Will Ahmed

Whoop seeded its brand with the world's best athletes on purpose

Will Ahmed deliberately started Whoop with elite athletes (LeBron, Phelps) so the product could build a performance brand the way Nike's swoosh transforms a product, then scale that aspirational halo down to consumers.

“if we could get the world's best athletes to wear Whoop and organically like it, then we could build a whole brand around performance that ultimately could, could scale to, to consumers. And I grew up very inspired by brands like Nike and the Jordan brand and, and just how, like, a swoosh on something could make, make the whole product feel completely different, independent from anything else about the product, just because of the storytelling behind it or the brand behind it.”

Whoop seeded its brand with the world's best athletes on purpose

Will Ahmed deliberately started Whoop with elite athletes (LeBron, Phelps) so the product could build a performance brand the way Nike's swoosh transforms a product, then scale that aspirational halo down to consumers.

“if we could get the world's best athletes to wear Whoop and organically like it, then we could build a whole brand around performance that ultimately could, could scale to, to consumers. And I grew up very inspired by brands like Nike and the Jordan brand and, and just how, like, a swoosh on something could make, make the whole product feel completely different, independent from anything else about the product, just because of the storytelling behind it or the brand behind it.”

Whoop raised $400M, last valued at $3.6B

Will Ahmed says Whoop has raised $400 million in total and last raised capital at a $3.6 billion valuation, betting that continuous health monitoring will become near-universal within a decade.

“Yeah, we've raised $400 million. We last raised capital at a $3.6 billion valuation. I think there's still a lot of potential for health monitoring. I think if you fast forward 10 years, I think a large percentage of the world's population will be wearing a continuous health monitor”

Around 50 people, a founder must shift from doer to manager

Ahmed argues that at roughly 50 employees a CEO has to swing almost entirely from individual contributor to manager, and founders who fail to recognize this inflection can badly damage the business.

“you're— the percent of time in which you think of yourself as an individual contributor versus a manager has to shift very dramatically. I think probably around the size of 50 people, it has to shift like that.”

Steal thisAt ~50 people, consciously reallocate your time from doing the work to managing the people doing it.

95% of your human growth hormone is made during slow-wave sleep

Will Ahmed notes you don't get stronger lifting weights (that breaks muscle down); you get stronger during slow-wave sleep, when the body produces 95% of its human growth hormone.

“Slow-wave sleep is when your body produces 95% of its human growth hormone. So just think about that for a second. 95% of your human growth hormone gets produced during this stage of sleep. You're not getting stronger in the gym, right? Or working out. You're breaking muscles down. You get stronger during slow-wave sleep.”

95% of your human growth hormone is made during slow-wave sleep

Will Ahmed notes you don't get stronger lifting weights (that breaks muscle down); you get stronger during slow-wave sleep, when the body produces 95% of its human growth hormone.

“Slow-wave sleep is when your body produces 95% of its human growth hormone. So just think about that for a second. 95% of your human growth hormone gets produced during this stage of sleep. You're not getting stronger in the gym, right? Or working out. You're breaking muscles down. You get stronger during slow-wave sleep.”

Red-tint blue-light glasses are a 'get out of jail free card' before bed

Ahmed wears red-tinted blue-light blocking glasses before bed, letting him use his phone or read email right up to bedtime without the screen light signaling his brain to stay awake and wrecking his sleep.

“I wear these blue light blocking glasses before bed and they've got a red, like kind of a red tint to them. And if you think about laptops, iPhones, whatever, all of them are emitting this light that is telling your eyes and your brain to stay awake.”

Steal thisWear red-tinted blue-light blocking glasses for the last hour before bed so late screen use doesn't ruin your sleep.

More REM sleep dampens your fight-or-flight amygdala response

Ahmed says researchers found that the more REM sleep you get, the less heightened your amygdala (fight-or-flight) response, which may explain why free-solo climber Alex Honnold, who has among the most REM sleep Whoop has seen, stays so calm on deadly climbs.

