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

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

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 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

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624: (Solo) How to Create More Than You Consume (Without Burning Out)

624: (Solo) How to Create More Than You Consume (Without Burning Out)

Most founders drown in content — YouTube, TikTok, newsletters, podcasts — but they rarely create anything themselves. And here’s the problem: consumption doesn’t build businesses; creation does. In...

20 Jan 9min

623: $500K in Debt, 5 Maxed Credit Cards — How Jordan Harper Built an 8-Figure Brand in Year One

623: $500K in Debt, 5 Maxed Credit Cards — How Jordan Harper Built an 8-Figure Brand in Year One

Jordan Harper built an eight-figure skincare brand in its first year by maxing out five credit cards while already $500,000 in debt — and never raised a single dollar from investors. In this inter...

15 Jan 55min

622: (Solo) The Truth About Founder-Led Content in 2026

622: (Solo) The Truth About Founder-Led Content in 2026

Founder-led branding isn’t dead — but it is evolving fast. Showing your face and posting “day in the life” content is no longer enough to stand out. The bar has risen, audiences have matured, and what...

13 Jan 8min

621: We Bet $200K on Bras Before Making a Single Sale — Sold 400,000 in 2 Years | Nala

621: We Bet $200K on Bras Before Making a Single Sale — Sold 400,000 in 2 Years | Nala

Nala was built by two founders with no fashion background who invested $200,000 before making a single sale and went on to sell over 400,000 pieces in just two years. In this interview, Chloe and ...

8 Jan 51min

620: (Solo) The Secret to Making Bold Business Moves With Confidence

620: (Solo) The Secret to Making Bold Business Moves With Confidence

One of the biggest challenges founders face — especially at the end of the year — is knowing what to do next and feeling confident that the move you're about to make is the right one. Certainty feels ...

6 Jan 11min

619: Airline Charged Me $65 - So I built a $250M Competitor | Adam Ewart

619: Airline Charged Me $65 - So I built a $250M Competitor | Adam Ewart

Adam Ewart turned a £50 excess baggage fee into a global bootstrapped logistics company operating in 145 countries and staying profitable for 15 straight years. In this interview, Adam breaks down ...

1 Jan 48min

618: (Solo) What 5 World-Class Founders Taught Me This Year

618: (Solo) What 5 World-Class Founders Taught Me This Year

Every year I sit down with some of the world’s most fascinating founders — but this year’s interviews hit me harder than most. Reinvention, resilience, copycats, failure, loneliness after exits, scrap...

30 Dec 202511min

617: How A Failing Skincare Brand Became An 8-Figure Makeup Empire | Aliett Buttelman

617: How A Failing Skincare Brand Became An 8-Figure Makeup Empire | Aliett Buttelman

Aliett Buttelman spent eight years grinding in the dark before a single viral moment with Taylor Swift turned Fazit into an overnight seven-figure brand. In this interview, Aliett breaks down the ...

25 Dec 202554min

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