August 12, 2025 • 33 mins
Ep. 228 John Imah is Co-Founder and CEO at SpreeAI, an AI-driven company transforming the future of fashion and e-commerce with our photorealistic try-on technology.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We'll look to see a black tech green money.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Another fire episode for you. I'm so excited about this one.
Johnnyma's co founder, chief executive officer, board member of spree AI.
Sprei is an AI driven company transforming the future of
fashion and e commerce for with photo realistic try on technology.
We've been seeing this in like movies if for a
(00:23):
hundred years, and nobody's made it happen.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
He's making it having and they offer a white label product.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
So if you are a fashion retailer.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You're making ways out here and you're looking to deliver
AI powered experiences for your customers so they can try
on your wares, you know from their iPad and their tablet.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
It's pre AI. So you need to be talking to Welcome.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
John, thank you, thank you so much. I'm excited to
be here.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Likewise, likewise to have you so so you have positioned
this as powered by AI.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Built for the future.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So what does the future of retail look like through
your lens?
Speaker 5 (00:58):
Yeah, if you think about the evolution or retail, it
hasn't really changed much. The only thing that's changed if
you go to a website where you look at images
that are in stores.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Really the fidelity of the images, meaning.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
That they've gotten better from I guess from examples like
ten ADP to two K four KAK right. But in
terms of the experience, when you talk about personalization or
anything like that, that is not changed. And so what I
observed is personalization matters. People want to feel like they're
a part of something. And so when you're shopping, whether
it's online or in store, to create that technology to
(01:31):
where people in many ways become their own model, right
where you're able to see yourself in real time what
you look like, then also create a lot of the
experiences that we know that I know people do at
home or in stores. What I mean by that is,
you know, when you're in offending room, you're trying on
clothes because you want to make sure it fits right,
and so it's how can you recreate that using AI?
(01:54):
And so at a foundational level, the way that I
like to approach things the company's pre AI is really
look at how people are, you know, their day to
day lives, whether it's in store, online, and basically ask
ourselves how can AI be applied to that? And so,
you know, the nice thing about AI in general is
it's you know, the speed. Right, you think about products
(02:14):
like chat GBT, you input something and output something pretty quickly,
and so for us, it's really important of understanding the
landscape and then responding.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Back to it.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So what's interesting about this statement is what's not there
the powered.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
By AI built for the future and what like.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
And you didn't say like you were building like fashion retail,
but you just said retail.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
And so I think about this.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
There's more than just like clothes I can see myself in,
but like, how does this work for other applications that
are not just shirts and pays issues?
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Yeah, so our technology basically supports anything that you can sell,
from jewelry to accessories, et cetera. Our core features or
try on so the ability for you to see yourself
in a photo realistic way, but then also our sizing
product as well, which is with ninety nine percent accuracy,
so we're able to tell you if for sure fit,
loose fit, or type fit. There's other features that we're
(03:12):
building in terms of like AI Stallus. Not everyone in
the world has worked with the Stallus, but with AI,
we can give your own personalized status.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Based on the data that we have on you.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
But then also we can you know, create the tones
you can feel like the creative director Pharrell from Louis
Vuitton is speaking to you directly, right because he knows
a lot about you and such. And so there's a
lot of different feature sets if you will that we're
sort of a company to build this product that's almost
like a platform. If you think about like the evolution
of Instagram.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It was a picture app.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
It was a photo app, you upload pictures, right, but
now if you see how it's basically evolved, you can
send messages, you can upload stories, they're shopping, et cetera.
And that's sort of the same way that I would
view our product is you know, it's going to be
an evolution of a multitude of things that it can
do based on how we see people shop being just
as as a whole.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
And so when you are looking.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
At the metrics, so like, how how does this work?
How does like what are the things we're measuring to
see that? Okay, we're making progress, you know, the team
is doing we'rey're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
How do you measure that?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Yeah? I think there's two folds of the metrics. So
before we started building this product. I spent a lot
of time in Europe.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
I worked in tech my whole life, and so I
had a lot of contacts, and so I met with
a lot of these luxury houses, and I noticed the
commonality and all of the answers they had. They needed
a product that was personalized and needed something that was
going to reduce reduced returns. And then also on top
of that, which is more important because they're a business,
they need something that's going to increase sales, right, and
so we wanted to make sure that those KPIs were
(04:47):
built in to our products. On the team side is
we need to align with our customer goals and so
there's a lot of things that we need to build,
and so it's very important that we set milestones because
our products are p partners dictate when they launch because
we're a white.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Level service, right, and so we need to make sure.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
That we have the right packages for each partner to
gear them up to launch as well.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
You said something a moment ago about ninety nine percent accuracy.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Can you restate that so I will make sure. My
next question is Dole's own point.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
Yes, so it's nine nine percent accuracy, and so how
it works is there's a lot of math and science
that's involved into this, and so we've partnered with institutions
like Carnegie, Mellon and m MIT to help us co
develop our product, and we also hire students from there
and internships and so basically from a consumer perspective, the
way that to use our product is it starts with
your phone and so essentially you take a pictures a
(05:43):
full body picture of yourself.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Right, there's an onboarding process that's saved into the cloud
one time. Right.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
What you don't know is when we're taking that picture
of you, we're actually measuring the depth of field and
there's all these older sort of contingencies that are that
are basically applied for us to form that. That's the
first part on the back end of things any sort
of AI company. One of the things that's probably the
most valuable to an AI company is the data.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
And so the question is, well, how do you get that.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
We have vendors all across the world that are basically
capturing data points of all shapes, all sizes of people,
because we need to know what to look for, right,
because as you know, there's all safet and sizes, all shades,
et cetera. And then sort of the third component is
our partners as well, and so we're capturing data on
their garments, models, et cetera. And so we're able to
(06:34):
merge that all together and that's what powers our product.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Now for our sizing product, the one sort of additional
detail is.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
In the fashion world they call it tech packs, and
tech packs are basically the dimensions of the garments, right,
and so we have that piece of data as well.
So if you merge all that together, we're able to
with a nine nine percent accuracy, not only tell you
your size of the product, but also tell you what
it would look like and how it would feel if
you wanted something like a tight fit or a loose
fit and so forth.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So it can tell you know, if I'm our size
eleven and chet right, so soon I got on our level.
But if I buy some a six, it's not to
be eleven and a halt, so it can tell the
difference between that.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
One of the pain points we discovered from talking to
brands and also through a lot of our case studies
with consumers is every brand has their own unique size,
right Bucci where the media medium Nike wear a large
et cetera. And so the critical component to that is
the tech packs. The tech packs aren't necessarily about the size.
