Phoebe Gates co-founded Phia, a fashion-shopping app and browser extension that helps people compare prices and find secondhand or less expensive alternatives. Bill Gates reportedly questioned how the startup would stand out in a crowded e-commerce market; Melinda French Gates said she would not invest, wanting her daughter to raise outside capital and learn from that process.
What Phia does—and how it started
Phia is a shopping tool, not a clothing retailer. It helps users check prices and discover resale listings or lower-cost alternatives while shopping for fashion. Phoebe Gates co-founded the company with Sophia Kianni, her former Stanford roommate.
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The founders first built a desktop Chrome extension designed to find secondhand alternatives to items shoppers viewed online. After feedback that their peers did more shopping on phones and wanted quick price checks, they shifted toward a mobile app. TechCrunch reported in September 2025 that the upgraded search covered more than 300 million fashion items, citing Kianni; that was a description of the catalog at the time, not a verified current count (TechCrunch).
Fortune reported that the app and mobile browser extension launched in April 2025. Its September 2025 account put Phia at 500,000 users and more than 5,000 direct brand partners, and reported an $8 million seed round led by Kleiner Perkins. Those are dated outlet-reported figures, not independently audited or current totals (Fortune).
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What Bill Gates reportedly thought
GeekWire’s April 25, 2025, article summarized a New York Times profile, reporting that Bill Gates’s initial reaction was that many people had tried e-commerce and that large competitors were already in the space. That is GeekWire’s account of the profile, not a direct interview with Bill Gates (GeekWire).
The same GeekWire account says Phoebe sought her father’s advice mostly on personnel matters. It also describes his concern that providing money might make him feel obligated to supervise the business closely. The reported comments reflect questions about competition and the parent-child dynamic, not a documented verdict on whether Phia would succeed.
Why Melinda French Gates said she would not invest
At the Power of Women’s Sports Summit presented by E.l.f. Beauty in June 2025, Melinda French Gates said she would not write a check for the business. Fortune reported her explanation: “She got capitalized not because of my contacts, not because of me. I wouldn’t put money into it.” She wanted Phoebe to seek outside backing and to learn to handle rejection if fundraising did not work out (Fortune).
That statement establishes her position on investing in Phia; it does not establish whether she offered other kinds of support. Fortune also quoted Phoebe describing the importance of the people who build a company day to day, including her co-founder Sophia. That was Phoebe’s account of advice about team-building, not an endorsement of Phia attributed to either parent (Fortune).
How Phia finds products and makes money
Phia’s reported model combines shopping discovery with sales partnerships: TechCrunch reported in January 2026 that the company takes a cut when partner brands make sales. Its product results can also include resale listings and similar, lower-priced alternatives. The report does not establish a commission rate or say that every item surfaced is a partner sale (TechCrunch).
In an October 2025 interview, ELLE named The RealReal, eBay, and Poshmark as examples of sources for secondhand items surfaced by Phia (ELLE). Resale inventory is distinct from new, lower-priced alternatives. TechCrunch reported 6,200 retail partners in January 2026; that figure comes from a later report and may use a different date or definition than Fortune’s 2025 count, so the two should not be combined into a single current total (TechCrunch).
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What the parents’ comments do—and do not—show
Bill’s reported questions concerned competition and the possibility of being drawn into close oversight. Melinda’s reported choice was not to fund the company herself, so Phoebe would pursue outside capital. Neither account, on its own, establishes the startup’s current performance or the parents’ overall view of its prospects.
Phia’s features, reach, and partnership terms can change. The available reporting describes the company through January 2026; it does not verify the app’s live feature set or current user and partner totals.
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