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 start-up.
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 start-up — Phia, and he agree to it.
“I’ve entered the start-up 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.
Phia is a web browser/app, which 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.
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.