It's actually the measurements of the garment and it basically
(07:35):
converts that into data. And so that's how we're able
to know. We wanted to basically create the world's first
what we call a universal sizing metric, meaning that from
a consumer perspective, you never have to worry.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
About your size again.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
Right, We're telling you every single time, yo, will this
is your size in this brand, this is your size
in that brand, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
So yeah, like that.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So I think about you know, people who are launching
AI company and most of the world just got aware
of what was going in AI like eighteen months ago,
twenty four months ago, and with CHATCHIQBT, you know, because
of things like chat chibt. How fast, like when did
you start building this, When did you got to have
(08:17):
the idea?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
And how fast to market did this happen?
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (08:22):
So I started working on this approximately three years ago.
It's definitely been a grind. I always loved fashion, So
I grew up a nerd. I grew up an entrepreneur.
I had two companies that I sold before I was
sixteen and then went to work in corporate America and
I worked at places in like Snapchat, Meta, et cetera.
(08:42):
But during my time, through this evolution of growth, if
you will, I was always looking for a way to
merge technic fashion. There were tools and products out there,
the challenge it wasn't necessarily up to the par or
standard that I was looking for. And so before the
world started talking about AI and chat GPT, I was
already sort of in the mix of exploring AI and.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Machine learning, etc. When chat GDBT launched, in many.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
Ways we benefited from that because it educated the world
on what this AI thing is, and we became a
part of that conversation because the name of the company
Spree AI, and so when people are searching, we come
up until we get a lot of that SEO. And
so in many ways it was very meaningful to us.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
So when you went to start raising money, was there.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Like already an MVP in place, or was the convergence
of the idea just situated such that investors are like, yeah,
he's billy AI, that's throw money at it.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Yeah, it was the convergence of the idea. I think,
you know, entrepreneurs. One of the challenging things is raising money,
amongst many things. I think specifically for me, I was
very fortunate to bless that I had a reputation because
I already had startups before that I sold, and I
already had worked in tech, and so in many ways,
the investors were, for lack of better words, investing in me.
It wasn't necessarily a about the product, and I know
(10:01):
that's not usually the case for entrepreneurs, and so I
wouldn't say it was easy for me to raise money,
but it wasn't as difficult as maybe someone that's starting
from scratch to you know, raise money and then you know,
start their journey.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So how do you then, because you've exited twice, you know,
Google see you for that, how do you personally define
generational wealth?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Yeah, it's so funny that you mentioned that. For me,
I've never in my entire life been basically motivated by opportunity.
It's sorry, buy money, not opportunity. Yeah, yeah, sorry, I've never.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Been motivated by money.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
It's been mostly about opportunity and obviously money falls with that.
And so you know, I'm first generation Nigerian.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
My parents grew up.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Poor, I didn't come for money, and so you know,
my parents had to sacrifice a lot to come to
this country and basically create a means for us to
you know, and be where we are to today. And
so as I started to begin through this journey, it
became very apparent to me that you know, oftentimes when
we think of success, especially in our community, sometimes it's
(11:12):
comparable to things that we see in our eyes all
the time, like sports and things of that nature, right,
and so, but we don't necessarily translate that to tech
at least yet. I know it's getting text becoming more mainstream.
And what I mean by that is when you think
about someone like Lebron James or Michael or Michael Jordan,
one of the things that comes to mind is this
(11:33):
person is a unicorn. They're kind of a one of
a kind, and they're basically about to put on for
their family and friends and so forth. And so I
started to carry that same mindset with me, and I
realized how fortunate I was because a lot of the
technology that I learned was all self taught.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Right. If you think about the complexities.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Of technology, it's not an easy thing to get into,
just like arguably it's not easy to get into the NBA,
and so in many ways this.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Is like a once in a lifetime operation tunity and so.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
General generational wealth means to me, it's not about me,
It's about everyone else around me, plus people that aren't
here yet, so my kids, my kids kids, setting up
a foundation that they don't have to work as hard
as I did, and being able to have a stable
company to where you know, maybe you have a son
one day and you're like, yo, he needs an internship.
(12:22):
I'm like, I got you right. Being able to like
form those connections and help elevate other people that are
around me as well.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, something you just said there is like I'm going
to do my best to formulate the question out of this,
but I'm hoping you just kind of get what I'm
trying to say. So you just said something that I
also heard another recent interview Todday or You're Inde frough
Campus just said also in that you're not necessarily thinking
about the money opportunity when you're going to build something
(12:51):
because the money that's part that part is a given
when you've achieved the mission. And I think like so
often we get money focused by because we're taught to.
You know, when you when you talk about you know
total you know market opportunity, you know TAM, you know
the total addressable market, the you know all those sorts
of things. You're thinking about dollar signs. And what I
(13:13):
hear you say is like I'm thinking.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
About, is the opportunity big enough?
Speaker 4 (13:18):
It?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Can I make a big enough dit in the world
to where if I do that, then the money is
like a given? Does it make sense what I'm trying
to say, Like we're trying to get like some money focused.
We're taught to be money focused in one way, but
you're saying, let's just focus on the concept and be
big enough.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Yeah, exactly, I get exactly to say.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
I think though, to play Devil's Advocate, where it becomes
challenging is when you don't come from money and you're
trying to survive until money becomes a priority because you're like, yo,
I gotta eat right, and so I think that becomes challenging.
But I think naturally for me, the way that I
was raised is, you know, we weren't rich or anything
like that, Like I said, we you know, my parents
(13:57):
got good jobs later on in their careers when we
were growing up. You know, we used to share the
same room things of that nature. You know, there's four
of us between our brothers and sisters. And I just
realized what was really important was for me to leave
my impact on the world and create something that's so
meaningful that it would last forever.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Right.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
And then if you think about it from that notion,
anything that is meaningful in the world, the money does
come from that. It is associated with that, right, And
so I just felt, like, you know, I'm a religious person.
I know not everybody is. That I had this god
given talent and it was my duty to get back
to the world these skill sets and if it brings money,
which it has, that's great, Right, then I can use
(14:39):
that to provide for my family and friends and the
people that aren't here yet that I haven't created.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
So yeah, I for two seconds that we're gonna be
religious for two seconds.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I'm believer also, And like I heard, well you just
said that.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It reminded me of like the script like stick first
the kingdom, like seek the fee and all the other
stuff is gonna come.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
But if you, if you go get the thing, if
you go make.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
The thing happen, the money be fine, the cars will
be fine, the house will be fine.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Exactly, You're hitting the nail on the head.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
What isn't your eb C, your every day Carrie? What
is Johnny might have to have on.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Him with him before he leaves the house, the apartment,
the condo? Except your phone. It can't be your phone.
Everybody's everybody's going to save the phone here. But what
is the thing that you know john has to have?
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Gos That's a tough question. I'd say if my phone
is the number one thing.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
It could be a journal, it could be a pen, headphones.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
What are the things?
