{"id":110327,"date":"2025-10-29T12:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/110327\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T12:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:52:07","slug":"phias-founders-on-how-ai-is-changing-online-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/110327\/","title":{"rendered":"Phia’s founders on how AI is changing online shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Phia<\/a>\u2018s founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni decided to build an AI startup, they targeted an area they understood well: online shopping.<\/p>\n

The founders, who met at Stanford when they were randomly paired up as roommates, understood e-commerce because they had spent hours upon hours trying to find the right items to expand their wardrobe. And AI, they realized, had the potential to help people discover, shop and buy in new ways. They also realized that capability was a market opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere felt like there was this giant white space for, like, what should we actually buy, and why doesn\u2019t everyone have a personal shopper in their pocket?\u201d said Gates on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The startup emerged from a class project where it proved its initial demand. But the service didn\u2019t launch to the public until Phia found the right product-market fit, Kianni says.<\/p>\n

The tool, available as a browser extension and app<\/a>, lets shoppers compare prices, including for second-hand items, adding a sustainability factor to the shopping experience.<\/p>\n

Phia says it integrates with more than 150 second-hand platforms, and has over 350 million items in its in-house search database. Kianni pointed out that buying second-hand represents an 80% reduction in carbon footprint, compared with buying new. Plus, it\u2019s cheaper.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sophia Kianni, Co-Founder of Phia. Image Credits: Kimberly White\/Getty Images for TechCrunchImage Credits:Getty Images for TechCrunch \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kianni said the service also helps users understand the value of what they\u2019re buying. \u201cIf you\u2019re looking at a $500 handbag on Phia, you can quickly understand, can you resell that item for $300 or $400? Or, on the contrary, if it\u2019s a fast-fashion piece and you\u2019re buying it for $100 bucks, is it only reselling for $10? Does it immediately depreciate and lose 90% of its value?\u201d<\/p>\n

The startup is also developing an AI shopping advisor that will help users understand value factors like a good deal, or what an item\u2019s retained value may be, as well as fashion basics like whether the item will fit based on the user\u2019s previous orders and returns. The founders said the sizing insights feature is currently in beta with a small group of users.<\/p>\n

The founders have used a variety of tactics to attract an audience, including an ambassador program, making their own content about the product\u2019s development, and even starting a podcast. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to acquire hundreds of thousands of downloads at a very low cost through the podcast and the various different distribution vehicles has been really important,\u201d said Kianni.<\/p>\n

Plus, Gates said, sharing the realities of building a startup with their audience helped Phia\u2019s potential users connect with the founders and their story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there was a bit of an ego death that we had to go through,\u201d Gates said. \u201cAt first, it\u2019s like, \u2018I want to look good in all of our content.\u2019 But if you want people to engage with it, and you want to make content at the volume that we need to, you need to be able to just pull back the curtain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gates, whose dad is yes, that Gates, acknowledges that she\u2019s come to the startup experience from a position of privilege, but says they don\u2019t necessarily go to him for advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, while my dad \u2014 I think he\u2019s a genius \u2014 he\u2019s not the one shopping on Phia, right? Like, he\u2019s not hunting for the best deal across different sites. He\u2019s not comparing his wish list items for his spring break trip,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Phia\u2018s founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni decided to build an AI startup, they targeted an area…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,20801,66984,29035,66985,1884,6845,6846,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-110327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-online-shopping","11":"tag-phia","12":"tag-phoebe-gates","13":"tag-sophia-kianni","14":"tag-startups","15":"tag-techcrunch-disrupt","16":"tag-techcrunch-disrupt-2025","17":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}