Thread by @thefernandocz

The man who heals what doctors can't:

Will Ahmed.

He took on Nike & Apple to build a $3.6 BILLION healthcare revolution.

Now Michael Phelps, LeBron James & Patrick Mahomes can't live without his product.

Whoop's blueprint to blowing up a business is unmissable🧵

Meet Will Ahmed:

A Harvard student-athlete in 2010 who was pushing his body to the limit every day.

But despite being a D1 athlete with world-class coaches, he had NO idea if his training was helping or hurting him.

Here's why that mattered:

Athletes spend thousands of hours optimizing their training.

But Will realized they were flying blind:

• No insight into sleep quality
• No way to measure recovery
• No data on whether they're overtraining

So he went down a rabbit hole that would change everything:

Will spent months reading close to 500 scientific papers.

He'd wake up before practice to study things like Heart Rate Variability (HRV), sleep architecture & performance optimization.

His obsession even led him to write his own paper on continuous body monitoring...

This paper became somewhat of a "business plan" & in 2012, Will founded WHOOP with two fellow Harvard students.

But his timing seemed terrible...

Apple and Nike were launching competing products.

Most would've pivoted. But Will made 2 contrarian bets that changed everything:

While Apple tried building a "mini-phone for your wrist"...

WHOOP focused on ONE thing: Recovery through Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

Investors called him crazy. "You need more features!"

But Will understood something profound:

Elite athletes NEED to know:

• If their body has recovered
• When to push harder
• When to rest

By focusing solely on recovery, WHOOP became the first to accurately track heart rate on the wrist.

Their marketing strategy was even more brilliant:

They knew traditional marketing would be difficult to pull off against big competitors. So WHOOP did something different:

They turned elite athletes into their marketing engine.

The strategy had 3 parts:

1. Zero paid endorsements

While competitors spent millions on athlete sponsorships...

WHOOP let the product speak for itself.

They gave devices to elite athletes with zero strings attached.

Why? Because authentic adoption > paid promotion.

The results were insane:

LeBron James and Michael Phelps became early adopters.

Not because of money. But because WHOOP gave them data they'd never had:

• Sleep quality scores
• Recovery metrics
• Strain analysis

This created a powerful "halo effect".

2. The Network Effect

When everyday athletes saw pros using WHOOP...

They wanted in.

But WHOOP was strategic:

• Limited early access
• Waitlist for new users
• High initial price ($500)

This created massive FOMO. Then came the masterstroke:

3. The Subscription Pivot

In 2018, WHOOP changed everything:

• Added premium features
• Dropped device price to $0
• Introduced $30 monthly subscription

This made the product accessible while keeping its premium status.

One more thing exploded growth...

Doubling down on content. He launched a podcast with elite athletes & initiated deep conversations about all facets of health.

Guests like Andrew Huberman, Michael Phelps & Patrick Mahomes built a community of data-obsessed users.

But the real genius?

WHOOP didn't just create entertainment.

They became a trusted source of performance knowledge.

By publishing research studies & releasing recovery data, they now rank at the top for performance-related searches.

But there's more:

WHOOP turned EVERY user into a content creator:

• Athletes share their recovery scores
• Teams compare performance data
• Coaches analyze team trends

Each share = free marketing that builds trust.

The strategy worked so well that:

WHOOP became the...

• Official Recovery Wearable of the NFL Players Association
• Official Wearable of the PGA Tour
• Official Wearable of the WTA

Today, WHOOP is valued at $3.6B.

The takeaway:

The best founders don't just build products. They build movements...

• Authentic, valuable content that educates
• Building a community of raving fans
• Knowing who their audience is

This crafted Whoop's moat. You can do the same.

Want to start a Whoop-like revolution?

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To date, we've already helped 60+ founders get 2+ Billion combined views.

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Thanks for reading! A bit about me:

2 years ago, I cofounded @ThoughtleadrX — a premium personal branding agency for world-class founders, executives, and investors to dominate socials.

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