Hustler Words – For nearly a decade, Whoop meticulously forged its identity as the indispensable tool for peak athletic performance, a "secret weapon" embraced by icons like LeBron James, Michael Phelps, Cristiano Ronaldo, Patrick Mahomes, and Rory McIlroy. This strategic positioning resonated deeply, establishing the Boston-based health wearable company, founded by Will Ahmed during his Harvard tenure, as a leader in optimizing human potential. However, Whoop is now embarking on an ambitious and profound strategic pivot, shifting its focus from solely enhancing elite performance to becoming a proactive, potentially life-saving, continuous health monitor designed for a much broader consumer base.
This initial focus proved remarkably effective. Whoop now operates in over 200 countries, achieving more than 100% revenue growth last year and reaching cash-flow positive status, according to Ahmed. Its core offering—a screenless band worn on the wrist, bicep, or torso—meticulously tracks sleep patterns, recovery metrics, heart rate variability, and an expanding suite of physiological biomarkers. The company’s subscription model, bundling hardware and software for an annual fee between $200 and $360, has demonstrated exceptional user retention, with Ahmed noting an impressive 83% daily app engagement among monthly active users—a figure he claims is rivaled only by WhatsApp.
The next phase of Whoop’s evolution represents a significantly more complex undertaking. Ahmed, 36, envisions Whoop transcending its performance roots to function as a critical health sentinel, capable of not merely aiding post-workout recovery but, eventually, providing early warnings for severe medical events like impending heart attacks. The company has already introduced features with medical clearance, including ECG monitoring and atrial fibrillation (AFib) detection—a crucial capability for identifying irregular heartbeats that can predispose individuals to stroke. Furthermore, Whoop rolled out what it terms blood pressure "insights," a feature Ahmed asserts makes Whoop the first wearable to offer such a capability. This particular innovation drew scrutiny from the FDA last summer, which issued a warning letter contending the feature constituted medical diagnosis rather than wellness tracking; Whoop, however, maintained the FDA was "overstepping its authority" and pressed forward with its development. Reinforcing its medical ambitions, a recent partnership with Quest Diagnostics allows members to integrate blood test results from over 2,000 U.S. locations directly into the Whoop app, where clinicians can analyze them alongside their continuous biometric data. The "Health Span" feature, launched last May, which calculates biological age, has quickly become the platform’s most popular offering.
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A cornerstone of Whoop’s distinct identity is its hardware design: notably, the absence of a screen, notifications, or a step counter. This decision was a deliberate strategic choice from its inception. "If you have a screen, then you’re a watch," Ahmed explained in a recent interview with Hustler Words, conducted via Zoom. "And if you’re a watch, then you’re competing with a lot of other watches, because people will never wear two watches." This screenless philosophy allows Whoop to be worn discreetly alongside traditional timepieces or even integrated seamlessly into apparel like bicep sleeves, sports bras, or shorts, effectively "disappearing" into the wearer’s clothing. While many users undoubtedly embrace the band as a subtle lifestyle statement, Ahmed highlighted the robust growth of the company’s apparel line, which expanded by 70% last year.
Whoop is not alone in broadening its horizons beyond its initial niche. Oura, the Finnish innovator behind the popular smart ring, stands as Whoop’s most direct competitor, having cultivated a substantial and devoted user base, particularly among high-achieving professionals who apply the same rigorous approach to their physical well-being as they do to their careers. Oura’s business model differs, requiring an upfront purchase of the ring (around $350) followed by an annual subscription of approximately $70 for platform access. Dorothy Kilroy, Oura’s chief product officer, reported last fall that the company’s 12-month retention rates were in the high 80s, an impressive metric in the wearable sector where devices often end up unused. Interestingly, both companies announced blood-testing partnerships within a day of each other last fall, a coincidence neither was keen to elaborate on. Both also identify women as their fastest-growing demographic.
Despite its evolving mission, Whoop’s origins continue to shape its user demographics, with Ahmed acknowledging a slight male skew, though the business is now roughly evenly split between the U.S. and international markets, a significant shift from just a few years prior, with formal shipping to 60 countries. What truly distinguishes Whoop, in its narrative, is the organic, unprompted loyalty of its most celebrated users. A notable incident at the Australian Open earlier this year saw players, including Carlos Alcaraz, instructed to remove their Whoop bands mid-tournament, despite prior approval from the International Tennis Federation. The players’ resistance, with many like Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner opting to wear their Whoops discreetly under wristbands, underscored the device’s perceived value. Ahmed, with a hint of satisfaction, noted how this "created a whole set of media outrage," inadvertently spotlighting the genuine reliance top athletes place on Whoop’s data. Ahmed meticulously safeguards this authenticity, maintaining a long-standing policy against offering athletes equity in exchange for wearing the band, believing genuine product affinity is sufficient motivation. Formal partnerships, such as those with Ferrari, the PGA Tour, and UCI mountain biking, serve a different purpose: expanding brand visibility to aligned audiences.
Oura, founded just a year after Whoop, is reportedly exploring an IPO, a move that would inevitably set financial benchmarks—revenue multiples, growth rates, and retention metrics—against which Whoop would be measured. Whoop currently employs approximately 750 individuals and is in the midst of an ambitious hiring drive to add 600 more. Ahmed remains guarded on the subject of an IPO, stating, "If we focus on building great technology and growing our business, we’re going to be happy with Whoop when we’re a public company, independent from who goes public first."
Ahmed, a former captain of the Harvard squash team who counts world number one Ali Farag among his former teammates (though he playfully downplays his own skill), speaks with the measured deliberation of someone who carefully considers every public statement. His journey with Whoop began in 2011, driven by a personal struggle with overtraining and a lack of reliable physiological measurement. He immersed himself in hundreds of medical papers while studying economics and government, determined to solve this problem. Whoop isn’t just Ahmed’s first company; it’s been his sole full-time professional endeavor. When asked about recommending this path to aspiring founders, he responds with rare candor. Starting a company, for the right individual with genuine intent, is "without question, the most extraordinary thing you can do in your career." However, he cautions, it is "a very painful experience to be an entrepreneur and to try to build something from scratch, and you have to have a reasonably high pain threshold that I think often gets lost in the glamour of fundraising announcements and milestones." The key, he emphasizes, is to be "more obsessed with the problem you’re solving than with the idea of being a founder." Ahmed’s unwavering dedication leaves little doubt about where his own obsession lies.
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