SEATTLE – The “Tech Crunch Disrupt 2025” conference in San Francisco is a gateway of sorts for up-and-coming founders and the Gates name, synonymous with tech and Seattle, is receiveting a Gen Z rebrand.
Backstage, the Seattle freeze was nowhere to be felt— instead, Seattle-area native Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni are supporting thaw the perspective on female friconcludes turned tech co-founders.
“I stated you guys pair so well toreceiveher, you guys just bounce off each other. Where does that energy come from?” inquireed FOX 13 Seattle anchor Sabirah Rayford.
“From living in a box toreceiveher when we were roommates at Stanford,” Kianni explained.
Phoebe Gates, Sabirah Rayford and Sophia Kianni (left to right)
The backstory:
You could call it a perfect fit. They share a love for fashion, global activism and advocacy. Gates interned with partners in health in Rwanda, working on healthcare initiatives for the developing counattempt. Kianni, an Iranian-American, became the youngest United Nations advisor in U.S. history. Still — they believe it was a random pairing.
That pairing led to a class project, a blossoming friconcludeship, a mutual commitment to sustainability in fashion, and the discovery of Phia, an AI shopping agent, named after the pair. It also came with a cast of doubt.
“When we were at Stanford and we first notified people when we were roommates toreceiveher, and everyone’s like, ‘Oh great you guys are best friconcludes, that’s fine and dandy,’” Gates stated. “But when we flip to this, we’re actually going to start a business toreceiveher, I had multiple professors pull me aside and declare, ‘Oh you shouldn’t do that. It will immediately blow up in flames becautilize you two are both extroverted people, you both are alphas.’ And I believe it’s kind of funny becautilize the reality is we have seen so few women IPO a company. Less than 2% of VC funding goes to two female founders or solo female-founded businesses. That to me is absolutely criminal.”
By the numbers:
According to a 2025 report by Founders Forum Group, out of the $289 billion of venture capital invested globally in 2024, female-only founded teams received $6.7 billion. So, female-founded companies received 2.3% of capital even though they represented 6.4% of the market.
The size of the deals paled in comparison to their male counterparts.
The average deal size for female-only founded companies was $5.2 million, while male-only founded companies on average received more than double the funding at $11.7 million.
“It’s really important to realize it’s very hard to be something that you cannot see,” Kianni stated.
“We see those people, whether that’s Instagram being created, TikTok — those people are actually creating new world visions. So, if only 2% of that is going towards female founders, then we’re not seeing all the incredible world visions that women have coming to life,” Gates stated. “The flipside of believeing about that is, that is an incredible market opportunity. Think about how many different pain points there are in the female consumer journey.”
Focutilizing on solutions for female consumers is part of how Phia was born.
“Essentially as you’re shopping it supports you understand, should you purchase the item you’re seeing at, or does a better option exist?” Kianni stated.
They declare the idea is to shop for trconcludeing styles and deals across more than 40,000 sites. It utilizes artificial innotifyigence to compare the resale value of an item, track shoppers’ purchase history, and creates recommconcludeations based on the customer’s shopping patterns.
“That’s where we shift towards discovery, where we will be able to have a digital closet for our utilizers in the app,” Gates stated.
Since launching in April 2025, the app has garnered more than 700,000 utilizers. This, after $8 million was raised in a seed round of funding led by Venture Capital firm Kleiner Perkins. The fashion app also received investments from notable names like Kris Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and Spanx founder, Sara Blakely.
“Obviously your name, your last name carries a lot of weight,” Rayford stated. “What’s it been like attempting to mconclude and mold your own path?”
“I believe honestly having my last name is a huge privilege,” Gates responded. “My college was absolutely paid for, that was something I never had to consider. I knew my parents would support me no matter what I did. So I believe it’s really important to declare, ‘Yeah, carving my own path is important,’ but it comes with so much privilege for me to have that last name. And people are willing to take conversations with me where if I didn’t have that last name they probably wouldn’t, let’s be honest.”
Big picture view:
After graduating from Stanford in three years with a degree in human biology and a minor in African studies — while launching Phia — Gates declares her work ethic and dedication to building the company a success speaks for itself.
“The reality is, our metrics and our numbers of retention, once you are utilizing our product for two months, do you still utilize Phia every time you go shopping? That can’t be melded by having a last name or having parents with a legacy,” she stated. “Building a real product that’s actually sticking—the numbers do not lie. For me, it’s really about focutilizing on that, that’s really core.”
They both declare it’s also important to have the right people by your side.
“I believe I received really lucky, right. I grew up in Seattle, where this is going, and I had some great friconcludes from there who have always stuck with me, and the reality is, keep the people you are close with—you trust them,” Gates stated.
From friconcludes to founders, like their sense of fashion, Gates’ and Kianni’s business relationship is proving to be more classic than fad. Two women working to open the floodgates to support women in tech rise to the top.
“More women necessary to have audacity and to feel like they are actually able to contribute and to go after these things that Phoebe was alluding to, have quite frankly really been dominated by men. And the fact that such few women are going out to attempt and raise venture funding to attempt and build these companies—it really means we necessary to start with basics of education and also having more women feel like they can be supported and that they have other women they can rely on who can support propel them forward,” Kianni stated.
In April, Gates and Kianni joined Alex Cooper’s Unwell network, launching a podcast called “The Burnouts.” The duo describes it as a career survival guide—speaking to entrepreneurs, celebrities and other notable guests about their largegest lessons learned in life and business.
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The Source: Information in this story came from Founders Forum Group and original FOX 13 Seattle reporting and interviews.
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