Sophia Kianni, the co-founder of Phoebe Gates’ company Phia, previously detailed a strategy involving a fabricated male assistant to secure more lucrative public speaking engagements during her college years. This revelation has resurfaced as both Kianni and Gates face allegations of fraud concerning their coupon and deal-finding app, Phia.

Fabricated Assistant for Negotiating Deals

In an April 2025 appearance on the podcast “Call Her Daddy,” Kianni, then 24, shared that she created a fictional male assistant named Kobe. The purpose of this persona was to negotiate higher fees for her public speaking opportunities while she was a student. Kianni admitted to host Alex Cooper that she felt like a “fraud” due to the significant sums of money involved.

The idea reportedly stemmed from a suggestion by a Stanford friend: to employ a fake male assistant who could handle deal negotiations. Kianni acknowledged the plan was “psychotic” but proceeded with it, leading to a rapid increase in her earning potential. To maintain the illusion, she even enlisted a real friend named Kobe to field calls and communicate with businesses on her behalf.

This elaborate scheme allowed Kianni to earn thousands of dollars for speaking engagements and have her travel expenses covered. She described the meticulous effort involved in maintaining the ruse, including altering her writing style and email sign-offs to differentiate herself from Kobe’s communications. “I had a whole elaborate scheme going on,” she told Cooper.

Leveraging Gender Bias for Advantage

Podcast host Alex Cooper, who recently announced her pregnancy, lauded Kianni’s strategy as “genius,” particularly noting the decision to make the fabricated assistant male. Cooper observed that society often grants more credibility to men in professional settings. “The biggest factor that I took from this, which I wouldn’t have thought of, is that you made it a man,” Cooper remarked. “It was so smart of you to be like I’m going to advocate for myself through a fake man.”

Kianni explained her approach as “engineering” success, stating, “You have to create your own luck. That’s the reality.” When asked about other business “hacks,” Phoebe Gates described their methods as “unhinged.”

Other Entrepreneurial Strategies

Kianni also discussed her method for securing scholarships to fund her Stanford education, which cost approximately $74,000 annually during her enrollment in 2021. She utilized the hashtag journorequest, a platform where journalists post calls for sources, to gain media attention. This media coverage, in turn, allowed her to include links to publications on her scholarship applications.

Her focus on climate change advocacy, including her role as a UN advisor since 2020 (making her the youngest person appointed to such a position) and her founding of the nonprofit Climate Cardinals, attracted significant attention. This proactive approach reportedly prompted a scholarship committee to reopen its application process specifically for her.

“It was a miracle,” Kianni said on the podcast regarding the scholarship opportunity.

Fraud Allegations Against Phia

The current controversy surrounds Phia, the company founded by Kianni and Gates, which aims to help consumers find the best deals on clothing and accessories from over 40,000 retail and resale websites. The company operates on an affiliate revenue model, earning a commission when users make purchases through links provided by its browser extension.

However, an investigation by Bloomberg, in collaboration with Capital One Shopping and independent researcher Ben Edelman, uncovered allegations that Phia’s app engaged in “fake clicks” on retail sites. The AI-powered browser extension allegedly registered these fraudulent clicks and injected its own referral code during the checkout process without user interaction. This practice, often referred to as “cookie stuffing” or attribution fraud, allowed Phia to claim commissions on sales it did not genuinely drive.

The issue, which Phia has since stated has been rectified, was reportedly introduced into the platform’s source code in December. Impact.com, a prominent affiliate network, confirmed to Bloomberg that it had suspended Phia’s account due to behavior inconsistent with its platform policies.

Phia’s Response and Business Trajectory

A spokesperson for Phia acknowledged the problem, stating that the company was made aware of the misattributions within the previous 24 hours of their statement. The team worked overnight to identify and resolve the issue, and the company asserted that it has always maintained compliance through regular audits by its affiliate network partners. Researchers retested the extension in July and confirmed that it no longer automatically claimed referral clicks.

Phoebe Gates, the younger daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates, launched Phia with Kianni, her former Stanford roommate, in April 2025. The company experienced rapid growth shortly after its launch, ranking 21st on the App Store and achieving 20,000 downloads in its first week. Within three months, downloads exceeded 370,000, and by September 2025, Phia reported over 500,000 downloads.

Phia also secured significant funding, raising $8 million shortly after its launch, followed by an additional $35 million in January of the following year, valuing the company at $185 million just one year after its inception. The startup has attracted notable celebrity investors, including Kris Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Sara Blakely, Michael Rubin, and Sheryl Sandberg.