No SEO, no agent: How Bill Gate’s daughter uses Chatgpt to turn Fashion-Tech startup Phia into a hot overnight
Phoebe Gates, daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, uses AI not only as a tool, but also as a creative partner to shape her fashion tech startup Phia. With its strong on-Z appeal, Phia relies on AI-driven insights to drive content strategies for its data information, from Tiktok trends to viral Instagram reels.
She co-founded the startup with Sophia Kianni, an Iranian-American entrepreneur and climate activist, both of whom are sophomores at Stanford. Often described as “the stylish Google Flights for Fashion”, Phia is a mobile browser extension that helps users find the best used fashion deals. Since its release, the app has spanned 200,000 installations, many of which are attributed to its intelligent and strategic use in content creation.
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From spreadsheets to scripts: Reverse engineering of virality
In the podcast, Gates and Kianni pulled the curtains in the exact way they used AI tools such as Chatgpt to boost growth and marketing. “We didn’t start from scratch,” Keeney said. “The Internet exists for a reason.” The two gathered hundreds of viral videos from Tiktok and Instagram, organized them into spreadsheets and broke down everything from lighting to narrative to hooks. Then there is reverse engineering using Chatgpt to identify effective methods and apply them to Phia.
“We’re going to create a spreadsheet, these are top-level videos, which is why everyone works, and then we’ll reverse engineers how successful they reproduce.” Once the top-level content pattern is decoded, they ask Chatgpt to generate new scripts in Phia’s tone and align with content that already resonates online.
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Trial Scroll, Creator Farm and $100 Content Win
The formula works. Phia now runs a “creator farm” for student influencers, who post videos twice a day. While most content may not take off, this volume helps identify which sticks. “You should focus on volume, but you need to learn from quantity,” Kianni said.
One of their biggest wins came from the Instagram feature of the trial reel, in which non-followers were tested. Such videos became popular overnight, leading to spikes in app installation. Unexpected success led them to start hiring talented but lesser-known content creators to make videos specifically for Phia’s channel.
They focus on creators who are skilled in producing high-converting content, rather than flashy influencer partnerships. “You call them UGC. They create user-generated content from which you can buy and use on your own brand account,” Gates said. “Fee? Sometimes videos as low as $100 are charged from $10,000 to $50,000 for big influencers.
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“Fashion Flights”
The strongest slogan “Fashion” is testing dozens of videos. “No one knows what a mobile browser extension is,” Gates admits. “People love Google’s flights. They love seeing the best deals. So if you can connect your product to what people already know, it’s easier to get them to take care of them.”
They even borrowed tactics from celebrity-style accounts. Phia’s successful series shows how to get the celebrity worn by Sabrina Carpenter, and it’s very little priced to use Phia. They shared: “People can literally comment and ask, ‘I want to see the next celebrity’.”
The team also runs community product dinners, inviting fashion-savvy users to criticize the app. The feedback loop helps them improve the fit of the product market and builds an organic buzz. “If people feel like they are creating it, people care more about the product,” Kianni said.