Speaker 5 (15:43):
So I usually do have headphones on me, but I
think an item that I carry with me that isn't
something that's tangible.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
It's just being in the right mental space.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
You know, oftentimes people don't really tell you when you
become an entrepreneur. It is not no small feed. It
is an uphill battle to be successful. You are creating
something on scratch. On top of that, you're competing with
very successful companies that could easily out of flip with
the switch, say you know what, we're going to do
that too, right? And then even on top of that
(16:14):
is in many ways what happens is there's almost like
this isolation that happens because when you're trying to do
something new, most of the time the people that are
around you tend to pull away. And so it's really
important to have that right mental state every single day.
And so for me, it's really important, even though I've
been successful, to always reassure myself that I am capable,
(16:38):
I am strong, I am going to be successful, you know,
and that's something that I carry with me every single day.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
How do you challenge entrepreneurs, particularly black entrepreneurs, to think big,
like we just talked about, you know, going after these
world changing opportunities and make sure the impact is big
enough leaving your place, leaving or mark on the world.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And then I'm sure you hear.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Ideas that are like, yeah, like bro, you can go harder.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Or so you can go harder than that. How do
you challenge them to go harder?
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (17:10):
So I think the first step for me, and I've
mentioned this, you know during talks at school, is great
entrepreneurs solve problems, not create problems.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Oftentimes, when people come up with.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
An idea, it's based on their sort of personal experience,
which does contribute to the idea, but you also have to.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Think about it from a macro perspective.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
How is this actually going to impact other people and
how is it actually solving a problem. So that's the
baseline that I think that you should start out, and
then from.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
There is look you have you know, the market has
changed out, the game.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
Has changed out, There's so many tools out there that
can do a lot of this work for you In
terms of research is look at the addressable market. So
you have the idea, you can use problems like chat
GBT to ask you based on this idea I have,
can you help me conduct research to see how big
the market is?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Right? And that's the way you can sort of assess,
you know, how big this idea could be.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
And then from there it's really just about the execution,
you know, doing things like assembling the team, raising money,
things of that nature. But that's how I would say
to approach.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
It like that.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
What is the best thing you have read or learned recently?
Speaker 4 (18:28):
I would say two things.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
The best thing that I've learned recently is patience. I'm
someone that didn't realize that I lack patience, and the
way that my brain works is I'm always trying to
solve things at such a rapid pace, but sometimes the
world or people aren't on that same level or frequency,
and so naturally because of that, it causes frustration and
(18:56):
things of that nature. And so I've had to really
reconfigure my brain to be more patient, right to say, hey,
you know, you are creating something that is meaningful, and
just because maybe it.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
May not be at the outcome that you want it for.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
That specific day doesn't mean that it's not going to
get there and such.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
What is your take on how AI is reshaping consumer
trust in fashion?
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Ecommers Kah, It's it's a good question. It's something that
is slowly reassuring consumer trust, I think in the fashion
world of just in general. Whenever you introduce new technology.
My sort of assumption is the first reaction that human
(19:41):
beings face is fear.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
It's because of the unknown.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
If you think about when they first started building cars
for human beings, there were anti car campaigns.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Where people were saying, don't.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
Own a car, you should own a horse. It's more
than that, and people were so I mean, it was
a scene. Even when Uber was first introduced, I was
living in San Francisco and I was telling my friends
about it, and the first thing they said is why
would I get in a car with a stranger? And
I said, well, what is the notion of you riding
in a taxi trap that is a stranger? They're like, well,
(20:12):
and so there's always this resistance too, And so I
think with AI, one of the nice things about it
is chat.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
GBT and some of these tools that you can input.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Prompts have sort of alleviated some of that concerns because
you can ask it specifically what you wanted to do,
and it outputs that. I think for fashion there's a
little bit of a slow adoption. I think a lot
of these fashion houses are using prompts, but as it
pertains to our business, why it aligns so well with
(20:42):
them and it resonates so well is because it aligns
directly with.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Their business and what they're doing today.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
See a lot of our pitch is saying that we're
not necessarily replacing what you already do. We're trying to amplify,
and that's how you get people on. I think where
AI becomes a little bit obtrusive is where if it
comes in and it says, hey, we're abouts to take
all your jobs or we're about to take this away.
And so it was really important to me as you know,
as I was creating a strategy is to make sure
(21:10):
to create a product where as our partners are even
from a consumer perspective, when they look at it, they
see it as something that's going to be additive to
their experience.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah, you know, it just made me think of something
when we were talking about the future of retail, and
you know, I think about like how when Amazon came,
you know, and it started to really take over, how
people like you don't go to stores anymore. You don't
go to stores nearly as much as you used to,
and so that reduced a lot of like the physical
browsing opportunity that y'all have. Just stumble upon this thing, Oh,
(21:43):
let me grab that too, like you know. And then
with what you're doing, I think a lot about I
may not return as many clothes because I know that
it's going to fit well, it's going to look well
on me in the CEA. What are the the complementary
implications of what.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
You're doing as pre AI that may not be obvious to.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Most people, but it will for sure probably.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Impact us at great numbers and even though on business side,
be better or worse for them.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
So I think there's two worlds that I would say,
the shopping Sorry, there's two worlds that shopping basically exists.
There's the instore experience. I would say a lot of
luxury fashion houses and luxury stores don't ever want that
to go away, because part of the instore experience is
beyond you just buying a teacher garment. It's the campaign
(22:35):
you get, it's the way you feel, it's the way
that that package has that logo on it and so forth.
And so it's really important, as you know, as we
were building this technology that it becomes again complimentary to
that because maybe you're in the store and you may
not have time to try on ten different outfits and
they can show you all ten and you're like, you
know what, I've narrowed it down to two. I'm going
to go try on those two instead of all ten.
(22:57):
Now we know, if you look at just geographically and
just the evolution of where human beings are going, that
more people are shopping online, and so for us, the
question that sort of became a parent is how do
we make sure that we can create that in story
experience that people get online right and so right now,
if you think about when you're shopping, there's no ability.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
For you to try on clothes and see yourself. If
you're online, I'll say, okay, we checked that box. We
can do that.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
There's no ability for you to even know if it's
going to really fit you.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Okay, we check that box.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
And so, as I mentioned, we have other features that
are coming in terms of like the ability for stallus.
We also have another feature that gives you the ability
for you to scan your clothes that you have at home.
So let's say you already, as most people, own a
pair of jeans or sure, and you want that to
become a part of your online your online experience. You're like, okay,
I have this pair of jeans, let me see what
it looks like with this Nike top.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
That's how people shop. And so you can kind of
see where.
Speaker 5 (23:54):
We're going with this is where you know, where you're
sitting at home, where you could be on a train
station or in a car, you still have this very
immersive experience, almost as if you were in a fitting
room right or in the convenience of your own closet.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
You know, we talked a little bit about this when
we were you know, touching on your background and your
ideas on generational wealth. I wonder how your heritage, you know,
being black and being like Nigerian, Like, how does that
influence your views on ownership and entrepreneurship.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I mean, that's a really good question, you know, man.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
When I was growing up, success in my family was
either being a doctor or a lawyer. Right.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
There was no tech or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
I have a sister that's a doctor. You know, especially
across my family, there's a lot of people that are
doctors and nurses and such, and so tech was this gray.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Bubble, right.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
My parents knew early on because when I was seven
years old, I took apart my first computer.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
It was just a natural, god given talent.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
They were pissed because they're like, we just bought this
new household computer and you just took it apart.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
If you don't put this back together. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
I ended up putting it back together and it worked.
