Phoebe Gates went from failed prototypes in her Stanford dorm room to
building one of the fastest growing fashion-tech startups in the world.
In this interview, the co-founder of AI shopping app Phia shares how she
and her co-founder Sophia Kianni scaled from 200 early users to half a
million downloads, raised $9M from investors like Kleiner Perkins, Kris
Jenner, and Sara Blakely, and turned their vision into a personal AI
shopping assistant trusted by a new generation of consumers.
From building in public and hacking growth with feedback loops to
pitching high-profile investors and navigating privilege, Phoebe breaks
down the exact strategies that fueled her rapid rise as a young founder.
What you’ll learn from this interview:
• How Phoebe went from 50+ failed ideas to finding product-market fit in
fashion-tech
• The grassroots tactics she used to get her first 200 users
• Why feedback loops and “pizza nights” became their biggest growth hack
• How she pitched and secured investors like Kleiner Perkins, Kris
Jenner, and Sara Blakely
• The mindset shift that helped her see failure as experimentation
• Why building in public became an unfair advantage for distribution and
community
• How to leverage AI and automation as a young founder to scale faster
By the end of this interview, you’ll walk away with a playbook for
finding your idea, validating it with real users, and scaling it into a
fast-growth business—so you can apply the same principles to your own
entrepreneurial journey.
You can download the Phia app here
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HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH PHOEBE GATES
Website → https://phia.com/
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/phoebegates/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/phoebe-gates-82a60b296/
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