Phoebe Gates & Sophia Kianni (Phia) on Disrupting Fashion, Rethinking Retail, and Building a Business That’s Good for the Planet

The fashion industry is facing a reckoning—from how clothes are
made to how they’re resold. And Phia, a new tech-driven platform,
is betting that the future of shopping is secondhand, smarter, and
more sustainable. In this episode, Sammi sits down with Phia
co-founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni to talk about how they
went from brainstorming ideas in their Stanford dorm room to
building a company that’s rethinking retail. They share how Phia
uses tech to track price drops and spotlight resale options, why
they’re betting on browser extensions and Gen Z, and how their
backgrounds have helped them build a mission-driven brand from the
ground up. Follow Sammi on Instagram here Subscribe to the Social
Currency newsletter here Learn more about Phia here Listen to The
Burnouts here Here’s what Sammi covers with Phoebe & Sophia:
00:00 Phoebe & Sophia’s Social Currency 01:51 The Phia Origin
Story 07:18 Dropping Out of Stanford and Betting on Themselves
09:38 Building a Team and Advice from Bill Gates 14:48 How the Phia
App Makes Secondhand Shopping Easy 25:23 Why Secondhand Isn’t
Second-Rate 28:26 Gen Z’s Take on Sustainability 29:20 How Phia
Reaches Shoppers Where They Already Are 30:11 The Resale Value
Factor 31:07 Who They're Building Phia For 34:12 Lessons from
Investors and Advisors 35:42 How Their Podcast The Burnouts on Alex
Cooper’s Unwell Network Ties into Their Brand 37:32 Radical
Transparency and Listening to Your Customer 44:41 How They Manage
Their Time 47:18 What’s Next for the Future of Shopping 48:54 Whose
Closet They’d Raid Tomorrow 50:02 How to Show Social Currency Some
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