--- title: "Bill Gates’ Daughter Clearly Has a Traitor Inside Her Startup Who’s Trying to Destroy Her" description: "Leaked Slack messages suggest someone inside Bill Gates' daughter's startup Phia is hell-bent on taking the company down." date: "2026-08-14" modified: "2026-08-14" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/bill-gates-daughter-traitor-startup" categories: - "Future Society" --- # Bill Gates’ Daughter Clearly Has a Traitor Inside Her Startup Who’s Trying to Destroy Her ![A photo of Phoebe Gates in front of a gradient background.]() *Theo Wargo/Getty Images/Futurism* Last month, [*Bloomberg* revealed]() that a startup founded by Bill Gates' 23-year-old daughter, Phoebe Gates, had dabbled in some seriously questionable business practices. According to the reporting, Gates' online affiliate marketing startup Phia used a shady technique called "cookie stuffing," to collect commissions from online sales it had nothing to do with — a sneaky trick that's landed previous affiliate marketers in [federal prison](). Then, last week, [*Bloomberg* followed up with receipts]() that intensified the scandal. Damning internal Slack messages suggest that both Gates and her cofounder Sophia Kianni knew about the scheme since at least December of last year. While the story has been well hashed out by now, *Bloomberg*'s sourcing is noteworthy for what it implies: the leaked Slack messages strongly suggest that someone inside Phia is hell-bent on taking Gates — and quite probably the entire company — down. The extent of the company's "cookie stuffing" practice — the dangers of which engineers were careful to point out to the two cofounders — is astonishing. *Bloomberg* managed to gets its hands on a chart showing that Phia's average daily revenue plummeted from about $80,000 to between $10,000 and $28,000 after the company turned off the potentially fraudulent "auto pop for cookie drop" feature. Simply put, the startup's core product, a browser extension, automatically flagged any online sale the user was completing to take credit for it, even if the user never made use of the Phia extension. The exact fallout of the latest developments remains unclear, but according to *Bloomberg*, some affiliates have already cut ties with Phia following its initial July reporting. Gates has plenty to prove. Earlier this year, [she argued]() that she has a "chip on my shoulder" about the assumption that she's riding on her dad's coattails, and that she wants "no ties to my privilege or my last name." The startup raised $35 million in capital at a valuation of $185 million in February. "Our target consumer is a young woman who's hustling," the recent Stanford graduate [told *Fortune*](). "She shops like a genius, but she doesn’t want to waste her time doing it." But given her startup's sketchy way of doing business, it seems that Gates tried to take some ethical shortcuts — and that's clearly not sitting well with somebody within the company, who seemingly grew a conscience and rang the alarm bells by reaching out to the press. **More on the situation:** [*Phoebe Gates Took Secret Stanford Course on Controlling Society, Used It to Recruit for Her Startup That’s Now Facing Accusations*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()