Bill Gates just did something most billionaires wouldn't: he worked customer service at his daughter Phoebe Gates' startup, Phia, a new AI-powered fashion shopping platform founded with her Stanford roommate, Sophia Kianni, Inc. reports.
The Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) co-founder posted a video of himself on LinkedIn smiling next to Phoebe as he responded to support messages for Phia's customers. In the caption, he wrote, "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."
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"I've spent a lot of time thinking about how technology can make systems more efficient, equitable, and accessible. But I've learned over the years that the best way to understand how something works, or where it breaks, is to go straight to the people using it," Gates added in the post.
Though the video was clearly designed for promotion, leadership experts say it models something powerful: executive visibility at the front lines, according to Inc.
Uber's CEO Became a Driver and Discovered the Company Was Failing Its Workers
Gates isn't the only tech titan who's gone hands-on. According to Inc., Uber (NYSE:UBER) CEO Dara Khosrowshahi started delivering Uber Eats orders on a bicycle during the pandemic before switching to rideshare driving in a Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Speaking at a 2023 conference, Khosrowshahi said he quickly noticed a product quality gap between rider and driver experiences. According to Inc., that realization changed his leadership focus entirely. "We didn't take pride in the driver product because very few of us drove," he said, adding that his firsthand frustrations became the catalyst for internal cultural change.
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Founders Say Frontline Work Creates "Epiphany Moments" for New Hires and Execs Alike
Demetrios Zoppos, co-founder of luxury vacation rental startup Onefinestay, mandates that every new hire, be it engineers, managers, or even senior leadership, spend time doing customer support or shadowing operational teams that maintain homes, Inc. says.
Zoppos calls it a transformative experience. "Everyone comes back and says, ‘It's an epiphany! I understand what the hell this is about now,'" he told Inc.
According to Inc., Harvard Business School professors Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria studied how CEOs spend their time and found they devote only 6% to frontline teams and 3% to customers, while spending 72% in meetings.
Former Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) CEO and Harvard professor Bill George recommends executives increase frontline time to 30%, a bold yet increasingly supported benchmark for leaders who want to stay connected to reality inside their companies.
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One CEO Cleaned Toilets With Staff and It Sparked Loyalty, Not Laughter
Jonathan Lee Kelly, owner of Asymmetric Holdings, took frontline leadership a step further by scrubbing toilets beside his employees, Inc. says. "If I ask people to do it, I have to do the same thing," he explained.
According to Inc., experts say actions like this build loyalty that money can't always buy. While strong compensation and benefits remain essential, seeing the CEO shoulder grunt work sends a message of solidarity that fuels employee morale.
As Gates proved through his Phia cameo, the most impactful leadership lessons often start where the customer conversation begins: in the inbox.
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