A MONTH IN REVIEW: APRIL

FOMO (noun)

A referral-based network of founders, builders, and investors across San Francisco, New York, London, Munich, and Paris.

Unreal. Ambitious. Grind. All words to describe the atmosphere this past month.

We hosted the long-awaited Phia Hack in NYC, where 30 builders were selected to build in personalized shopping, autonomous agents, or social shopping.

We also announced our official event during Boston Tech Week.

Let's dive in.

In talking with the founders of Phia (1/2):

Linda Yu with Sophia Kianni and Phoebe Gates on April 18th, 2026 at the Phia HQ

Linda: Who are you? We'd love to know.

Phoebe: Hi, I'm Phoebe, co-founder of Phia.

Sophia: And I'm Sophia, we co-founded Phia together in our Stanford dorm room!

Q1: You launched Phia as the Google Flights for Fashion, a tool to answer one question every shopper has: should I actually buy this? Now you're driving millions in sales for brands, with 11x revenue growth since launch. What does Phia look like today, one year in?

Sophia: We just raised a $35 million Series A to build Phia as the AI alignment layer for
commerce. Today, we have grown to 1 million users shopping across more than 8,000 brand partners through our mobile app and shopping agent, with a return rate 50% lower than the industry average. We give shoppers real-time insights, from resale value to product quality signals, so they can make more informed purchase decisions.

Phoebe: At our core, we help people shop more intentionally. We answer the question, “Should I buy this?” by showing users whether something is truly worth it, based on quality, alternatives, price, and long-term value. With one click, we surface the context that usually takes hours to find. Over time, Phia becomes more personalized to each user’s taste, while also letting them earn points and rewards. The goal is to make shopping smarter, easier, and more personalized.

Q2: Phoebe, you've been a long-time advocate for women's health. Sophia, you served as a UN advisor on climate. How has that earlier chapter of advocacy shaped the founders and leaders you've each become?

Phoebe: Sophia is very humble about this, but she built one of the largest youth-led nonprofits in the world. One of the earliest things she said to me was, “If we do this right, Phia will eventually stand on its own beyond just the two of us.”

That really stuck with me. The biggest thing I’ve learned from her is how much the company you build is really the team you build. As a founder, your most important job is finding people who are not only exceptionally talented but deeply aligned with the mission.

Sophia: Phoebe is being very generous, but I’ve learned just as much from her. One of the most important decisions you make is who you choose to build with. That partnership defines everything that follows.

For both of us, we started in impact-driven work, and that has carried through into how we think about Phia. We care a lot about building something that pushes the industry forward, whether that’s through sustainability or using technology in a more thoughtful way. When people understand that bigger picture, it creates a much stronger sense of purpose across the team.

Q3: You mentioned that you want to find people who really care about impact. Is it
important that that's something someone comes with, or can you bring people in who learn to care too?

Sophia: I think part of your job as a founder is to inspire people. When someone really
understands the impact of what they’re working on, they naturally feel more invested in it. Some people come in with that mindset already, but a lot of it is shaped by how you
communicate the mission. People will only feel as inspired as the clarity you give them. If you’re intentional about sharing why something matters, you can absolutely bring people along with you.

Q4: You're hosting a hiring hackathon right now. Beyond technical skill, what qualities make you confident someone will thrive on the Phia team?

Sophia: There are three core qualities we look for, and they really define our culture.
The first is high agency. We love working with people who care enough to notice when
something could be better and feel empowered to help improve it. It is less about having all the answers and more about taking initiative, following through, and treating the company’s success as a shared responsibility.

The second is being a true team player. We are constantly testing, learning, and evolving, so we look for people who are kind, collaborative, and low ego. The best teammates are people who want to make the work better, support the people around them, and create an environment where great ideas can come from anywhere.

The third is pride in the work. Building a startup takes real effort, so we look for people who care deeply about what they are creating. People who are thoughtful, hardworking, and motivated by the chance to build something that matters. We spend a lot of time solving hard problems together, so curiosity, positivity, and a genuine desire to help your teammates go a long way.

Q5: You talk to 50 users regularly and invite their honest feedback. What's a piece of user feedback that really stuck with you, and how did it shape the product?

Phoebe: One of the biggest learning moments for us was around how we communicated value to users. Early on, we gave every item a score meant to show how good the price was and how strong the resale value might be. Users were very honest with us. They told us the score did not really mean anything to them. It was too technical and not useful.

We kept iterating, but the real breakthrough came when we shifted from trying to give users a verdict to helping them understand the context. We looked at products people already know and trust, like Google Flights, where you can immediately tell from visuals whether a price is high, low, or fair. That thinking led us to the graph we have today.

Another major moment was realizing we had built for the wrong platform. Our original product was desktop-first, and when we put it in front of users, they told us very clearly that was not how they shopped. They were on their phones, moving between tabs on Safari, multitasking, and making decisions in real time.

That feedback pushed us to rebuild Phia as mobile-first. It was a big shift, but it made the product much more aligned with how people actually shop. It also reinforced one of our strongest beliefs as founders: user feedback cannot be a side channel. It has to sit at the center of how you build.

Member Highlights.

Henry Tran, CS and AI student at MIT, one of 350 global winners of the 2026 Swift Student Challenge, and winner of the AI agents track at YHack, Yale's hackathon. And most interestingly, a former competitive Fortnite player.

Brian Liu, Co-President of Cornell Blockchain and AI Engineering & Venture Intern at Frachtis, a crypto-native pre-seed fund in Lisbon. Brian hosted Cornell Blockchain's 8th annual conference at Cornell Tech, drawing 1,200+ attendees from across TradFi and DeFi. First place at hackathons hosted by NYU, UPenn, and Michigan. He's collecting them.

Upcoming Events.

BY FOMO:

Boston Protocol: Hacking Healthcare - #BOSTechWeek

1 day. 10 real-world use cases. 100 engineers, clinicians, & researchers.

FOMO is coming to a16z’s Boston Tech Week. On May 27th, we are gathering a selected group of clinicians, engineers, and researchers to spend a day building real solutions to real clinical cases, then presenting to a panel of clinicians, investors, and industry leaders.

Free for all accepted participants.