Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, recently demonstrated a unique approach to leadership and family support by working a shift in customer service for his daughter Phoebe’s new startup. In a LinkedIn post Bill Gates revealed that his daughter Phoebe Gates asked him to work a shift in customer service at her AI-powered fashion startup — Phoebe and Gates agreed to it. “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,” wrote Gates in a LinkedIn post.Phoebe Gates co-founded Phia along with her Stanford roommate Sophia Kianni. The platform uses AI to help users compare prices of new and second-hand products across more than 40,000 websites. A web browser/app, Phia aims to be the Booking.com of fashion, offering an instant price comparison from thousands of e-commerce sites for any item, new or used. Phoebe Gates is the youngest child of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates. Bill Gates joined the customer service team of Phia for one day in order to understand how the product works.
A lesson in leadership
Bill Gates revealed that this experience reminded him that “the best way to understand how something works—or where it breaks—is to go straight to the people using it.” His stint echoes a growing trend among CEOs to spend time on the front lines, following examples like Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who famously delivered food and drove passengers to better grasp user pain points.
Read Bill Gates complete LinkedIn post here
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. Phia is a fashion-tech tool built to make shopping smarter and more sustainable, and it’s the brainchild of my daughter Phoebe Gates and her co-founder Sophia Kianni.They’ve built an app and browser extension that helps people shop smarter by finding the best prices, surfacing secondhand options, and showing lower-impact alternatives across thousands of online retailers.It’s been inspiring to watch them tackle a massive challenge, rethinking the way we shop, by meeting users where they are.And now, I’ll be doing the same.Looking forward to getting back into the startup scene. Hopefully, I won’t break anything (no promises).📲Download the Phia iOS app for free at join.phia.com💻Or if you shop on your computer like me, they have a free chrome extension at gophia.comLet me know what you think! You never know who’s on the other end of the customer service line…Earlier, in April, Bill Gates shared that he intentionally chose not to invest in his daughter’s AI-powered shopping app, Phia, during a podcast. He explained that funding the venture would have led him to oversee it too closely. Instead, he offered advice on staffing while others handled the investment. “In an interview published by the New York Times, soon after Phia’s web browser and app went live, Bill Gates said: “I thought, ‘Oh boy, she’s going to come and ask.” “I would have kept her on a short leash and be doing business reviews, which I would have found tricky,” the businessman explained of his hesitance. “And I probably would have been overly nice but wondered if it was the right thing to do.”