And then that's where they were like, huh, there's something here.
And then sort of fast forwarding into time, is a
lot of things that I created were very very self taught.
So you know, I taught myself how to code and
just learn all the nuances of technology. And so one
of the things that I've learned about my hair toage
(25:21):
specifically is we are go getters.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Oftentimes.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
I think when you the best output you can get
from a human being is if their back is against.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
The wall, right, and you only can go forward. And
in my family that was the case. Right. We didn't
come from anything. I got in a.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
Positive way, sick and tired of hearing my parents extend
and over exaggerate the story about you know, when I
was in Nigeria, I had to write an elephant, but
the elephant was on my back, and I wore all
white and this I had to walk sixty miles.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Of school every day and such. Right, because they're trying
to let.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
You know that they don't want you to struggle the
same way when you're younger, it sounds like, okay, they're
just kind of yapping or complaining. But what they're trying
to condition to you, it's like, you've got to be successful.
And in my family, success was everything. You know, your
back was against the walk every single way, and so
they conditioned it.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
I think what really let that.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Fire to me was when my mom passed away when
I was in college as a freshman. And you know,
as most people, especially most men, they tend to gravitate
towards a mom. You know, I'm I'm no shame to
say I was a MoMA's boy. I love my mom,
you know, the moon and back. And so when she
left this earth, it really lit a fire onto me.
This is someone that you know, sacrificed so much for
(26:41):
me to not only be here, but she instilled such
good values into my heart and my soul and my mind.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
And so it's like, Yo, this has to work. I
have to be successful. And if it's not for me,
I'm going to do it for her.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
And looking at the landscape or AI that you get
to see from this, you know, high level of you
and being in the leads. Also, what are the unique
opportunities what opportunities do you think Black people specifically are
uniquely positioned to be able.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
To tackle with the world of AI.
Speaker 5 (27:17):
Yeah, I think there's endless possibilities for black people to
tackle with AI.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
You know.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
The nice thing about AI is almost anything can have
AI apply to it, even if it's not in a
meaningful way. You can go to target right now, and
on their branding for a two brush, they'll say it's
power by AI, right, and so you know, sarcastic speak.
I think one of the things that I love about
our people is we're so creative and we're such trendsetters.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Right.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
A lot of cultural things or whatever the case may be,
stems from our people. And so it's really important to
take a step back and look at all the sectors,
whether it's you know, being a lawyer to being in
a barbershop to tech or whatever, and kind of look
at the day to day of what you're doing and
ask yourself, how can AI basically be applied to that?
(28:07):
And it doesn't necessarily have to be from building a product.
It could be just from streamlining things.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Right.
Speaker 5 (28:13):
You may have a business, for example, where it could
be a black owned supermarket, and part of that is
getting the inventory and you off the truck and ordering.
AI could be such a strong use case for that,
right where it's the one doing all the spreadsheets for
you or the calculations and things of that nature that
can save you hours if not days, that could be
(28:34):
done within a few seconds. And so I think sometimes
when we think about how AI can basically support.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Us or just human beings in general.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
We think such big on a macro level, and the
truth is it doesn't have to be just macro. It
could be something that's much much smaller than that, but
yet can be so much meaningful.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, what's one thing you've bought recently that costs little
but had a big impact on your ability to execute,
your ability to do your thing.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
But it didn't cost a tone of money.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
That didn't cost a ton of money.
Speaker 5 (29:08):
Yeah, gosh, it's it's a good question. I think the
sad thing is, specifically in the AI space, a lot
of the the power and the tools that you need
to start your business are very expensive. It's not cheap
by cloud space and GPUs and things of that nature.
(29:31):
But I say, from a very basic level, this new
laptop that I'm on right now, this new laptop has
been incredible.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
It's it's a Mac laptop.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
And compared to the old one that I have, it
just has made my life so much easier.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
I think.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Lastly, congrats on the Apple Tech Future fifty recognition.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
There's Apple Tech Future fifty where we.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Highlight you know, we're a tech us headed you know,
those innovators, those leaders, those disruptors and technology and with that, like,
what's one bold prediction you can make on how spree
AI or just John Ema will have you know, an
impact on the world in the next five years.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
So, first, I was honored to be on that list.
Is really exciting, not just to see me, but see
other people that I didn't know that are in the space.
Just a great way to kind of show like, hey,
you know, we're here. I think specifically for me, as
I mentioned, is I shout off my career as an
entrepreneur and I've always been looking for what is my
(30:40):
next big thing and I can honestly say with spree AI,
that's it. And one of the things that I taught
my team is what we're doing today is not what
we're going to do tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
And so right now.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
We're conquering shopping, but there's other categories in the space
that we'll expand onto. Is when I look at this someday,
whether it's you know, three to five years from now,
or I want people to think of me as someone
who truly revolutionized how people shop forever. But then on
top of that is there's a quote that I lived by,
which is aspire to inspire before you expire, is I
(31:14):
want to also inspire more people like us to not
just get into tech, but to truly chase their dreams.
When I was growing up, when I was in high school,
it was a critical period for me because you know,
during that time, it's not what it is today. Man,
I can go on to today. It's like I was a.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Nerd, I was African, I was skinny, all this stuff
that was not cool. All those things now check the boxes.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
But I wanted to fit in so bad, and so
part of that was I put a disguise who I
needed to be in order to kind of fit in
with the crowd, and so trying to gravitate and being
a jock and so forth, until one day I just
told myself, I need to.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Really embrace who I am.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
And the moment I did that is the moment I
started to feel fulfilled with my life.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
I became happier.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
And so I wanted to make sure that as I
would in this sort of position that I've gained throughout
my career, is to really get back, whether that's through
knowledge or whatever the case may be. And so I
think it's really important for someone like myself and others
who are on that list or future people that will
be coming on that list, to also understand that we
are a very unique position and we can't take it
(32:19):
for granted.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
There are so.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
Many people out there that would kill to be in
the position that we're in, and so it's really important
to give back because that's how you really truly build
a community and not just talk about it.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Black Tech Green Money is a production to Blavity Afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast network in night Hire Media.
It's produced by Morgan DeVaughn and me Well.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Lucas, with the additional production support.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
By Kate McDonald, sh Hurgan and Jada McGee. Special thank
you to Michael Davis and Love Beach. Learn more about
my guess of the tech. This shop is an Innovatives
afrotech dot Com. The video version this episode will drop
to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap in
enjoy your Black Tech Green Money shot us to somebody
go get your money.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Peace and love
We'll look to see a black tech green money.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Another fire episode for you. I'm so excited about this one.
