If you’ve ever peeled something off your dorm wall and accidentally ripped half the paint with it, you are not alone. Just ask Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, who once got fined for pretty much exactly that — oops. Now, they’re helping the rest of us avoid freshman-year damage fees and other college living pitfalls.

You might know the recent Stanford grads and Ge nZ entrepreneurs as the co-founders of the shopping app, Phia — but they’re also co-hosts of The Burnouts, a podcast about the realities of ambition and building a career in your 20s. In the leadup to the fall 2025 semester, the two teamed up with Command to release a special back-to-college episode called “Sticking With Style,” featuring none other than DIY design queen Tay Nakamoto (aka Tay BeepBoop) to talk about decorating small spaces without breaking your lease (or your spirit).

Ahead of the pod’s July 14 release, Gates and Kianni sat down with Her Campus to spill even more tea on their dorm room wins and fails — and why this partnership with Command feels so personal to them.

“This was a supernatural collaboration when Command reached out,” Gates tells Her Campus exclusively. “It made sense. We met as college roommates and [are] now co-founders, and originally got fined for not using Command Brand and damaging our walls in college.”

Gates and Kianni may seem like they have it all figured out, but in those early dorm days, that wasn’t the case. Luckily, just like they do on their podcast, they’re willing to share what they’ve learned so others don’t repeat their mistakes.

Looking back, they both agree their freshman selves went way too hard when it came to packing. “I honestly probably would have had way less stuff,” Kianni says. “I put all this stuff into my room, and I put all this effort into it, and then I wasn’t even there that much.” Gates backs her up: “Packing less, packing minimally, I think, was the most important thing.”

Gates also recalls attempting to decorate her space with cut-out magazine pages, a DIY that didn’t exactly stick (IYKYK). “I think that was a flop for sure,” she says. “If I had done them correctly and cut the edges evenly, then maybe they wouldn’t have been.”

One thing Gates and Kianni do recommend? Skipping the splurge and getting creative with what already exists. “We love purchasing secondhand pieces,” Gates says. “Definitely in college and also now, we’ve gotten things from Facebook Marketplace and just generally from secondhand stores. You can get nice, high-quality furniture that hopefully you can keep for a long time.”

Gates was also a fan of Kianni’s climate posters, and they both hung up paintings from a random late-night art class at Stanford. “Not the best artwork,” Gates says, “But that was definitely one feature we liked.”

Ultimately, these two didn’t necessarily need to have the most Pinterest-perfect, aesthetically pleasing space — they just needed it to be functional. While other roommates were hosting pregames or battling it out over petty drama, Gates and Kianni were busy plotting their future in their twin XL-sized room. “Our friends thought that we were just detached from society,” Sophia says. “There were definitely times when people were like, ‘Wait, there are all these parties going on, where are Phoebe and Sophia?’ And we were just holed up in our dorm room working on our business plan.” I guess you could say things worked out for them after all — heck, maybe they can even go back write off that wall damage fine as a business expense!

“Sticking With Style” is available to stream on Command Brand’s YouTube channel, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Phoebe Gates & Sophia Kianni Share Dorm Decor Dos & Don’ts

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