# Phia's Latest Scandal: Is Phoebe Gates's Startup in Trouble?

An episode of [Back Row with Amy Odell](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1843400835), 15 Jul 2026, 50 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/CMLYE2751691462.mp3

Lawyer and The Fashion Law founder Julie Zerbo makes her Back Row pod debut to discuss the latest Phia scandal. The startup, founded by Bill Gates's daughter Phoebe Gates and her Stanford roommate Sophia Kianni, was just found to be taking credit for affiliate sales it did not drive. People are calling it "fraud" but is it, really? Can the Gates name and a slew of celeb founders help them sail through this unscathed? Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:32 Phia's origin story and Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kiani's Stanford beginnings 09:16 The first scandal: Fortune's report on Phia's data collection 16:17 The second scandal: Bloomberg's cookie-stuffing investigation 19:18 Explaining cookie stuffing — and the Honey/PayPal lawsuits 27:23 Did Phia's investors do proper due diligence? 36:22 Could this be fraud? The legal answer 43:15 Does Phia's celebrity halo make it bulletproof? Subscribe to the Back Row newsletter: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe Follow Julie Zerbo and The Fashion Law: https://www.thefashionlaw.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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