Refusing to make exceptions in an already unequal startup landscape, Melinda French Gates said she declined to fund her daughter's new business, insisting she raise outside capital based on merit.
"She got capitalized, not because of my contacts, not because of me. I wouldn't put money into it, " Gates said at the Power of Women's Sports Summit presented by e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF).
"If this is a real business, others need to be willing to back it," she said, according to Fortune. "She's growing from this."
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Gates Family Maintains Stance on Inheritance
The approach aligns with the position long held by her former husband, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) cofounder Bill Gates. He has previously stated that his children would inherit less than 1% of his wealth, encouraging them to forge their own paths.
While French Gates did not identify which daughter she was referencing, Phoebe Gates, the couple's youngest child, recently launched Phia, a fashion-tech startup, with her Stanford University roommate, Sophia Kianni. The platform compares clothing prices from over 40,000 sites to help users find deals.
In April, Phoebe Gates said her parents did not allow her to leave college to launch the venture, even though her father famously dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft.
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Rejection as a Growth Tool for Female Founders
Gates noted that her decision is also rooted in a broader commitment to empowering women entrepreneurs. She said her daughter's experience reflects a common thread among women featured in her YouTube series, "Moments That Make Us."
"I saw that going through something difficult changed all of them, and that they had to learn to find resilience somewhere," she said, according to Fortune. "And in finding that resilience, they found themselves."
Tennis legend Billie Jean King, who joined Gates on stage, agreed and spoke about the value of feedback during challenging times. "To your point, like your daughter has figured out how to get this first business started—that's amazing," King said.
King also revealed she avoids using the word "failure," preferring to reframe setbacks as opportunities for feedback. "When people start thinking about failure, it's a very negative feeling," she said.
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Women Face Ongoing Challenges in Startup Funding
Gates, who has spent over two decades advocating for women's empowerment, said female founders must be especially resilient to succeed in the startup world.
"It is very, very hard to get your business funded if you're a woman," she said. "And so you do have to learn a bit how to have the courage to play the game and to stick with it."
According to the Founders Forum Group report, only 2.3% of global venture capital went to female-only founding teams last year, showcasing pronounced gender disparities.
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