“the interesting thing about, uh, REM sleep is researchers were able to find the more REM sleep you get the less heightened your amygdala response. So your amygdala response is fight or flight. You know, it's what signals to your body to be nervous or to get animated.”

Consistent sleep/wake times beat sleeping pills for sleep quality

Ahmed says going to bed and waking at very consistent times unusually elevates sleep quality, while hard sleep drugs like Ambien shorten sleep latency but actually lower the percentage of time in restorative REM and slow-wave sleep.

“Sleeping at a very consistent time, so going to bed and waking up at a very similar time, will just unusually elevate the quality of your sleep. Often sleeping in a very cold room, a very dark room, a very quiet room, a room of high air quality.”

Steal thisAnchor your bedtime and wake time to nearly the same hour every day; it raises sleep quality more than supplements.

Take secondary at growth stage so founders aren't watching their bank account

Ahmed didn't sell shares until Whoop was worth at least $1 billion and only into oversubscribed rounds. He argues that for a company being built as a standalone (not a quick acquisition), a safety net keeps the CEO optimizing the business instead of wondering when they'll cash out.

“I don't think I ever sold shares until Whoop was worth at least $1 billion, and they were for rounds that were super oversubscribed.”

Steal thisIf you're building a standalone company, take some secondary at the growth stage so money worries don't distort your decisions.

Body scans + bloodwork + wearables will predict disease and death

Ahmed predicts that combining body scans, bloodwork, and continuous non-invasive wearable monitoring, with AI analyzing the scans in place of expensive radiologists, will let medicine predict disease states and leading indicators of death, profoundly changing healthcare and the doctor relationship.

“the combination of body scans, blood work, and continuous monitoring through a non-invasive wearable will ultimately be able to predict a lot of things that, that, you know, are disease states or leading indicators for death.”

A talent agency licensing the AI likeness of actors who've passed or retired

Ahmed pitches a 'talent agency for non-living people': deepfake tech is now near-indistinguishable from real video, so an actor like Tom Cruise could sell the rights to his likeness (the way Justin Bieber sold his songs) and keep making movies for 100 years, or studios could use fully artificial actors.

“I think that there's going to be like a talent agency of sorts that's for non-living people. So, you know, imagine if you're, uh, if you're Tom Cruise towards the end of your career. The same way Justin Bieber just sold, like, the rights to his songs, maybe Tom Cruise sells the rights to Tom Cruise, and you can keep making movies with Tom Cruise for the next 100 years.”

Steal thisBuild a licensing agency that lets actors sell their AI likeness for future, not just past, work.

There's no best diet; identical diets can do opposite things to two people

Ahmed says the data shows diet is highly personal: the same paleo diet that Ray Allen loved was terrible for LeBron James when Allen got him to try it around the Olympics. His own approach is a Mediterranean-style diet, mostly drinking water and coffee.

“The data says it's highly personal. Uh, so you could put two people on identical diets and they could have literally the exact opposite effects on those, on those people.”

Sleep is a third of your life that's a complete black box

Responding to Shaan's 'you don't need a sleep tracker' tweet, Ahmed argues sleep is a third of your life that's a total black box dramatically affecting the other two-thirds, and that being good at it decreases every form of disease, making it 'the magic pill.'

“it's a third of your life. That is a complete black box. You have no idea what's happening during that third of your life. And, and science has proven that that's a third of your life that dramatically affects the other two-thirds. And if you're good at sleeping, it decreases every form of potential disease that you can have. Like, it is the magic pill.”

Whoop's bet-the-company pivot from $500 device to $30/mo subscription

In 2018, six years in, Whoop stopped selling its hardware for a one-time $500 fee and switched to a subscription starting at $30 with hardware included. Ahmed calls it a painful bet-the-business move that amounted to admitting the original model was wrong, but it produced the model that made the company.

“we used to sell the product for $500 one-time fee, everything included. Then we went to, you can sign up for as little as $30. Picture just all the cash implications, gross margin implications, everything that happens almost overnight when you do that. It was also a bet the business moment”