John Imah On Love, Style And The Life Behind SPREEAI

John Imah knows the public version of his life can sound almost too neatly assembled: the fashion-tech founder, the Met Gala regular, the AI CEO with a $1.5 billion company, the guy whose Instagram bio reads, “Rarely where you expect.” The real version, he insists, is harder to flatten into a headline.He is a Nigerian-American entrepreneur, a former big-tech operator, a musician, a car collector, and the co-founder and CEO of SPREEAI, the fashion technology company building photorealistic virtual try-on, sizing intelligence, and personalization for retailers.

Inc.reported that SPREEAI reached a $1.5 billion valuation in 2025 after raising nearly $100 million, with partners including Sergio Hudson and Kai Collective.

That is the business story.Imah’s more interesting story is what sits underneath it: the discipline, the taste, the privacy, and the part of him that still sounds more like a band kid from Dallas than a founder being photographed on fashion’s biggest carpet.

He Was A Music Kid Before He Was A Fashion-Tech Founder Ask Imah for the most unexpected thing about himself and he does not reach for the obvious answer.Not the cars.

Not the red carpets.Not the company valuation.

“I play French horn,” he says.“Like, seriously, French horn, trumpet, and piano.” He knows the answer surprises people.

From the outside, Imah’s life reads as fashion photos, sports cars, boardrooms, and technology.But music, he says, is where the noise drops away.

Piano still gives him a place to slow down.French horn and trumpet connect him to a younger version of himself, one that was more focused on rehearsal than visibility.

“Music has always been the other side of my brain,” he says.“Tech and fashion get all the press, but music is where I actually go quiet and think.” It makes sense once he explains it.

SPREEAI, at its core, is about precision and feeling at the same time.The company’s product is built to let shoppers see garments on t...