Will Ahmed on WHOOP’s Subscription Model, Health Data and Wearable Strategy

Jason Calacanis welcomes WHOOP founder and CEO Will Ahmed to discuss health technology. Ahmed says the wearable company was founded in 2012 and has grown from an initial performance-focused audience toward a broader membership. The interview is a discussion with the company’s CEO, not an independent product evaluation.

Ahmed says it took about 12 years to reach one million members, then roughly 18 months to reach two million and six more months to reach three million. He says the company expects to end the year around four million. The final number is a forecast from the interview, not a completed result established here.

Calacanis asks about the subscription model. Ahmed recalls a consumer launch in 2017 with a $500 one-time device price. He says the company observed strong engagement among purchasers but relatively few sales, and wanted a lower entry price that could work economically if users stayed.

Ahmed says the shift to recurring revenue accelerated growth in 2018 and 2019 and changed the company’s incentives. Instead of relying primarily on new hardware sales, he says WHOOP focused more on existing members, engagement and continuing product improvements. Calacanis connects that shift to retention and churn.

The CEO contrasts annual hardware sales with introducing new devices when the company considers them meaningfully improved. He lists software and health-related features added over time, including ECG, laboratory information and blood-pressure insights. The product names and regulatory status of individual features should not be assumed to be interchangeable.

Calacanis says he tried several wearables and found WHOOP’s software useful after learning its scores and journal. Ahmed describes three main product pillars: sleep, recovery and strain. The speakers compare their own displayed scores; these proprietary scores are product outputs, not independently verified diagnoses.

Ahmed says the sleep display includes duration, consistency and sleep-stage information, while the recovery score uses a color and numerical scale. Calacanis describes using these figures while traveling and preparing for work. Their examples explain how they use the product, not whether a particular score establishes a medical condition.

The host describes a health monitor displaying several measurements, including respiratory rate, resting heart rate, skin temperature, blood oxygen and heart-rate variability. He recounts seeing changes before experiencing chest pain and going to an emergency department, where clinicians evaluated him.

Calacanis says he was told the chest pain was associated with inflammation and that he was not having a heart attack. He also recalls an earlier illness in which he noticed unusual readings and subsequently tested for COVID. These are his personal accounts; a wearable reading by itself cannot determine the cause of chest pain or replace clinical assessment.

Ahmed thanks him and recounts other member testimonials in which people sought medical evaluation after unusual readings. He describes a baseball player and another member who later received cancer diagnoses. These anecdotes cannot establish that a device detects those cancers or quantify false positives and false negatives.

Ahmed introduces heart-rate variability as variation in the intervals between heartbeats and discusses the autonomic nervous system. He says WHOOP compares readings against an individual baseline and incorporates them into stress and recovery scores. His broad claims about health and longevity are his interpretation; a single HRV value is not a diagnosis.

The speakers return to a member whose HRV changed before a medical evaluation. Calacanis asks whether it had previously been known as an indicator for that cancer, and Ahmed says he does not think so. The story is anecdotal and does not demonstrate that HRV can screen for that condition.

Ahmed says continuous wear was a founding principle of WHOOP and describes a charger that can be slid onto the device while it is worn. Calacanis explains why he prefers that arrangement to a device that must be removed frequently to charge. These are their product experiences.

Ahmed reports that members wear WHOOP an average of 23.6 hours a day and that the company has more than 50 billion hours of continuous physiological data. These are company-reported figures. He says the organization is developing models using physiological data alongside other information users choose to provide.

Ahmed describes exploratory work on whether physiological signals might help predict that some laboratory values are out of range. He gives cortisol as a hypothetical example of a prompt to obtain a targeted test. This is a research ambition described by the company, not evidence that the wearable measures or reliably diagnoses those biomarkers.

Calacanis describes conversations with WHOOP’s AI coach, including a travel-related example. He says the feature has improved but still has room to grow. Ahmed says the company created a team focused on travel and sees the coach as an important part of its product direction.

