"We Don't Have Millions To Spend On 'Call Her Daddy' Ads, But We Do Have Ourselves": How Phoebe Gates And Sophia Kianni Built Phia Via A Podcast

Sophia Kianni and Phoebe Gates met as Stanford roommates who bonded over fashion, climate advocacy, and secondhand shopping. Kianni had already gone viral during the pandemic by founding Climate Cardinals, a nonprofit that translated climate resources into over 100 languages. Gates, daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, had interned at British Vogue and was passionate about sustainable fashion, Forbes says.

Their original concept was a browser extension that made it easier to shop secondhand, inspired by the clunky user experience they'd encountered, Kianni told Forbes. One of their professors was so impressed that he gave them a $250,000 grant to get started.

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That initial idea evolved into Phia, an AI-powered fashion app that helps users find the best price for a product across websites, view resale value graphs, and create curated collections, Forbes reports. The app is free for users and earns affiliate commissions on purchases made through its platform.

Sophia Kianni's Pivot to Scale

Before co-founding their fashion tech startup, Kianni was focused on climate education. She told Forbes that while visiting family in the Middle East, she realized many in the community didn't understand the greenhouse gas effect.

That language gap led her to launch Climate Cardinals, a nonprofit built on translation and education. Kianni said the experience taught her lessons she later applied to Phia, especially around building from scratch and mobilizing people online.

"I learned all of these little things that I now 100% have applied to Phia, just in terms of what it took to take something from zero to one," Kianni told Forbes.

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From Instagram to Alex Cooper: How They Used Content as Capital

Phia's model leans heavily on partnerships and content to grow. The app works with major resale sites like eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), The RealReal (NASDAQ:REAL), and Poshmark, and has collaborations with brands such as Reformation and Prada, Forbes says.

Their social media accounts now have over 100,000 followers combined, and according to Forbes, they also write a newsletter on Substack, where companies like Tory Burch and The RealReal are building fashion communities.

In March, they signed with podcaster Alex Cooper's Unwell Network to host their own show, ‘The Burnouts,' which dives into their startup journey and features guests like Kris Jenner, Paris Hilton, and Vivian Tu, Forbes reports.

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‘We Do Have Ourselves': Their Media Strategy Skipped Traditional Ads

The podcast idea came from advisor Joanne Bradford, former president of Honey, a coupon extension, was sold to PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) in 2020 for $4 billion. Bradford told them ‘Call Her Daddy' was one of their best-performing ad channels, but instead of buying ad space, Kianni and Gates pitched a podcast of their own, Forbes says.

"We don't have millions of dollars to spend on ‘Call Her Daddy' ads, but we do have ourselves," Kianni told Forbes. "It was a win-win where we were able to have this incredible distribution vehicle that is able to provide essentially all of this organic coverage to Phia."

Phia has raised $850,000 in total from investors, including Kris Jenner and Sara Blakely, according to Forbes. The company has focused on content creation and partnerships as key growth strategies.

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