Whoop CEO Will Ahmed Details Path From Rejection to 2.5 Million Customers

Will Ahmed founded Whoop to apply data-driven insights to human performance, a mission that began with a specific problem for student athletes. He is now the head of a company with a global customer base and a distinct approach to market entry.

Ahmed spoke at the EXP research center on Northeastern University’s Boston campus on Thursday. He outlined the company’s growth from a small startup to a major player in wearable technology. The company now serves more than 2.5 million customers who use Whoop bracelets to track sleep, stress levels, and heart rate. Ahmed was recently named to Time magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People In Sports.

The path to that scale was not linear. In the early 2010s, Ahmed faced frequent rejection from potential investors and hires. He recalled that people often told him the business was a bad idea or that they did not want to work with him. He attributed his persistence to an obsession with health technology and a belief in the value of data for athletes. He stated that this resilience allowed him to push through negative feedback until he found the right team.

Ahmed’s strategy relied on a narrow initial focus. He targeted professional athletes, a group he estimated at 10,000 people worldwide. He described this as the smallest possible market. By securing buy-in from this specific demographic, Whoop was able to expand into broader markets. Ahmed advised student entrepreneurs to adopt this same method, starting with a defined niche before scaling.

The founder credited his background at Harvard for shaping his business model. As a student athlete and squash player, he sought to understand how workouts affected his performance. He read hundreds of medical journals to find answers. He later took a class at MIT’s business school, where he studied physiology and wrote his initial business plan. He noted that his government concentration at Harvard made the medical research challenging, but it fueled his interest.

Ahmed emphasized recruitment through Northeastern’s co-op program. He called it one of the best recruitment tools for the company. Whoop has hired 262 co-ops since 2024 and more than 500 in the past ten years. Sam Iannone, a fourth-year business student and moderator of the event, completed two co-ops at Whoop. He is also known as the symbolic Mayor of Huntington Avenue.

The discussion covered the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare. Ahmed argued that as technology becomes more artificial, there will be a movement toward human connection. He believes this trend will be visible in physical spaces. He stated that the need for the human touch will not disappear, even as disruptive technologies influence the industry. He encouraged a leadership style that places employee needs above personal interests to maintain this human element.