#111 Founder and CEO Whoop, Will Ahmed: Unlocking Optimal Human Performance

Health monitoring company Whoop, founded and led by CEO Will Ahmed, hid a secret message on the circuitboard of its latest wearable device. “It says, ‘Don’t bother copying us, we will win,’” Will says. “And it also has every engineer who worked on Whoop 4.0’s initials.” For more than 10 years, Whoop has attracted fans from world-famous athletes to everyday consumers, and its deep-pocketed rivals have noticed. After financing talks with Amazon fell apart, “they just directly ripped us off” and made a copycat product called the Amazon Halo. “We were energized by it and we were kinda like, ‘OK, bring it on,’” Will says.

In this episode, Will and Joubin discuss sounding relatable, only children, Persian taarof, Michael Jordan’s birthday party, why measuring sleep is more important than measuring steps, overcoming doubt, understanding sleep, 24/7 wearables, the sleep leaderboard, LeBron James, Will’s wearable “hit list,” getting ripped off by Amazon, detecting COVID-19, cold showers, disassociating yourself from your business, and the misguided “Zoom craze."

In this episode, we cover:

• Simple, clear communication (04:31)
• What Will has learned from his unique parents, and his Persian wife (08:35)
• Checking people’s wrists and why Joubin doesn’t have a Whoop yet (15:28)
• Hanging out with sports idols (20:08)
• How Whoop got started (23:07)
• Staying confident in the face of doubters (27:59)
• How Whoop decided what to measure, and why it’s not a smartwatch (31:44)
• The $100 sleep bonus and “red recoveries" (38:07)
• Competing against Nike, Under Armour, Apple, and more (42:21)
• Pivoting to a subscription model and the impact of COVID (45:04)
• Getting ripped off by Amazon (49:11)
• How Whoop got started on COVID research early (51:29)
• Will’s everyday habits, including cold showers and meditation (57:21)
• What Whoop is hiring for, and why they are largely in-office (01:01:16)

Links:

• Connect with Will
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm