Phoebe Gates and the contentious debate over fair pay for influencers

Early-stage AI startups often operate on a budget—even when they’re co-founded by the daughter of famous billionaires.

Phoebe Gates [Source Photo: Wikipedia]

BY María José Gutierrez Chavez

Frugal founders are often praised for trying to stay within budget. But when the founder happens to be the daughter of one of the world’s richest people, the expectations seem to be different.

In a viral post on Thursday that has sparked a debate over fair pay for creators and the power dynamics of negotiations, a lifestyle influencer posted on X what appeared to be a screenshot of a conversation with Phoebe Gates, cofounder of AI shopping agent startup Phia, and the youngest daughter of billionaires Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates.

“When a billionaire’s daughter says you’re ‘out of budget’ … Girl, pls,” the post read.

The conversation allegedly showed Gates declining the content creator’s user-generated-content rate of $4,000, saying it was “just super out of budget for us right now,” given that Phia is an early-stage startup. Instead, Gates allegedly offered $400.

Fast Company reached out to Phia for comment.

But while the original post was meant to call out Gates, some users flocked to defend the young founder instead.

“The fact she’s not wasting investor capital and actually hustling for UGC [user-generated content] herself is actually a good thing. Not sure what your post is trying to prove,” Nikita Bier, head of product at X, said via X.

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