From Dorm Rooms to $8 Million in Funding: Life Lessons from the Founders of Phia

In the debut episode of Ambition 2.0, host Amanda Goetz sits down with Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni—the visionary co-founders of Phia, the AI-powered shopping assistant backed by Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner, Sheryl Sandberg, and other major investors. From meeting as college roommates at Stanford and launching Phia as a class project to raising an $8M seed round for their company, Phoebe and Sophia have been through it all together. They get candid about building a tech startup from scratch, navigating friendship as co-founders, and learning how to set boundaries to avoid burnout. They open up about: The real meaning of work-life balance (and does it even exist?) Why personal branding is a superpower for founders The “ground rules” that keep their friendship—and business—thriving Lessons from their fundraising journey and startup leadership The creative philosophy behind their own podcast, The Burnouts Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or just love a good founder origin story, this episode dives deep into ambition, friendship, and what it takes to build something groundbreaking. (00:00) Intro (03:50) The origin story of Phia (05:18) Building the Phia team and shaping company culture (11:50) Raising $8M with high-profile investors (14:15) Friendship “ground rules” for co-founders (23:10) Burnout, boundaries, and balance (28:42) Work-life balance (30:45) Why personal branding matters more than ever (32:00) Rapid-fire questions (38:23) Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs GUEST LINKS Phoebe Gates: Sophia Kianni: Phia: The Burnouts Podcast: FOLLOW THE PODCAST IG: | TikTok: Amanda Goetz: SIGN UP

You can listen to From Dorm Rooms to $8 Million in Funding: Life Lessons from the Founders of Phia online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

From Dorm Rooms to $8 Million in Funding: Life Lessons from the Founders of Phia is an episode from Girlboss Radio with Sophia Amoruso by Girlboss.

This episode is 42:34 long.

This episode was published on Oct 29, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Girlboss Radio with Sophia Amoruso when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.