Phoebe Gates, co-founder of AI-powered shopping assistant Phia, is building a fashion-tech platform designed to change how people shop online by using smart data and a clean browser interface. Created with Sophia Kianni while they were roommates at Stanford, Phia compares prices, tracks resale value, and makes personalized product suggestions based on user behavior.
During an interview with Josh Felgoise on the "Guyset" podcast, Gates explained how she and Kianni made early mistakes, like designing only for desktop. “We first developed it, we frankly developed it only for desktop. And we spent months and months building this. Perfecting it, making the pixels perfect, making it look pretty, which now looking back, was a complete waste of time,” she said.
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Building a Startup as a ‘Nepo Baby' and the ‘Aha’ Moment that Created Phia
Gates also opened up about the backlash she received after being labeled a “nepo baby.” “I think the issue that a lot of people have is just like not addressing it. I am a nepo baby—saying that, owning it. I have a lot of privilege because of where my family is, and I think it’s funny because people don’t address that and try to avoid it,” she said.
Phia was born out of a common but frustrating problem: finding the right outfit without wasting time or compromising values. What started as scrolling sessions on a Stanford dorm couch turned into a product designed to automate what traditional tools couldn't touch.
"We would spend hours sitting on our little couch looking for the perfect spring dress, the perfect pants or jeans for the first day of school," Gates said. "And we found that a lot of times, the things we wanted to buy just really didn't align with our morals. And also, it was just really freaking hard to find the item you wanted at a good price."
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What followed was a multi-platform scavenger hunt that quickly became routine. "We'd look it up on Depop. We'd look it up on RealReal. We'd look it up on Vestiaire. We'd look it up on eBay. Then we'd go check the Outnet. Let's see if it's on sale," Gates explained. "And it just didn't really make sense to us."
Some browser tools could flag discounts but none could answer the question of whether a product is worth it, or whether there is a smarter place to buy it. "There's nothing that's going to say, hey, this item holds value and we found it for you used on a secondhand site," she said.
Initially, the two co-founders assumed the problem might be personal, but once they started reaching out to other women, especially those who shopped regularly, their suspicion was confirmed. “We're talking 20 minutes when you're really searching for that item and you get to the bottom of that decision funnel," Gates said.
That insight sparked the concept for Phia. The decision funnel could be compressed, automated, and restructured around what Gates and Kianni believed actually mattered to today's shopper: speed, ethics, personalization, and secondhand visibility. "I was like, okay, well, that doesn't make any sense," Gates told Felgoise. "Why can't we just build a tool to automate that?"
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How Phia is Building a Smarter Shopping Engine
Phia's edge lies in the behavioral data it collects. "You download us from the app store and you’re going to toggle Phia on in your Safari extensions. And then it’s going to pop up and say, ‘Hey, can we follow you around while you shop?’" Gates explained. By operating in the browser instead of an app, the tool sees what users click, what they skip, and what patterns shape their choices.
When you’re browsing a product page, a small ‘P’ icon appears asking, ‘Should I buy this?’ Gates explained that clicking the icon activates Phia’s engine. “Within two seconds, we’re gonna tell you, this is how much value the item is gonna hold over time, and boom, we’re gonna show you if we found better deals,” she added.
If no better deal exists, Phia shows what other users who viewed that item ended up shopping for, or what might pair well with it. Gates mentioned that features like real-time price alerts, resale value trackers, and curated resale alternatives are designed to help shoppers make faster, smarter decisions.
Phia's product decisions are shaped by a strict consumer validation filter. Gates only considers feedback from users who align with their core demographic: women who genuinely love fashion and shop frequently. "If it’s a girl who I can tell from her Instagram loves to shop and she’s criticizing it… I’m listening," Gates said. “But if it’s a man who’s older, who I know doesn’t like to shop, I’m throwing that out the window.”
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Inside Phia's Growth Playbook
To keep up with the chaos of early-stage growth, Gates said she leans hard on structure. She also shared a framework she uses, inspired by Bumble (NASDAQ:BMBL) CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. “She talks about this idea of you wake up every morning and you have like a water pitcher that you can pour out and you can water plants. And that’s your energy for the day,” Gates said.
“When you’re thinking about ‘What does Josh think of me? Did I say something wrong on this podcast? Did I look ugly? Was my hair messed up?’ You’re just standing there pouring out water and you’re watering plastic plants. Are you watering a plastic plant? Or are you dumping your water on things that are actually going to grow?” Gates said.
Phia now operates with a lean team of seven. According to its website, Phia’s browser extension helps users instantly compare new and secondhand options across 40,000+ stores, saving hours of manual price checking and revealing which items are worth the spend.
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