Johnnyma's co founder, chief executive officer, board member of spree AI.
Sprei is an AI driven company transforming the future of
fashion and e commerce for with photo realistic try on technology.
We've been seeing this in like movies if for a
(00:23):
hundred years, and nobody's made it happen.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
He's making it having and they offer a white label product.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
So if you are a fashion retailer.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You're making ways out here and you're looking to deliver
AI powered experiences for your customers so they can try
on your wares, you know from their iPad and their tablet.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
It's pre AI. So you need to be talking to Welcome.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
John, thank you, thank you so much. I'm excited to
be here.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Likewise, likewise to have you so so you have positioned
this as powered by AI.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Built for the future.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So what does the future of retail look like through
your lens?
Speaker 5 (00:58):
Yeah, if you think about the evolution or retail, it
hasn't really changed much. The only thing that's changed if
you go to a website where you look at images
that are in stores.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Really the fidelity of the images, meaning.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
That they've gotten better from I guess from examples like
ten ADP to two K four KAK right. But in
terms of the experience, when you talk about personalization or
anything like that, that is not changed. And so what I
observed is personalization matters. People want to feel like they're
a part of something. And so when you're shopping, whether
it's online or in store, to create that technology to
(01:31):
where people in many ways become their own model, right
where you're able to see yourself in real time what
you look like, then also create a lot of the
experiences that we know that I know people do at
home or in stores. What I mean by that is,
you know, when you're in offending room, you're trying on
clothes because you want to make sure it fits right,
and so it's how can you recreate that using AI?
(01:54):
And so at a foundational level, the way that I
like to approach things the company's pre AI is really
look at how people are, you know, their day to
day lives, whether it's in store, online, and basically ask
ourselves how can AI be applied to that? And so,
you know, the nice thing about AI in general is
it's you know, the speed. Right, you think about products
(02:14):
like chat GBT, you input something and output something pretty quickly,
and so for us, it's really important of understanding the
landscape and then responding.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Back to it.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So what's interesting about this statement is what's not there
the powered.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
By AI built for the future and what like.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
And you didn't say like you were building like fashion retail,
but you just said retail.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
And so I think about this.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
There's more than just like clothes I can see myself in,
but like, how does this work for other applications that
are not just shirts and pays issues?
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Yeah, so our technology basically supports anything that you can sell,
from jewelry to accessories, et cetera. Our core features or
try on so the ability for you to see yourself
in a photo realistic way, but then also our sizing
product as well, which is with ninety nine percent accuracy,
so we're able to tell you if for sure fit,
loose fit, or type fit. There's other features that we're
(03:12):
building in terms of like AI Stallus. Not everyone in
the world has worked with the Stallus, but with AI,
we can give your own personalized status.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Based on the data that we have on you.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
But then also we can you know, create the tones
you can feel like the creative director Pharrell from Louis
Vuitton is speaking to you directly, right because he knows
a lot about you and such. And so there's a
lot of different feature sets if you will that we're
sort of a company to build this product that's almost
like a platform. If you think about like the evolution
of Instagram.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It was a picture app.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
It was a photo app, you upload pictures, right, but
now if you see how it's basically evolved, you can
send messages, you can upload stories, they're shopping, et cetera.
And that's sort of the same way that I would
view our product is you know, it's going to be
an evolution of a multitude of things that it can
do based on how we see people shop being just
as as a whole.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
And so when you are looking.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
At the metrics, so like, how how does this work?
How does like what are the things we're measuring to
see that? Okay, we're making progress, you know, the team
is doing we'rey're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
How do you measure that?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Yeah? I think there's two folds of the metrics. So
before we started building this product. I spent a lot
of time in Europe.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
I worked in tech my whole life, and so I
had a lot of contacts, and so I met with
a lot of these luxury houses, and I noticed the
commonality and all of the answers they had. They needed
a product that was personalized and needed something that was
going to reduce reduced returns. And then also on top
of that, which is more important because they're a business,
they need something that's going to increase sales, right, and
so we wanted to make sure that those KPIs were
(04:47):
built in to our products. On the team side is
we need to align with our customer goals and so
there's a lot of things that we need to build,
and so it's very important that we set milestones because
our products are p partners dictate when they launch because
we're a white.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Level service, right, and so we need to make sure.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
That we have the right packages for each partner to
gear them up to launch as well.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
You said something a moment ago about ninety nine percent accuracy.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Can you restate that so I will make sure. My
next question is Dole's own point.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
Yes, so it's nine nine percent accuracy, and so how
it works is there's a lot of math and science
that's involved into this, and so we've partnered with institutions
like Carnegie, Mellon and m MIT to help us co
develop our product, and we also hire students from there
and internships and so basically from a consumer perspective, the
way that to use our product is it starts with
your phone and so essentially you take a pictures a
(05:43):
full body picture of yourself.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Right, there's an onboarding process that's saved into the cloud
one time. Right.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
What you don't know is when we're taking that picture
of you, we're actually measuring the depth of field and
there's all these older sort of contingencies that are that
are basically applied for us to form that. That's the
first part on the back end of things any sort
of AI company. One of the things that's probably the
most valuable to an AI company is the data.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
And so the question is, well, how do you get that.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
We have vendors all across the world that are basically
capturing data points of all shapes, all sizes of people,
because we need to know what to look for, right,
because as you know, there's all safet and sizes, all shades,
et cetera. And then sort of the third component is
our partners as well, and so we're capturing data on
their garments, models, et cetera. And so we're able to
(06:34):
merge that all together and that's what powers our product.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Now for our sizing product, the one sort of additional
detail is.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
In the fashion world they call it tech packs, and
tech packs are basically the dimensions of the garments, right,
and so we have that piece of data as well.
So if you merge all that together, we're able to
with a nine nine percent accuracy, not only tell you
your size of the product, but also tell you what
it would look like and how it would feel if
you wanted something like a tight fit or a loose
fit and so forth.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So it can tell you know, if I'm our size
eleven and chet right, so soon I got on our level.
But if I buy some a six, it's not to
be eleven and a halt, so it can tell the
difference between that.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
One of the pain points we discovered from talking to
brands and also through a lot of our case studies
with consumers is every brand has their own unique size,
right Bucci where the media medium Nike wear a large
et cetera. And so the critical component to that is
the tech packs. The tech packs aren't necessarily about the size.
It's actually the measurements of the garment and it basically
(07:35):
converts that into data. And so that's how we're able
to know. We wanted to basically create the world's first
what we call a universal sizing metric, meaning that from
a consumer perspective, you never have to worry.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
About your size again.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
Right, We're telling you every single time, yo, will this
is your size in this brand, this is your size
in that brand, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
So yeah, like that.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So I think about you know, people who are launching
AI company and most of the world just got aware
of what was going in AI like eighteen months ago,
twenty four months ago, and with CHATCHIQBT, you know, because
of things like chat chibt. How fast, like when did
you start building this, When did you got to have
(08:17):
the idea?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
And how fast to market did this happen?
