How to land LeBron James & Michael Phelps in your first 100 customers - Will Ahmed, Founder of Whoop
Apr 12, 2021
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Will Ahmed, Founder of Whoop, discusses his journey from training for the Harvard squash team to founding a billion-dollar wearable tech startup. He shares insights on building a resilient mindset, securing brand partnerships, overcoming competition from Amazon, and persuading mega stars like LeBron James to use his product.
Building strong relationships and partnerships with influential people is crucial for the success of a startup in the wearable tech industry.
Transitioning from a one-time purchase business model to a subscription-based model can provide recurring revenue and improve the customer experience for a wearable tech company.
Deep dives
Building a Company on Authenticity and Relationships
The founder of WOOB, a wearable tech startup, discusses how authenticity, building relationships, and focusing on security have played a crucial role in the success of their company. The founder emphasizes the importance of staying true to core values and beliefs while navigating the challenges of the industry dominated by big tech companies. By focusing on building a product that delivers value and prioritizing relationships with influential people such as trainers of professional athletes, WOOB has gained traction and partnerships with top athletes from various sports.
The Journey of Creating WOOB: From Personal Interest to Startup
The founder shares the journey of how his personal interest in physiology and technology led him to start WOOB. He explains how his own experience with overtraining and interest in optimal training and recovery sparked the idea of a wearable device that could measure the body's response and improve health. With a background in technology and a vision for the future of wearables, the founder assembled a team with complementary skills to bring the idea to life. The early days involved finding the right co-founders and facing skepticism from investors.
The Evolution of WOOB's Business Model: From Hardware to Subscription
The founder discusses the challenges faced by WOOB in terms of their business model. After realizing that selling the hardware devices as a one-time purchase was not a sustainable or scalable business approach, the company transitioned to a subscription-based model. This shift not only provided recurring revenue but also enhanced the customer experience and allowed for continuous improvement and innovation. The founder highlights the importance of customer obsession and creating value for users to build a successful subscription-based business.
Overcoming Challenges and Maintaining a Positive Mindset
The founder reflects on the challenges of building and leading a company, including near-death experiences regarding cash management and negative feedback. The founder emphasizes the importance of managing stress and maintaining a positive mindset. He highlights the significance of gratitude, focusing on the opportunities presented by difficult situations, and controlling thoughts to maintain a balance between stress and recovery. While acknowledging that mental health is an ongoing journey, the founder shares personal strategies such as meditation, optimism, and framing challenges as opportunities.
As the captain of the Harvard squash team, Will Ahmed trained and prepared as best he could. But, whatever he tried, his body kept breaking down. He didn't know why so he started researching the human body, devouring medical papers. Now, several years later, those personal frustrations have grown into Whoop, a wearable tech startup you can see on the wrists of NFL players, pro golfers and Navy Seals - despite being consistently told his strategy was wrong.
“The vision for Whoop has always been the same, which is that we're going to build this wearable platform that's going to help you improve your health. And it's going to start with the best athletes in the world. And then it's going to be on everyone.”
So he was proved right. Whoop counted professional athletes LeBron James and Michael Phelps among their first 100 users, and just got valued at $1.2 billion.
“I object to the quote, ‘it's a marathon, not a sprint’, because it's actually both. If you truly are trying to create a company from scratch, and have it be this enormous success, you have to go at an incredibly high pace for an incredibly long time.”