Melinda French Gates reveals brutal reason she didn't fund daughter's business despite $30 billion net worth
The philanthropist, 60, shares three children with ex-husband Bill Gates, and their youngest, 22-year-old Phoebe Gates, recently co-founded a fashion tech startup called Phia.
Phia is a digital fashion platform that uses AI to help users compare prices of new and second-hand items across numerous e-commerce websites.
But while many might assume that Phoebe got a helping hand from her billionaire mother, Melinda has said that she did no such thing.
'I have a daughter who just started a business this year,' she explained at the Power of Women's Sports Summit presented by e.l.f. Beauty.
'She got capitalized, not because of my contacts, not because of me. I wouldn't put money into it.'
Explaining why she didn't want to help her daughter with the funding, she said that if it was a 'real business' then it would need other investors willing to back it.
She also wanted her daughter to navigate rejection if she wasn't able to get the money she needed.
'That's what I told her,' she continued. 'She's growing from this.'
In May, it was revealed that Phoebe's father, Bill, was 'worried' his youngest daughter would ask for money to start her new venture after cutting her inheritance.
'I thought, "Oh boy, she's going to come and ask,"' the Microsoft founder, 69, told the New York Times.
'And then I would have kept her on a short leash and be doing business reviews, which I would have found tricky, and I probably would have been overly nice but wondered if it was the right thing to do? Luckily, it never happened.'
For her business, Phoebe raised the capital independently.
First, she got $100,000 from Soma Capital, then $250,000 from the Stanford social entrepreneurship grant, and finally $500,000 in angel investments, bringing the total to $850,000.
Earlier this month, Melinda admitted one of her first big 'failures' happened at home during an interaction with Phoebe.
In the How to Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast, she opened up about a heated moment with Phoebe that led to the mom-of-three learning an important lesson not only about parenting but about friendships as well.
She explained that while her older children, Jennifer, 30, and Rory, 25, were pretty good at following rules, her youngest was the 'toughest.'
'My third one just ran right through the rules,' Melinda told Elizabeth.
Melinda went on to describe a moment when Phoebe was in high school that the mother-daughter duo got into an argument because Melinda wasn't allowing her to go to a party.
'She was really mad about it, kept pushing and pushing and pushing on me and finally she pushed me over the edge and I lost my temper with her,' Melinda said.
She explained that while as parents you never want to lose your temper, it got away from her at that moment.
'We're all human, but I really lost my temper in a way I just shouldn't have, and she was really angry at me and for good reason then, especially,' she said.
'I had not just a little bit raised my voice. I'd really raised my voice, and I knew I was in the wrong.'
Melinda quickly realized that she had 'overdone it,' but Phoebe had already marched upstairs.
The mom quickly followed her upstairs to try and repair the situation - but Phoebe wasn't as eager for reconciliation as Melinda had thought she would be.
Melinda went up to apologize and had asked her daughter for at least a hug, but Phoebe refused.
'I had to learn that no from her, that putting her hand up saying, 'no, mom,' she needed longer till she was ready to repair and maybe what I wanted, she wasn't ready for and it,' Melinda said.
'We all repair or get over emotions at different rates and just because I'm ready doesn't mean she's ready and of course as I look back, I was also the one in the position of power.'
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