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (08:22):
So I started working on this approximately three years ago.
It's definitely been a grind. I always loved fashion, So
I grew up a nerd. I grew up an entrepreneur.
I had two companies that I sold before I was
sixteen and then went to work in corporate America and
I worked at places in like Snapchat, Meta, et cetera.
(08:42):
But during my time, through this evolution of growth, if
you will, I was always looking for a way to
merge technic fashion. There were tools and products out there,
the challenge it wasn't necessarily up to the par or
standard that I was looking for. And so before the
world started talking about AI and chat GPT, I was
already sort of in the mix of exploring AI and.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Machine learning, etc. When chat GDBT launched, in many.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
Ways we benefited from that because it educated the world
on what this AI thing is, and we became a
part of that conversation because the name of the company
Spree AI, and so when people are searching, we come
up until we get a lot of that SEO. And
so in many ways it was very meaningful to us.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
So when you went to start raising money, was there.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Like already an MVP in place, or was the convergence
of the idea just situated such that investors are like, yeah,
he's billy AI, that's throw money at it.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Yeah, it was the convergence of the idea. I think,
you know, entrepreneurs. One of the challenging things is raising money,
amongst many things. I think specifically for me, I was
very fortunate to bless that I had a reputation because
I already had startups before that I sold, and I
already had worked in tech, and so in many ways,
the investors were, for lack of better words, investing in me.
It wasn't necessarily a about the product, and I know
(10:01):
that's not usually the case for entrepreneurs, and so I
wouldn't say it was easy for me to raise money,
but it wasn't as difficult as maybe someone that's starting
from scratch to you know, raise money and then you know,
start their journey.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So how do you then, because you've exited twice, you know,
Google see you for that, how do you personally define
generational wealth?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Yeah, it's so funny that you mentioned that. For me,
I've never in my entire life been basically motivated by opportunity.
It's sorry, buy money, not opportunity. Yeah, yeah, sorry, I've never.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Been motivated by money.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
It's been mostly about opportunity and obviously money falls with that.
And so you know, I'm first generation Nigerian.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
My parents grew up.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Poor, I didn't come for money, and so you know,
my parents had to sacrifice a lot to come to
this country and basically create a means for us to
you know, and be where we are to today. And
so as I started to begin through this journey, it
became very apparent to me that you know, oftentimes when
we think of success, especially in our community, sometimes it's
(11:12):
comparable to things that we see in our eyes all
the time, like sports and things of that nature, right,
and so, but we don't necessarily translate that to tech
at least yet. I know it's getting text becoming more mainstream.
And what I mean by that is when you think
about someone like Lebron James or Michael or Michael Jordan,
one of the things that comes to mind is this
(11:33):
person is a unicorn. They're kind of a one of
a kind, and they're basically about to put on for
their family and friends and so forth. And so I
started to carry that same mindset with me, and I
realized how fortunate I was because a lot of the
technology that I learned was all self taught.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Right. If you think about the complexities.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Of technology, it's not an easy thing to get into,
just like arguably it's not easy to get into the NBA,
and so in many ways this.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Is like a once in a lifetime operation tunity and so.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
General generational wealth means to me, it's not about me,
It's about everyone else around me, plus people that aren't
here yet, so my kids, my kids kids, setting up
a foundation that they don't have to work as hard
as I did, and being able to have a stable
company to where you know, maybe you have a son
one day and you're like, yo, he needs an internship.
(12:22):
I'm like, I got you right. Being able to like
form those connections and help elevate other people that are
around me as well.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, something you just said there is like I'm going
to do my best to formulate the question out of this,
but I'm hoping you just kind of get what I'm
trying to say. So you just said something that I
also heard another recent interview Todday or You're Inde frough
Campus just said also in that you're not necessarily thinking
about the money opportunity when you're going to build something
(12:51):
because the money that's part that part is a given
when you've achieved the mission. And I think like so
often we get money focused by because we're taught to.
You know, when you when you talk about you know
total you know market opportunity, you know TAM, you know
the total addressable market, the you know all those sorts
of things. You're thinking about dollar signs. And what I
(13:13):
hear you say is like I'm thinking.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
About, is the opportunity big enough?
Speaker 4 (13:18):
It?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Can I make a big enough dit in the world
to where if I do that, then the money is
like a given? Does it make sense what I'm trying
to say, Like we're trying to get like some money focused.
We're taught to be money focused in one way, but
you're saying, let's just focus on the concept and be
big enough.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Yeah, exactly, I get exactly to say.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
I think though, to play Devil's Advocate, where it becomes
challenging is when you don't come from money and you're
trying to survive until money becomes a priority because you're like, yo,
I gotta eat right, and so I think that becomes challenging.
But I think naturally for me, the way that I
was raised is, you know, we weren't rich or anything
like that, Like I said, we you know, my parents
(13:57):
got good jobs later on in their careers when we
were growing up. You know, we used to share the
same room things of that nature. You know, there's four
of us between our brothers and sisters. And I just
realized what was really important was for me to leave
my impact on the world and create something that's so
meaningful that it would last forever.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Right.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
And then if you think about it from that notion,
anything that is meaningful in the world, the money does
come from that. It is associated with that, right, And
so I just felt, like, you know, I'm a religious person.
I know not everybody is. That I had this god
given talent and it was my duty to get back
to the world these skill sets and if it brings money,
which it has, that's great, Right, then I can use
(14:39):
that to provide for my family and friends and the
people that aren't here yet that I haven't created.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
So yeah, I for two seconds that we're gonna be
religious for two seconds.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I'm believer also, And like I heard, well you just
said that.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It reminded me of like the script like stick first
the kingdom, like seek the fee and all the other
stuff is gonna come.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
But if you, if you go get the thing, if
you go make.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
The thing happen, the money be fine, the cars will
be fine, the house will be fine.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Exactly, You're hitting the nail on the head.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
What isn't your eb C, your every day Carrie? What
is Johnny might have to have on.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Him with him before he leaves the house, the apartment,
the condo? Except your phone. It can't be your phone.
Everybody's everybody's going to save the phone here. But what
is the thing that you know john has to have?
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Gos That's a tough question. I'd say if my phone
is the number one thing.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
It could be a journal, it could be a pen, headphones.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
What are the things?
Speaker 5 (15:43):
So I usually do have headphones on me, but I
think an item that I carry with me that isn't
something that's tangible.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
It's just being in the right mental space.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
You know, oftentimes people don't really tell you when you
become an entrepreneur. It is not no small feed. It
is an uphill battle to be successful. You are creating
something on scratch. On top of that, you're competing with
very successful companies that could easily out of flip with
the switch, say you know what, we're going to do
that too, right? And then even on top of that
(16:14):
is in many ways what happens is there's almost like
this isolation that happens because when you're trying to do
something new, most of the time the people that are
around you tend to pull away. And so it's really
important to have that right mental state every single day.