Ahmed describes combining sensor data with laboratory results, medical records and user feedback when available. He says just over half of members complete the journal daily and describes more than 100 behaviors people may log, such as travel, hydration, mood or alcohol. These participation figures come from the company.

After a sponsor break, Calacanis explains that journal entries can be compared with recovery scores. He describes an apparent positive association for warm baths in his own records, while Ahmed discusses an association he observes with alcohol. Neither example by itself proves that the recorded behavior caused the score change.

The host notices an apparent negative association with vitamin D and wonders whether it is a false positive. Ahmed suggests that another factor, such as travel, could be involved. The coach response shown in the conversation explicitly describes the association as correlation rather than evidence of causation.

Ahmed says the stress score relies primarily on HRV along with other sensing and describes the design challenge of combining physiological research, consumer data and an understandable interface. Calacanis discusses his own activity and training goals. The speakers are explaining product use, not prescribing a training plan.

Calacanis says he takes a GLP-1 medication and has logged it in the app. Ahmed describes a feature that lets users track medication-related behaviors and activity. Their personal experiences are not a substitute for medical advice about medication, nutrition or exercise.

Ahmed offers a numerical claim about the composition of weight lost on GLP-1 medications and discusses strength and protein. The interview provides no supporting study for that figure; body-composition changes vary and the statement should not be treated as an established estimate for an individual.

The host asks about WHOOP’s blood-pressure insights and its relationship with the FDA. Ahmed says the company studied physiological signals alongside cuff readings and reports that 70,000 people enrolled in a study. These are his descriptions of the company’s work, not an independent assessment of accuracy.

Ahmed recounts a disagreement over whether a blood-pressure feature should be regulated as a medical device or treated as wellness information. He says WHOOP received a warning letter and later describes changes in FDA guidance. His statements represent the company’s account; regulatory classification depends on the product, claims and current rules.

The CEO separately says WHOOP has FDA clearance for an ECG feature and describes distinct processes for different products. Clearance for one feature does not establish clearance or diagnostic performance for every other feature. He describes the blood-pressure function in the context of calibration with a cuff.

Asked about building or acquiring related hardware, Ahmed says the company weighs building, partnering and acquisitions. He says WHOOP does not sell member data and characterizes the subscription as the business model. That is the company’s stated position in the interview; the discussion is not a review of its full privacy terms.

Calacanis and Ahmed compare wearables and discuss competition from larger companies. Ahmed praises Apple’s hardware and software while arguing that screenless wearable products have posed challenges for entrants. These are the speakers’ market views rather than a systematic product comparison.

A rapid-fire round moves through cold showers, sauna, exercise, alarms, coffee and product scores. Ahmed gives personal preferences and says exercise choices depend on a person’s goals. The exchange is not individualized medical guidance or evidence that any specific routine is right for every listener.

Ahmed announces LeBron James as a WHOOP global ambassador. He says James had worn the product for 11 years and was among its first 100 users. Ahmed places the new relationship alongside other athlete partnerships; the announcement and history are the company’s account.

Calacanis asks whether paid partnerships conflict with the early strategy of attracting athletes organically. Ahmed says early-stage companies should be careful about paying people simply to use a product; he describes later relationships involving name, image and likeness for advertising. He says the company valued authentic adoption before formal partnerships.

They discuss whether wearables can be worn during professional competition. Ahmed describes a dispute involving players at the Australian Open and says tennis authorities had approved WHOOP for matches. The host speculates about commercial motivations; the interview does not establish those allegations.

The conversation briefly turns to Calacanis’s venture syndicate and later-stage investing. He and Ahmed discuss obtaining company approval and caution that some secondary brokers may claim access to shares without an actual transaction in hand. Their remarks are personal views on private-company transactions.

The host briefly discusses public-market companies and closes the interview by endorsing WHOOP. The episode ends with thanks and promotional remarks; the business, health and market statements throughout are the speakers’ own claims and experiences.