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For Sophia Kianni, the idea behind Phia didn’t begin with an algorithm. It began in a classroom.
A transformative idea, she says, demands the kind of connection that can only be built by sitting face-to-face with your business partner. “People can see, right in front of them, what I believe is true: that there’s a multibillion dollar opportunity in what we’re doing and that we’re the right people to do it,” she says. “That special energy is really motivating.”
That belief in in-person connection is not only critical to her entrepreneurial success but is also driving her latest venture: Phia, an AI-powered shopping agent.
Phia is rooted in a larger mission to transform the fashion industry’s wasteful global supply chain. The app helps shoppers find the best options for everything from big-ticket buys to daily essentials, scouring more than 7,200 brands containing more than 300 million items in seconds, with one of the largest databases of secondhand inventory in the US. In doing so, it empowers them to invest in higher-quality clothing and move away from fast fashion—those inexpensively made garments designed to be worn briefly and discarded. Fast fashion also consumes enormous raw materials and generates mountains of textile waste, creating significant environmental challenges.
Kianni argues that building a business capable of transforming such a vast industry requires more than sharp algorithms and adequate funding. It begins with building simpatico trust among founders, investors, and brands who share a commitment to change. And that trust, she believes, is often built face-to-face, where she can communicate not just a business model, but a mission.
From their New York headquarters, Kianni travels to pitch in Silicon Valley and meets investors in Boston—always believing the right relationships, forged in person, can turn a compelling business plan into worldwide impact.
Her entrepreneurial instincts were shaped by in-person experiences long before Phia launched in a Stanford University dorm room. As a young woman creating tech-driven solutions to address global systemic challenges, Kianni came to see that the fashion industry’s core problem wasn’t a lack of choice, but an excess of it—a fundamental misalignment between brands and the people they serve.
“Shoppers are overwhelmed,” she says. “They’re asked to choose from thousands of options, with little transparency around quality, longevity, or the true cost of ownership.”
Fast fashion accelerated this imbalance. The average consumer buys 60 percent more clothing than they did 17 years ago, while keeping those items for half as long, creating a cycle of overproduction and waste. Fashion also has the highest return rate across all ecommerce categories—nearly one in four items is sent back—often because fit and feel are difficult to evaluate online. Globally, an estimated 92 million tons of textile waste are generated each year, much of it ending up in landfills or incinerators.
Kianni came to understand that the real issue in the clothing supply industry wasn’t a shortage; it was overabundance, overproduction, and overconsumption. Consumers are trained to chase trends at low prices, often sacrificing quality and longevity. The result is a cycle of buying more and discarding quickly.
The seed for Phia was planted.
When Phoebe Gates—daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Melinda Gates—and Kianni became roommates at Stanford, they discovered a shared passion for fashion. Both spent hours online hunting for deals across shopping sites, often buying secondhand. But researching specific items meant jumping between platforms, scrolling through inconsistent listings, and feeling unsure and overwhelmed about what to buy. They were frustrated by inefficiency and waste.
Using machine learning to understand individual preferences like price sensitivity and style, Phia enables users to purchase with greater confidence by summarizing key insights like resale value while helping retailers reduce return rates by as much as 50 percent. What once required hours of searching now happens almost instantly.
Building the technology, however, was only half the battle.
When it came time to raise their recent $35 million Series A funding round, Kianni didn’t rely on video calls. She booked a flight to San Francisco and held meetings face-to-face. Investors didn’t just see a pitch deck—they experienced the conviction behind it.
That funding round, secured through in-person relationship building, helped Phia grow to more than 1 million users in 10 months and 11x revenue growth, reflecting growing consumer interest in smarter, more conscious shopping.
Today, a single trip might include investor check-ins, partnership discussions, press interviews, and industry events layered strategically into one itinerary. To manage the pace of that travel, she relies on her Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business card, which offers flexibility to handle expenses across time zones while earning rewards on the travel fueling her company’s expansion.
Her advice to other entrepreneurs is simple: Take the meeting and meet the people who can expand your business so you can change the world.
By making it easier to find the best price on better-quality items—and by seamlessly integrating secondhand options into everyday shopping—she hopes to shift consumer behavior at scale.
“Changing how we shop,” she says, “can help reduce how much we waste.”
The business owner featured in this article is a Chase customer and was compensated for their participation.
Tyler Mitchell is a celebrated artist, photographer, and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, whose work is characterized by an emphasis on empowerment, transcendence, play, and self-determination. This series, “The New Entrepreneur,” celebrates those who are driving what’s next and the faces behind the business, sharing their stories and these iconic headshots. Tyler Mitchell’s lens captures and shines a light on the empowerment, ambition, and resilience of a Sapphire Reserve for Business entrepreneur.
