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Phoebe Gates regularly asks candidates 1 question during interviews. The co-CEO of the artificial quality (AI)-powered buying adjunct Phia has revealed that she asks this question to candidates during interviews for roles astatine her startup.
The youngest girl of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and philanthropist Melinda French Gates said that this question helps her to recognize however applicants attack problem-solving alternatively than investigating their factual knowledge.Speaking connected the Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast with Yahoo Finance, Gates said, “I stole this from different founder. ‘How overmuch bash you deliberation California authorities spends connected healthcare? And bash a bottoms-up attack for however you would physique that out.’”
She added that the question is being asked crossed departments. Phobe noted, “I’ll inquire that for each azygous role. I’ll inquire that for sales, I’ll inquire that for marketing, I’ll inquire that for engineering.” Gates said the extremity is not to cheque whether candidates cognize the close fig but to measure “how idiosyncratic goes done a logical attack to solving that question.”As Phia expands, Phoebe Gates said she uses further questions during the hiring process.
When interviewing income candidates, she asks astir the “craziest” happening they person done to adjacent a deal. “That teaches you a batch astir however acold they’ll go, however dedicated they are to bash something,” she said.The 23-year-old precocious raised $35 cardinal successful Series A backing for Phia, the AI buying cause she co-founded successful April 2025 with her Stanford University roommate, Sophia Kianni. Since launch, the startup has attracted much than 1 cardinal users and reported an elevenfold summation successful revenue.
The institution is presently valued astatine astir $185 million.Phia is simply a mobile app and browser hold designed to assistance shoppers trim spending by displaying resale and secondhand alternatives to the products they are browsing.
What Phoebe Gates said astir backing from Bill and Melinda Gates
Gates besides noted that Phia has not taken backing from her parents, saying, “I person a spot connected my shoulder,” during the aforesaid podcast. She added that 1 of the cardinal lessons she has learned from her parents is however to physique beardown teams.“From my dad, I’ve truly learned that your squad is the halfway of what you’re building. You can’t bash thing without an unthinkable team,” she added.Instead of investing financially successful the venture, Bill Gates has contributed his clip and acquisition to enactment his daughter’s startup. Shortly aft the company’s motorboat successful 2025, the tech billionaire shared connected LinkedIn that helium was assisting the squad with lawsuit work efforts successful the aboriginal stages. Announcing his engagement with Phia, Gates wrote: “I’ve entered the startup satellite again.”“When your girl asks if you’d beryllium consenting to enactment a displacement successful lawsuit work astatine her startup, the lone close reply is yes. I’ve spent a batch of clip reasoning astir however exertion tin marque systems much efficient, equitable, and accessible. But I’ve learned implicit the years that the champion mode to recognize however thing works, oregon wherever it breaks, is to spell consecutive to the radical utilizing it. That’s wherefore I’ll beryllium joining the Phia lawsuit acquisition squad for a time this week”, Bill Gates wrote successful a LinkedIn station past year.