And so for me, it's really important, even though I've
been successful, to always reassure myself that I am capable,
(16:38):
I am strong, I am going to be successful, you know,
and that's something that I carry with me every single day.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
How do you challenge entrepreneurs, particularly black entrepreneurs, to think big,
like we just talked about, you know, going after these
world changing opportunities and make sure the impact is big
enough leaving your place, leaving or mark on the world.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And then I'm sure you hear.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Ideas that are like, yeah, like bro, you can go harder.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Or so you can go harder than that. How do
you challenge them to go harder?
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (17:10):
So I think the first step for me, and I've
mentioned this, you know during talks at school, is great
entrepreneurs solve problems, not create problems.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Oftentimes, when people come up with.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
An idea, it's based on their sort of personal experience,
which does contribute to the idea, but you also have to.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Think about it from a macro perspective.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
How is this actually going to impact other people and
how is it actually solving a problem. So that's the
baseline that I think that you should start out, and
then from.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
There is look you have you know, the market has
changed out, the game.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
Has changed out, There's so many tools out there that
can do a lot of this work for you In
terms of research is look at the addressable market. So
you have the idea, you can use problems like chat
GBT to ask you based on this idea I have,
can you help me conduct research to see how big
the market is?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Right? And that's the way you can sort of assess,
you know, how big this idea could be.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
And then from there it's really just about the execution,
you know, doing things like assembling the team, raising money,
things of that nature. But that's how I would say
to approach.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
It like that.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
What is the best thing you have read or learned recently?
Speaker 4 (18:28):
I would say two things.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
The best thing that I've learned recently is patience. I'm
someone that didn't realize that I lack patience, and the
way that my brain works is I'm always trying to
solve things at such a rapid pace, but sometimes the
world or people aren't on that same level or frequency,
and so naturally because of that, it causes frustration and
(18:56):
things of that nature. And so I've had to really
reconfigure my brain to be more patient, right to say, hey,
you know, you are creating something that is meaningful, and
just because maybe it.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
May not be at the outcome that you want it for.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
That specific day doesn't mean that it's not going to
get there and such.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
What is your take on how AI is reshaping consumer
trust in fashion?
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Ecommers Kah, It's it's a good question. It's something that
is slowly reassuring consumer trust, I think in the fashion
world of just in general. Whenever you introduce new technology.
My sort of assumption is the first reaction that human
(19:41):
beings face is fear.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
It's because of the unknown.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
If you think about when they first started building cars
for human beings, there were anti car campaigns.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Where people were saying, don't.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
Own a car, you should own a horse. It's more
than that, and people were so I mean, it was
a scene. Even when Uber was first introduced, I was
living in San Francisco and I was telling my friends
about it, and the first thing they said is why
would I get in a car with a stranger? And
I said, well, what is the notion of you riding
in a taxi trap that is a stranger? They're like, well,
(20:12):
and so there's always this resistance too, And so I
think with AI, one of the nice things about it
is chat.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
GBT and some of these tools that you can input.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Prompts have sort of alleviated some of that concerns because
you can ask it specifically what you wanted to do,
and it outputs that. I think for fashion there's a
little bit of a slow adoption. I think a lot
of these fashion houses are using prompts, but as it
pertains to our business, why it aligns so well with
(20:42):
them and it resonates so well is because it aligns
directly with.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Their business and what they're doing today.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
See a lot of our pitch is saying that we're
not necessarily replacing what you already do. We're trying to amplify,
and that's how you get people on. I think where
AI becomes a little bit obtrusive is where if it
comes in and it says, hey, we're abouts to take
all your jobs or we're about to take this away.
And so it was really important to me as you know,
as I was creating a strategy is to make sure
(21:10):
to create a product where as our partners are even
from a consumer perspective, when they look at it, they
see it as something that's going to be additive to
their experience.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah, you know, it just made me think of something
when we were talking about the future of retail, and
you know, I think about like how when Amazon came,
you know, and it started to really take over, how
people like you don't go to stores anymore. You don't
go to stores nearly as much as you used to,
and so that reduced a lot of like the physical
browsing opportunity that y'all have. Just stumble upon this thing, Oh,
(21:43):
let me grab that too, like you know. And then
with what you're doing, I think a lot about I
may not return as many clothes because I know that
it's going to fit well, it's going to look well
on me in the CEA. What are the the complementary
implications of what.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
You're doing as pre AI that may not be obvious to.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Most people, but it will for sure probably.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Impact us at great numbers and even though on business side,
be better or worse for them.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
So I think there's two worlds that I would say,
the shopping Sorry, there's two worlds that shopping basically exists.
There's the instore experience. I would say a lot of
luxury fashion houses and luxury stores don't ever want that
to go away, because part of the instore experience is
beyond you just buying a teacher garment. It's the campaign
(22:35):
you get, it's the way you feel, it's the way
that that package has that logo on it and so forth.
And so it's really important, as you know, as we
were building this technology that it becomes again complimentary to
that because maybe you're in the store and you may
not have time to try on ten different outfits and
they can show you all ten and you're like, you
know what, I've narrowed it down to two. I'm going
to go try on those two instead of all ten.
(22:57):
Now we know, if you look at just geographically and
just the evolution of where human beings are going, that
more people are shopping online, and so for us, the
question that sort of became a parent is how do
we make sure that we can create that in story
experience that people get online right and so right now,
if you think about when you're shopping, there's no ability.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
For you to try on clothes and see yourself. If
you're online, I'll say, okay, we checked that box. We
can do that.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
There's no ability for you to even know if it's
going to really fit you.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Okay, we check that box.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
And so, as I mentioned, we have other features that
are coming in terms of like the ability for stallus.
We also have another feature that gives you the ability
for you to scan your clothes that you have at home.
So let's say you already, as most people, own a
pair of jeans or sure, and you want that to
become a part of your online your online experience. You're like, okay,
I have this pair of jeans, let me see what
it looks like with this Nike top.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
That's how people shop. And so you can kind of
see where.
Speaker 5 (23:54):
We're going with this is where you know, where you're
sitting at home, where you could be on a train
station or in a car, you still have this very
immersive experience, almost as if you were in a fitting
room right or in the convenience of your own closet.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
You know, we talked a little bit about this when
we were you know, touching on your background and your
ideas on generational wealth. I wonder how your heritage, you know,
being black and being like Nigerian, Like, how does that
influence your views on ownership and entrepreneurship.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I mean, that's a really good question, you know, man.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
When I was growing up, success in my family was
either being a doctor or a lawyer. Right.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
There was no tech or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
I have a sister that's a doctor. You know, especially
across my family, there's a lot of people that are
doctors and nurses and such, and so tech was this gray.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Bubble, right.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
My parents knew early on because when I was seven
years old, I took apart my first computer.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
It was just a natural, god given talent.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
They were pissed because they're like, we just bought this
new household computer and you just took it apart.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
If you don't put this back together. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
I ended up putting it back together and it worked.
