When Phia ‘s founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni decided to build an AI startup, they targeted an area they understood well: online shopping.

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.

“There felt like there was this giant white space for, like, what should we actually buy, and why doesn’t everyone have a personal shopper in their pocket?” said Gates on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 on Tuesday.

The startup emerged from a class project where it proved its initial demand.

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