Phia co-founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni pushed for features in the e-commerce startup’s software that took credit for sales it didn’t drive, according to internal communications and people with knowledge of the matter.
The founders were aware of the practice for at least seven months going back to December, according to the people and messages posted on the company’s internal Slack channels that were shared with Bloomberg News. The people asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to discuss the issue.