In 2012, 3 men met at Harvard.
Together, they'd change human performance forever.
THREAD: The unbelievable story behind building a fitness wearable startup valued at $3.6 billion.
1/ @willahmed grew up playing many sports.
He was recruited by Harvard to play squash.
By his junior year, he was named captain.
Ahmed was always one of the fittest guys on the team, but one thing always held him back...
2/ Fatigue.
He knew he could be a much better athlete if he could better manage his performance.
So, he went on a quest to find a solution...
3/ Ahmed read over 500 papers on physiology research.
There were many metrics he could use to measure performance.
But he was most intrigued by metrics taken while sleeping and resting.
The crazy part?
Not many people were studying sleep and human performance...
4/ He took a class at MIT's business school to learn how to turn his idea into reality.
He wrote a paper detailing his business plan.
"The Feedback Tool: Measuring Fitness, Intensity, and Recovery."
Now it was time to build...
5/ Ahmed searched Harvard for cofounders capable of building a prototype.
Through friends, he met John Capodilupo.
Capodilupo was a math whiz.
At the time, he was taking one of the most difficult math classes in the country!
Ahmed asked Capodilupo to join the team.
6/ Capodilupo introduced Ahmed to a Romanian student living on a couch in his house.
His name was Aurelian Nicolae, and he excelled at mechanical engineering.
Capodilupo thought he could be a good fit for the company, and Nicolae joined the team.
7/ They named the company "Bobo Analytics."
Raised $300,000 from family and friends.
Another $700,000 from angel investors.
And began working on a prototype...
8/ In 2016, @whoop launched its first product.
They focused on professional athletes and Olympians.
LeBron James and Michael Phelps to name a few.
They gave them free bands and crossed their fingers that LeBron and Phelps would find value in their product...
9/ One day, Ahmed was watching a basketball game at his parent's house.
During the break, a Kia commercial featuring LeBron flashed on the screen.
Ahmed noticed something on LeBron's wrist...
A Whoop strap!
10/ If LeBron loved it, they figured regular consumers would as well.
The value proposition would be:
"Get all the same analytics as the best athletes in the world."
They released a strap for consumers costing $500.
But nobody was interested...
11/ Whoop users loved the product, but it was difficult to get new customers.
Ahmed began studying pricing strategies.
At the time, Peloton was pioneering a subscription-based business model.
Ahmed was inspired.
12/ In May of 2018, Whoop's subscription-based business model was born.
The strap was free.
But users had to pay around $30 per month to access their health metrics.
They started selling subscriptions like crazy.
Then in early 2020, COVID hit...
13/ Whoop began studying the correlation between Whoop data and COVID-19.
They found that many users experienced an increase in respiratory rate, prior to any other symptoms of the virus.
This insight would prevent an outbreak during the PGA Tour season...
14/ Nick Watney was gearing up for the 2020 RBC Heritage.
COVID was raging.
Watney felt fine, but his Whoop data was off.
This prompted him to get tested.
He tested positive and dropped out of the tournament.
Preventing what could have been a serious outbreak...
15/ Whether it be helping athletes optimize their health...
Or slowing the spread of a global pandemic...
@whoop is on a mission to unlock human performance.
16/ On August 30, 2021, Whoop announced it had raised $200 million in a Series F funding round.
The round was led by Softbank's Vision Fund 2, and it valued Whoop at $3.6 billion!
Making Whoop one of the most valuable fitness-wearable startups in the world.
17/ Whoop has raised ~$400 million to date from some of the world's greatest athletes.
• @KDTrey5
• @LarryFitzgerald
• @PatrickMahomes
• @EliManning
• @McIlroyRory
• @JustinThomas34
18/ Whoop has also forged partnerships with some of the world's most well-known sports organizations and universities.
• @CrossFit
• @PGATOUR
• @LPGA
• @NFLPA
• @USC_Athletics
• @BCEagles
• @HUBisonSports
• @TheFirstTee
• @Vol_Sports
19/ So what's next for @whoop?
In a recent release, Ahmed says:
"While we have experienced amazing growth in the past year, the potential of our technology and the vast market for health monitoring remains largely untapped.”
That being said...
They're going global!
For more on the Whoop story, check out these resources:
• @InvestLikeBest - open.spotify.com/episode/3DWBLX…
• @whoop - whoop.com/thelocker/podc…
• @TechCrunch - techcrunch.com/2021/08/31/who…
• @JoePompliano - huddleup.substack.com/p/the-36-billi…
If you enjoyed this thread, it'd mean the world if you could:
• Retweet the first tweet
• Follow me @austinschless
I write about the business of fitness 📈🏋🏻♂️
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