In Feature 037 of Conversations Behind The Campaign, we sat down with the founders behind Phia, the AI-powered shopping agent redefining fashion tech. Founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, Phia recently announced its $8 million seed round led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from high-profile investors including Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner, Sara Blakely, Michael Rubin, Desiree Gruber, and Sheryl Sandberg.
Launched in April 2025, Phia has already attracted 500,000 users, secured over 5,000 direct brand partnerships, and driven tens of millions of dollars in sales. Its iOS app and mobile browser extension give consumers an AI agent that compares prices, calculates resale value, summarises product details, and tracks price drops in real time, empowering smarter shopping decisions instantly.
In our conversation, Phoebe and Sophia discuss how they raised angel investment early on, their intention to lean into founder-led storytelling, the key metrics they track through Phia’s campaigns and the importance of creating real-life touch points through their community events.
1. You raised $500,000 in angel investment early on, with backing from names like Sara Blakely and Kris Jenner. How critical was that early funding to your growth, and what challenges did you face in securing it?
Our initial pre-seed funding came in the form of a $250,000 grant from one of our professors at Stanford. She deeply believed in our vision and wanted to empower us to pursue it full-time in New York City.
“That early support was critical, as it gave us the financial flexibility and vote of confidence we needed to build a minimum viable product: a Chrome extension that showed secondhand alternatives, and that would serve as the foundation for our platform.”
As we started seeing early traction and positive engagement from our beta community, we began thinking about how to scale responsibly. We knew we wanted to bring on strategic partners who not only understood fashion but also had a strong connection to our target demographic and could help shape our go-to-market strategy.
That led us to investors like Sara Blakely and Kris Jenner. Both brought invaluable perspectives on branding, retail, and consumer insight—resources that helped accelerate our product development and market positioning. Their involvement, along with the funding, allowed us to hire an exceptional engineering and product team to iterate and evolve the product into what it is today.
Of course, there were investors who weren’t aligned with our vision – and that’s okay. We believe that rejection is redirection. What matters most is focusing on the people who truly understand what you’re building, and share your belief in it. That’s exactly how we feel about the investors we chose to partner with.
2. Phia is an incredible concept, especially with the rise of online shopping. But building a tech-heavy app that utilises AI in its programming isn’t easy. How did you approach that development process, and what hurdles did you have to overcome?
For us, the most important part of building Phia has always been staying as close as possible to our customer.
“We focused intensely on understanding the real pain points of Gen Z women like ourselves who love secondhand shopping but found the experience too fragmented and time-consuming. That insight drove every product decision we made.”
Coming from a non-technical background, we knew we had to ramp up quickly. We took computer science and product design classes in college to teach ourselves the fundamentals—how to think in systems, how to write product requirement documents, and how to communicate clearly with engineers. That foundation made us fluent enough to guide development.
But we also knew we couldn’t do it alone. That’s why we brought on exceptional engineers as equity stakeholders in the business—people who not only had the technical skills but also believed deeply in our mission. Together, we were able to turn our vision into a functioning AI-powered platform that simplifies the secondhand shopping journey in a way that feels intuitive, fun, and personalized.
Of course, there were technical challenges—from building the underlying search infrastructure to integrating AI-driven features across multiple resale platforms. But because we stayed grounded in user needs and surrounded ourselves with teammates who shared our values, we were able to overcome those hurdles and keep pushing the product forward.
3. Founder-led storytelling has been central to Phia’s brand, from your podcast “The Burnouts” to candid social media moments. How intentional was that decision?
For us, it’s always been about bringing our audience along for the ride. From day one, we wanted to build something with our community—not just for them. We’ve been super inspired by people like Alex Cooper, who encouraged us to document our journey and show the behind-the-scenes of what it’s really like to build something from the ground up.
That’s exactly why we launched The Burnouts. We wanted to have real, unfiltered conversations with people we admire, especially founders, fashion insiders, and creatives who’ve built incredibly successful careers. These are industries we’re genuinely trying to learn from as we grow as entrepreneurs, and we wanted our listeners to grow alongside us.
We’ve even featured some of our own investors like Kris Jenner and Sara Blakely, along with mentors and advisors, to open-source what we’re learning in real time. We also do solo and team episodes where we reflect on key milestones. We did one for our initial launch with some of our team, and another one more recently where we broke down what marketing lessons we had learned after hitting 200,000 downloads. We’re now at 500,000 and growing.
“The podcast is a key part of how we stay connected with our community. It’s an honest space where we can celebrate wins, share challenges, and build trust by showing what’s happening behind the scenes. At the end of the day, it’s about learning and growing together.”
4. What does a “typical” day look like for you both right now, if one exists?
“Typical” is a generous word when you’re running a startup, but we do try to create structure where we can.”
Our days are usually split across the different functions of the business, and we try to group them by theme to avoid too much context switching. That said, when you’re building something from the ground up, you have to be ready to jump into anything at a moment’s notice.