And then that's where they were like, huh, there's something here.
And then sort of fast forwarding into time, is a
lot of things that I created were very very self taught.
So you know, I taught myself how to code and
just learn all the nuances of technology. And so one
of the things that I've learned about my hair toage
(25:21):
specifically is we are go getters.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Oftentimes.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
I think when you the best output you can get
from a human being is if their back is against.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
The wall, right, and you only can go forward. And
in my family that was the case. Right. We didn't
come from anything. I got in a.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
Positive way, sick and tired of hearing my parents extend
and over exaggerate the story about you know, when I
was in Nigeria, I had to write an elephant, but
the elephant was on my back, and I wore all
white and this I had to walk sixty miles.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Of school every day and such. Right, because they're trying
to let.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
You know that they don't want you to struggle the
same way when you're younger, it sounds like, okay, they're
just kind of yapping or complaining. But what they're trying
to condition to you, it's like, you've got to be successful.
And in my family, success was everything. You know, your
back was against the walk every single way, and so
they conditioned it.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
I think what really let that.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Fire to me was when my mom passed away when
I was in college as a freshman. And you know,
as most people, especially most men, they tend to gravitate
towards a mom. You know, I'm I'm no shame to
say I was a MoMA's boy. I love my mom,
you know, the moon and back. And so when she
left this earth, it really lit a fire onto me.
This is someone that you know, sacrificed so much for
(26:41):
me to not only be here, but she instilled such
good values into my heart and my soul and my mind.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
And so it's like, Yo, this has to work. I
have to be successful. And if it's not for me,
I'm going to do it for her.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
And looking at the landscape or AI that you get
to see from this, you know, high level of you
and being in the leads. Also, what are the unique
opportunities what opportunities do you think Black people specifically are
uniquely positioned to be able.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
To tackle with the world of AI.
Speaker 5 (27:17):
Yeah, I think there's endless possibilities for black people to
tackle with AI.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
You know.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
The nice thing about AI is almost anything can have
AI apply to it, even if it's not in a
meaningful way. You can go to target right now, and
on their branding for a two brush, they'll say it's
power by AI, right, and so you know, sarcastic speak.
I think one of the things that I love about
our people is we're so creative and we're such trendsetters.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Right.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
A lot of cultural things or whatever the case may be,
stems from our people. And so it's really important to
take a step back and look at all the sectors,
whether it's you know, being a lawyer to being in
a barbershop to tech or whatever, and kind of look
at the day to day of what you're doing and
ask yourself, how can AI basically be applied to that?
(28:07):
And it doesn't necessarily have to be from building a product.
It could be just from streamlining things.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Right.
Speaker 5 (28:13):
You may have a business, for example, where it could
be a black owned supermarket, and part of that is
getting the inventory and you off the truck and ordering.
AI could be such a strong use case for that,
right where it's the one doing all the spreadsheets for
you or the calculations and things of that nature that
can save you hours if not days, that could be
(28:34):
done within a few seconds. And so I think sometimes
when we think about how AI can basically support.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Us or just human beings in general.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
We think such big on a macro level, and the
truth is it doesn't have to be just macro. It
could be something that's much much smaller than that, but
yet can be so much meaningful.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, what's one thing you've bought recently that costs little
but had a big impact on your ability to execute,
your ability to do your thing.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
But it didn't cost a tone of money.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
That didn't cost a ton of money.
Speaker 5 (29:08):
Yeah, gosh, it's it's a good question. I think the
sad thing is, specifically in the AI space, a lot
of the the power and the tools that you need
to start your business are very expensive. It's not cheap
by cloud space and GPUs and things of that nature.
(29:31):
But I say, from a very basic level, this new
laptop that I'm on right now, this new laptop has
been incredible.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
It's it's a Mac laptop.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
And compared to the old one that I have, it
just has made my life so much easier.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
I think.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Lastly, congrats on the Apple Tech Future fifty recognition.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
There's Apple Tech Future fifty where we.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Highlight you know, we're a tech us headed you know,
those innovators, those leaders, those disruptors and technology and with that, like,
what's one bold prediction you can make on how spree
AI or just John Ema will have you know, an
impact on the world in the next five years.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
So, first, I was honored to be on that list.
Is really exciting, not just to see me, but see
other people that I didn't know that are in the space.
Just a great way to kind of show like, hey,
you know, we're here. I think specifically for me, as
I mentioned, is I shout off my career as an
entrepreneur and I've always been looking for what is my
(30:40):
next big thing and I can honestly say with spree AI,
that's it. And one of the things that I taught
my team is what we're doing today is not what
we're going to do tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
And so right now.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
We're conquering shopping, but there's other categories in the space
that we'll expand onto. Is when I look at this someday,
whether it's you know, three to five years from now,
or I want people to think of me as someone
who truly revolutionized how people shop forever. But then on
top of that is there's a quote that I lived by,
which is aspire to inspire before you expire, is I
(31:14):
want to also inspire more people like us to not
just get into tech, but to truly chase their dreams.
When I was growing up, when I was in high school,
it was a critical period for me because you know,
during that time, it's not what it is today. Man,
I can go on to today. It's like I was a.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Nerd, I was African, I was skinny, all this stuff
that was not cool. All those things now check the boxes.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
But I wanted to fit in so bad, and so
part of that was I put a disguise who I
needed to be in order to kind of fit in
with the crowd, and so trying to gravitate and being
a jock and so forth, until one day I just
told myself, I need to.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Really embrace who I am.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
And the moment I did that is the moment I
started to feel fulfilled with my life.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
I became happier.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
And so I wanted to make sure that as I
would in this sort of position that I've gained throughout
my career, is to really get back, whether that's through
knowledge or whatever the case may be. And so I
think it's really important for someone like myself and others
who are on that list or future people that will
be coming on that list, to also understand that we
are a very unique position and we can't take it
(32:19):
for granted.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
There are so.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
Many people out there that would kill to be in
the position that we're in, and so it's really important
to give back because that's how you really truly build
a community and not just talk about it.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Black Tech Green Money is a production to Blavity Afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast network in night Hire Media.
It's produced by Morgan DeVaughn and me Well.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Lucas, with the additional production support.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
By Kate McDonald, sh Hurgan and Jada McGee. Special thank
you to Michael Davis and Love Beach. Learn more about
my guess of the tech. This shop is an Innovatives
afrotech dot Com. The video version this episode will drop
to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap in
enjoy your Black Tech Green Money shot us to somebody
go get your money.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Peace and love
Host
Will Lucas
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