Phias Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni are creating a new kind of founder

The fashion industry is the world’s second largest producer of greenhouse gases and environmental pollutants, behind only the oil and gas industry.It’s also rife with waste and excess, having already produced enough apparel to clothe the next six generations.

Now, two recent Stanford graduates are trying to make fashion more sustainable by improving the secondhand shopping experience.On Thursday, Phoebe Gates, 22, and Sophia Kianni, 23, launched Phia, an app and desktop tool that aggregates secondhand and retail shopping options from across the internet.“It’s like ‘Google Flights’ for fashion,” Kianni told me.

“Phia finds you the best price in one click … and allows you to really easily price compare.”She added, “How do you know that you’re not getting scammed? How do you know it’s actually the best price possible? We built the tool that we wish had existed back when we were in college,”While the pair only recently graduated from Stanford, they already have more accolades than many people twice their age.Kianni is founder of the world’s largest youth-led climate nonprofit, Climate Cardinals, and is the youngest United Nations advisor.

Gates interned at British Vogue and has become a notable voice in reproductive rights — speaking at events such as Global Citizen and being named the Reproductive Freedom for All’s Champion of the Year last year.She is also the daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates.While Phia is their first priority — they were up with their team until 3 a.m.

working out bugs the night before our interview — they’re not just trying to change the way people shop, they’re also trying to be more transparent about the founder experience.In early April, they launched “The Burnouts,” a podcast on “Call Her Daddy” founder Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network that chronicles their entrepreneurial experiences.“We really felt that there was a huge white space in the market … When you look at Founder Podcasts, it�...