RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Add Page Six on Google Phoebe Gates’ Stanford classmates are helping Page Six crack the code.
Bill and Melinda Gates' daughter may be in hot water over her shopping startup Phia , raising questions about how qualified she is to run a tech business when her own coding experience appears limited.
One of Gates' Stanford classmates revealed the billionaire heiress apparently did not take advanced coding classes at the Ivy League, as her degree in human biology didn't require it.
In fact, "Phoebe herself did not have to take a single computer science class. She could have taken classes that involved understanding how computer science works, but it would’ve been very much around biology research – if she even took those classes," the source said.
Stanford and Gates have not responded to Page Six's request for comment.
Gates wouldn’t have been able to simply jump into advanced coding classes, our source explained. She would have needed to complete prerequisites, making them difficult to fit into her schedule, especially since she graduated a year early.
However, Gates, 23, did take an applied artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship class that helped spark Phia, the multi-billion dollar digital personal shopping assistant startup she co-founded with Stanford roommate Sophia Kianni, 25.
The young entrepreneurs found themselves at the center of a tech scandal this week after being accused of "cookie-stuffing" at the startup. But it turns out, nepo tech baby Gates and her startup was the laughing stock at her alma mater.
Her Stanford classmates didn't know her to be a strong coder, according to our source. In fact, when plans for Phia were announced, some computer science students allegedly “laughed in their faces,” they said.
A rep for Kianni confirmed that she did not take any formal computer science classes at Stanford. Our source quipped that Kianni “wouldn’t know what a cookie was" from the coursework she did take in her Science, Technology and Society degree.
Kianni is identified in leaked Slack messages discussing Phia’s controversial “cookie stuffing” practice with engineers and allegedly instructing them to keep the cookies “dropping.”
She allegedly told one engineer over Slack, “Whatever we can do to keep these cookies dropping will be amazing.”
Bloomberg reported that Phia’s “Auto Drop” feature may have allowed the company to collect commissions on purchases it didn’t actually send shoppers to.
Phia initially called it a software bug, but new reporting, including Kianni’s alleged Slack messages, suggests the feature had been around for months. (In simple terms, “cookie stuffing” can make it look like a company sent a shopper to a retailer when it didn’t — potentially allowing it to collect a commission anyway).
The company has disputed some findings and says it has shut down the feature and is reviewing affected sales.
After Phia disabled the features in July, average daily revenue at the company plummeted from around $80,000 to between $10,000 and $28,000, according to Bloomberg.
Gates, who allegedly resides in a $51 million Flatiron penthouse, and Kianni are unlikely to face the maximum 20 years behind bars for potential charges stemming from the “cookie stuffing” allegations — but they could face civil lawsuits and financial penalties if the claims are proven, experts told The Post .
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