Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, former roommates at Stanford University and cohosts of “The Burnouts” podcast, have officially launched Phia, a free iOS app that helps consumers evaluate prices before they purchase. The goal of the venture is to help shoppers make better informed decisions, comparing prices of new and secondhand items.
Gates and Kianni explained that as fashion lovers, they have been frustrated by how hard it is to find “the right item at the best price.” These searches often include endless scrolling, searching and manually comparing across sometimes dozens of sites. Recognizing the white space in traditional e-commerce, the duo created their own solution as a free iOS app.
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Powered by AI and built by an in-house team of engineers with experience at leading tech companies including Pinterest, Meta, Amazon and Millennium, the Phia app is designed to save shoppers time and money while promoting sustainability and transparency while pushing the industry forward.
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“We, like so many consumers, want to shop smarter and make the most of our money,” Kianni said. “Great secondhand options exist, but they’re scattered across hundreds of websites — and no one has time to search them all. Our patented model solves that pain point by delivering instant price insights to help customers make smarter, faster decisions with their money.”
Phia utilizes a database of 250 million secondhand items and is available on more than 40,000 retail and secondhand shopping sites. Users will tap the Should I Buy This? button while browsing on Safari with Phia’s browser extension. The consumer will then see an instant price check showing if the price of an item is high, typical or fair. If the item is marked as being “overpriced,” Phia will provide exact matches and similar alternatives at better prices.
The app collects data from resale partners including The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, ThredUp, StockX, eBay and Poshmark. Phia also works across brands from Nike to Louis Vuitton to personalize user results based on size, preference and shopping behavior that can be saved on a profile. Users can favorite items, build collections and track prices.
Notably, the solution has already struck a chord and has secured investors, including Kris Jenner, who was a featured guest on a recent episode of “The Burnouts,” and Desiree Gruber, among others.
“For all its growth, e-commerce hasn’t meaningfully evolved to reflect how consumers actually make decisions,” Gates said. “Shoppers are navigating an overwhelming number of options across retail and resale, often without the tools to confidently assess value. With Phia, we’ve built an AI-powered platform that brings clarity to that process — personalizing insights in real time so users can make smarter decisions instantly. It’s about delivering the right answer, at the right moment, in just one click.”
Kianni told WWD that what excites her most about bringing Phia to life is solving a problem everyone is facing: “finding the best deal without wasting hours comparing prices across countless sites. Thanks to Phia, discovering the perfect item at the perfect price has never been easier.”
Gates added that looking ahead the Phia team will “plan to focus on the growth of our product, and what got us to this point — listening to the feedback of our users. We’ll continue to build out individualized experiences through the app to keep evolving Phia as the go-to shopping assistant.”
Phia is now available for users on iOS and Chrome.