Classmates of Phoebe Gates from her time at Stanford University have brought forward new details about the billionaire’s daughter, as questions mount over her qualifications to run a technology-based business given her limited coding experience. Phoebe, daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates, is facing serious trouble over her shopping startup, Phia.
A Stanford classmate of Phoebe’s said the billionaire’s daughter never took an advanced coding class at university, since her human biology degree did not require it.
The source said: “Phoebe didn’t actually have to take a single computer science class. She may have taken some classes to understand how computer science works, but those would have been primarily focused on biological research — if she took any at all.”
Media outlet Page Six reached out to both Stanford officials and Phoebe Gates for comment but received no response.
The source further explained that Phoebe couldn’t have simply enrolled in an advanced coding class on a whim — she would have first needed to complete certain mandatory prerequisite courses. Fitting those into her regular academic schedule would have been quite difficult, particularly since she had already graduated a year earlier.
However, the 23-year-old Phoebe did take a class in applied artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship. That class largely helped shape the idea behind her startup, Phia. She co-founded the multi-billion-dollar digital personal shopping assistant startup with her 25-year-old Stanford roommate, Sophia Kianpour.
The young entrepreneurs became the center of a major tech scandal this week after allegations of “cookie-stuffing” emerged at the startup. It is now becoming clear that this “nepo baby” of the tech world and her startup were already a source of amusement at her own university.
According to the source, Phoebe’s Stanford classmates never knew her as a skilled coder. When plans to launch Phia were announced, some computer science students reportedly “laughed in their faces.”
A representative for Kianpour also confirmed she never took a traditional computer science class at Stanford. The source remarked sarcastically that given the coursework in her “Science, Technology and Society” degree, Kianpour likely wouldn’t even know what a cookie actually is, in the technical sense.
Leaked Slack messages reportedly show Kianpour discussing Phia’s controversial “cookie-stuffing” method with her engineers and allegedly instructing them to keep “dropping” the cookies.
She is alleged to have told an engineer on Slack: “It would be great if we could do whatever it takes to keep dropping these cookies continuously.”
According to a Bloomberg report, Phia’s “auto-drop” feature likely allowed the company to collect commissions on purchases even in cases where it had not actually referred any buyer.
Phia’s leadership initially claimed this was a “software bug.” However, new reports — including Kianpour’s leaked Slack messages — suggest the feature had been active for months.
“Cookie-stuffing” is a deceptive method that can make it appear a company referred a buyer to a retailer or seller when, in reality, it may not have — allowing the company to improperly collect commissions.
The company has disputed some aspects of the investigation’s findings. It said the feature has already been disabled and that it is reviewing the affected sales.
According to Bloomberg, after Phia disabled the features in July, the company’s average daily revenue dropped sharply from roughly $80,000 to between $10,000 and $28,000.
Citing experts, the Post reported that Phoebe and her partner Kianpour, who live in a $51 million luxury penthouse, are unlikely to face the harshest possible penalty of up to 20 years in prison over the cookie-stuffing allegations. However, if the allegations are proven, they could face civil lawsuits and substantial financial penalties.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report