593: Phoebe Gates: Building an AI Fashion Startup Backed by Kris Jenner & Sara Blakely

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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. SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started. 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/ FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt Website → https://www.foundr.com Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/ Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/ Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Founder Fam, I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omniscend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e-commerce founders. We've been recommending OmnisCent to Founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling the seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results.
0:24.0	Did you know on average, Omnysend customers make $68 for every $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment.
0:32.6	And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code Founder 50.
0:39.3	Just head to Omnisend.com forward slash founder without the E to get started.
0:45.0	All right, now let's jump back into the show.
0:49.0	Imagine launching an app in your dorm room, DMing 20,000 strangers just to get your first 200 users and six
0:56.7	months later finding yourself with half a million downloads and $9 million raised from investors
1:02.0	like Kleiner Perkins, Chris Jenner and Sarah Blakely. Today's guest is Phoebe Gates, co-founder
1:08.8	of the AI tech fashion startup Fia. Not only is she building one of the
1:13.1	fastest growing shopping apps in the world, but she's also carving out her own identity as a founder,
1:19.0	tackling the unique challenges of growing up in one of the most famous entrepreneurial families
1:24.0	on the planet. So in this episode, you're gonna learn how Phoebe went
1:28.5	from failed prototypes, so many,
1:31.3	to finding product market fit in fashion tech,
1:33.9	her exact playbook for getting brutal user feedback
1:36.7	that fuels growth, the clever strategy she's used
1:39.8	to get big name investors on her cap table
1:43.0	and how she's building in public to turn fear into your
1:45.8	personal AI shopping assistant. Hear the stories. Learn the proven methods and accelerate
1:51.8	your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the founder podcast with
1:57.6	Nathan Chan.
2:04.6	Let's start with the elephant in the room. We're here with Phoebe Gates.
	...

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