One day might be focused on product: reviewing new Figma designs, user interviews, checking Mixpanel analytics, digging into engineering tickets in Linear, or QA testing a new TestFlight release. Another day might center around growth: pitching affiliate partnerships, mapping out our marketing content strategy, or analyzing performance across channels. We also film weekly podcast episodes, hold co-founder check-ins to stay aligned on vision, and set aside “lock-in” days where we protect deep focus time to think about what’s next.
If we could find a 25th hour in the day, we definitely would. But what makes it all so energizing is that no two days are the same. We feel incredibly lucky to work with a team that’s both brilliant and collaborative, and we’re constantly learning. That’s what keeps us moving forward—we’re growing as fast as the product is.
5. Phia’s content is playful, fashion-savvy and relatable. How did you decide on that style of content and where do you draw inspiration from?
We wanted our content to reflect our brand – smart, stylish, and fun. The goal is to show how the Phia browser extension works in a way that feels natural and helpful, whether that’s through product feature demos, behind-the-scenes looks at our office and team, or quick skits that make updates feel exciting and shareable.
We also share fashion styling tips and closet inspo to help our audience shop more affordably and confidently. A lot of inspiration comes from the incredible women on our team and the creators we collaborate with, who all have amazing taste. We listen to our users and double down on what resonates, always aiming to keep things authentic, useful, and fun.
6. Kim Kardashian encouraged you to tease the product and build a waitlist, a tactic that paid off. How did that piece of advice shape your soft launch, and why do you think building an email list pre-launch is still so powerful?
Early on, we were so excited about what we were building that we wanted to tell everyone – but as we evolved the product, we learned that we needed to understand the appetite for what we were building – and adapt our supply to feed it. Trust and transparency are critical for any business, especially in tech where innovation is exciting – but at the end of the day, utility is what engages a true customer.
This was foundational for us, so we kept it under wraps as long as possible. Having that foundational community has proven so valuable – we have a highly active, and retentive shopper, and we’re excited to continue serving up exactly what they want in terms of features.
7. What key metrics or signals told you the Phia launch campaign was resonating well and how do you use that data in your marketing strategy?
We knew we were onto something when an Instagram reel hit 300K views overnight and spiked our downloads.
“That was a clear signal: short-form, relatable content was driving real growth.”
So we doubled down on what worked, analyzing our top-performing videos and identifying patterns – especially those that reached people outside our existing audience. Downloads became our North Star KPI, and we treated early content like a series of experiments. We used every format, caption, and CTA to refine our storytelling of the product.
8. You’ve created real-life touchpoints like the Phia Coffee Club and intimate community dinners. Why are offline events so important to your growth strategy, especially as a digital-first brand?
Our community means everything to us. Our in-person events aren’t just about growth – they’re about gratitude. From the beginning, we’ve been lucky to attract such an incredibly thoughtful, stylish, and smart group of early members, especially in NYC. Creating space to meet them face-to-face has been one of the most rewarding parts of building Phia.
These moments allow us to listen in real time about what excites them, what confuses them, and what they want more of. It’s motivating to hear from them in order to build a product that feels deeply personal, and delivers the result that they actually want. The closer we stay to our community, the better Phia becomes.
9. Are there any female founders or marketers you look up to for both creative and career inspiration?
Absolutely. We feel so lucky to be surrounded by women who are generous with their knowledge and bold in their ambition. Sara Blakely is a constant inspiration – not just for what she built, but how she stayed true to herself while doing it. Other women include Karlie Kloss, Danielle Guizio, Desiree Gruber, Joanne Bradford, and Alex Cooper, who all inspire us in different ways.
What’s most powerful is seeing how each of them has blazed their own unique path. They’ve leaned into their strengths, trusted their instincts, and built careers that reflect who they are. That’s been so motivating for us as founders.
“It’s a reminder that there’s no one “right” way to build something great – and that staying true to your voice and vision is foundational.”
10. Where can our audience follow and engage with you both on social media?
INSTAGRAM @phiaco | @theburnouts | @sophiakianni | @phoebegates
TIKTOK @phia | @theburnouts
The Burnouts YouTube + Spotify + Apple Podcasts
Quickfire Questions
Best item you’ve found through Phia?
PHOEBE: Vintage Chanel navy and white mini dress from TheRealReal
SOPHIA: A Rat & Boa red dress I wore for my Stanford graduation – found on Poshmark for a fraction of its price
Favourite business or marketing book?
PHOEBE: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
SOPHIA: Go giver
Go-to social platform?
PHOEBE: Toss-up between TikTok and Insta
SOPHIA: Instagram, LinkedIn
One thing you’re excited about for Phia?
PHOEBE: Hosting more user dinners to learn from our community.
SOPHIA: Rolling out new features!
Portraits credit: Zhamak Fullad
