For nearly ten years, Whoop has positioned itself as an essential tool for elite athletes. In its inaugural year, the company convinced LeBron James to wear its fitness band, soon followed by Michael Phelps. The list of Whoop users also includes Cristiano Ronaldo, Patrick Mahomes, and Rory McIlroy. The marketing message was clear: top athletes use this device to monitor their bodies, and so can you.
This strategy has proven effective. Whoop, a health wearable company based in Boston and founded by Will Ahmed during his senior year at Harvard, now operates in over 200 countries. According to Ahmed, the company experienced revenue growth of more than 100% last year and achieved cash-flow positivity. The device, a band worn on the wrist, bicep, or torso, tracks sleep, recovery, heart rate variability, and an expanding list of biomarkers. The subscription model, which includes hardware and software for $200 to $360 annually, has shown strong user retention, with 83% of monthly active users accessing the app daily, a figure Ahmed claims is second only to WhatsApp.
The next phase presents a greater challenge.
Ahmed, 36, envisions Whoop evolving from a performance tool to a life-saving device—a continuous health monitor that could eventually alert you of an impending heart attack, urging immediate medical attention.
The company has already introduced medically approved features such as ECG monitoring and atrial fibrillation detection, which identify irregular heartbeats that can lead to stroke. Whoop also offers what it calls blood pressure “insights,” which Ahmed claims makes it the first wearable to provide this feature.
The FDA issued a warning letter last summer, challenging this feature as a medical diagnosis rather than a wellness monitor. Whoop, however, argued that the FDA was overstepping its bounds and continued its development.
Currently, a collaboration with Quest Diagnostics, which has more than 2,000 locations in the U.S., allows members to take blood tests and upload biomarker data into the Whoop app. A clinician reviews these results alongside Whoop data. The Health Span feature, which calculates biological age, has become the company’s most popular since its introduction in May of last year.
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The Whoop device is designed without a screen, notifications, or step counter. This was a deliberate choice. “If you have a screen, then you’re a watch,” Ahmed explained to JS 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.”
Whoop can be worn with any other watch, or it can be discreetly hidden, with its sensor integrated into a bicep sleeve, sports bra, or shorts, blending into clothing. While many users likely consider the band a fashion accessory, Ahmed notes that the company’s apparel line, launched in 2021, saw a 70% growth last year.
Whoop is not alone in expanding its focus to attract a broader audience. Oura, the Finnish company behind a smart ring that competes directly with Whoop, has cultivated a dedicated following, largely among high-performing professionals who apply the same dedication to personal health as they do to their careers.
Oura’s approach differs. Customers purchase the ring for approximately $350 and pay about $70 annually for platform access. Oura’s chief product officer, Dorothy Kilroy, mentioned last fall that their 12-month retention rate was in the high 80s, an impressive figure for wearables, which often end up unused.
Both companies report that women are their fastest-growing demographic. Last fall, they announced blood-testing partnerships within a day of each other, a coincidence neither company was keen to comment on.
Whoop’s metrics still reflect its original focus. Ahmed, while reserved about sharing detailed figures, notes that Whoop has a more significant male user base. He also highlights that the business is now about evenly divided between the U.S. and international markets, a shift from a few years ago, with Whoop shipping to 60 countries.
Whoop distinguishes itself by the fact that its high-profile users are not coerced into using the product. Earlier this year, during the Australian Open, players including Carlos Alcaraz were asked to remove their Whoop bands mid-tournament, despite the device being approved by the International Tennis Federation. The players resisted. While Whoop has brand ambassadors like Aryna Sabalenka, others like Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner wear Whoop bands under their wristbands, preferring not to part with them.
“It created a whole set of media outrage,” Ahmed remarks with some satisfaction about the media attention, “and further spotlighted the fact that all these very talented people are just organically wearing Whoop because of the value it provides.”
Ahmed is cautious about preserving this value. The company maintains a policy against providing athletes with equity in exchange for wearing the band. Ahmed believes that if athletes appreciate the product, they will use it willingly. Partnerships with brands like Ferrari, the PGA Tour, and UCI mountain biking focus instead on expanding the brand’s visibility to broader audiences with similar interests.
Oura is similarly strategizing. Founded a year after Whoop, Oura is reportedly considering an IPO. Should Oura go public first, it would establish financial benchmarks against which Whoop would be evaluated. Whoop currently employs about 750 people and plans to hire 600 more.
On the topic of going public, Ahmed remains guarded. “If we focus on building great technology and growing our business,” he states, “we’re going to be happy with Whoop when we’re a public company, independent from who goes public first.”
Throughout the conversation, Ahmed communicates thoughtfully, mindful of what to share. A former captain of the Harvard squash team, he counts Ali Farag, who later became world number one, among his teammates. However, he quickly points out that being close to greatness does not equate to being great.
“You probably have the wrong impression of how good I am at squash on the basis of me being teammates with him,” he quips.
Ahmed began developing what would become Whoop in 2011, delving into medical research while studying economics and government, driven by his own experiences of overtraining without a reliable way to measure its impact.
Whoop is Ahmed’s first company and his only full-time job. When asked if he would recommend this path to someone in a similar position in 2012, he answers candidly.
Starting a company, for the right person with the right intentions, is “without question, the most extraordinary thing you can do in your career.” However, he adds, 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.” He emphasizes the need to be “more obsessed with the problem you’re solving than with the idea of being a founder.”
Ahmed seems confident about where he stands on that spectrum.
