Wally Sajimi has built a solid reputation as a creative strategist, innovator, and tech founder whose work sits at the intersection of fashion, culture, and experimental technology.
As the co-founder of Nietzsche Labs, a New York-based venture studio built on experimentation and the pursuit of unconventional ventures that often emerge from unexpected places, Sajimi believes in challenging the status quo — even when the end result isn’t clear early on, he shared with AFROTECH™. Inspired by his time reading Friedrich Nietzsche, the studio serves as a growing umbrella for ideas, projects, and investments across multiple disciplines. For Sajimi, it’s about fluency, not dilution.
How Nietzsche Labs Came To Be
“I spent time at the intersection of music, fashion, and technology — watching trends get identified, monetized, and commodified by people who didn’t originate them. I wanted to build something that moved differently,” Sajimi told AFROTECH™, reflecting on how Nietzsche Labs came to life.
“Nietzsche was obsessed with the idea of creating new values rather than inheriting old ones. That’s kind of the ethos. We’re not trying to fit into existing frameworks for how an investment firm or a lab should look, we’re just building our own,” he added.
Sajimi’s career has given him a front-row seat to how ideas move — from underground scenes to global platforms. While simultaneously building in the tech space, he has spent the past decade working as a creative at AWGE, A$AP Rocky’s creative agency, where he helps shape campaigns, experiences, and projects that resonate with contemporary culture — spaces Silicon Valley often overlooks, he noted.
“You can build anything you want anonymously, and people will find out who built it if they truly care if it resonates with them. I think the Valley has a complicated relationship with that. There’s an obsession with signaling like press coverage, growth metrics, and funding rounds, as proxies for legitimacy,” Sajimi said.
Still, he’s reluctant to position himself as a cultural architect — at least not by his own standards.
“I don’t think [a cultural architect is] something you go and become. At least not in my experience. I personally don’t even like that word,” Sajimi told AFROTECH™. “For me, it’s always just been about building. Building ideas, platforms, systems, and spaces. Create with intention, and if it resonates with the right audiences, then it finds its place.”
As someone who has spent years building alongside brands and creatives, Sajimi has collaborated with some of the industry’s biggest names. His roster includes Jon Bellion, Cactus Plant Flea Market, Young Thug’s Spider, and Sicko Born From Pain, according to information shared with AFROTECH™. However, when deciding whom to work with, Sajimi looks for something specific.
“You can find anyone around the world to collaborate with, but is it just a one-off? Or can you build and collaborate for 5 or 10+ years,” Sajimi told AFROTECH™.
Building, Scaling, And Selling Endorsify
Throughout his career, Sajimi has focused less on chasing trends and more on quietly shaping what comes next. In 2020, he sold his AI-driven startup, Endorsify, which applied data science to pricing user-generated content across social platforms, according to a press release at the time. As the founder of a data-driven company, Sajimi says instinct played just as important a role in decision making as analytics when scaling.
Looking back, the advice he wishes someone had given him before building and selling Endorsify is simple.
“Embrace evolution and refinement,” Sajimi said. “The initial idea or thing you’re trying to build is just the foundation for the 10 iterations that follow.”
Charting One’s Own Path
When asked about the most important lesson he’s learned along the way, his answer was just as direct. “Patience looks like you’re doing nothing from the outsider’s point of view,” he said.
Despite his accomplishments, Sajimi isn’t interested in having people follow in his footsteps, even in an increasingly AI-driven world.
“Don’t follow my footsteps; build your own,” he told AFROTECH™. “If anything, it’s easier now because of AI. You just have more cheat codes.”