe Gates?

Recent Activities

• Gates moved to New York in 2023 with Sophia Kianni to start Phia (Fortune exclusive).
• Phia launched in April 2025 and by late 2025 had over 600,000 users in some reports (Business Insider report).
• She continues to post regularly on Instagram and TikTok, blending fashion content with advocacy messages.
• No major incidents or controversies have been reported; she remains focused on building her company and public platform.

Public Appearances

• Gates has given interviews to ELLE and The Stanford Daily about Phia and her journey.
• She has not yet spoken at major tech conferences, but her profile is rising steadily within the fashion-tech ecosystem.

“Founder of Phia, Redefining How We Shop”

— Phoebe Gates, via her LinkedIn profile

“We initially brainstormed ideas including a Bluetooth tampon before settling on Phia.”

— Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, in a Stanford Daily Q&A

She is not simply coasting on a famous surname. She has built a startup with genuine traction, used her platform to spotlight women’s health issues that matter to her, and earned a Stanford degree in a field directly related to that advocacy. The gap between public perception of a “Gates heiress” and the reality of a founder grinding through seed rounds and product launches is considerable. The signal is clear: she is playing a different game than the one people expect.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: Chat AI: Best Free Platforms, How They Work, and Limitations · Personalised T-Shirt Printing: Fast Same-Day & Next-Day in Ireland