WEBVTT - Whoop CEO Will Ahmed Talks Funding, Potential IPO

0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:07.000
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:11.120
<v Speaker 2>Let's switch gears though and talk about completely and talk

0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:14.520
<v Speaker 2>about wearable health tech company Whoop. It's announced it raised

0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:16.800
<v Speaker 2>five hundred and seventy five million dollars in a series

0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:18.840
<v Speaker 2>G funding that values of the company at more than

0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.640
<v Speaker 2>ten billion in total. And here to discuss the latest

0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:25.400
<v Speaker 2>round is Will Ahmed, the CEO of Whoop. Will great

0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.240
<v Speaker 2>to have you on a I'm a longtime Whoop wearer.

0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:31.960
<v Speaker 2>I'm on a three hundred and ninety day streak right now,

0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.319
<v Speaker 2>and it's nice to see your valuation up to more

0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.400
<v Speaker 2>than ten billion. That's around the same I noticed as Aura,

0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.240
<v Speaker 2>and so I'm wondering what you think about what must

0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.879
<v Speaker 2>be your biggest competitor. I mean, is there room in

0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:49.360
<v Speaker 2>this space for two powerful companies or is this you know,

0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:51.120
<v Speaker 2>winner take all scenario.

0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:53.400
<v Speaker 1>Well, thanks for having me on, Matt, and thanks for

0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.640
<v Speaker 1>being a longtime Whoop member. I appreciate that. You know,

0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.200
<v Speaker 1>if I actually just look back over the last decade,

0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:01.160
<v Speaker 1>because I found it been twenty twelve, so I've been

0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:04.360
<v Speaker 1>building this company for fourteen years. There's been an enormous

0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.800
<v Speaker 1>number of players in the space over the years. In

0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:11.440
<v Speaker 1>the early days, you had you know, big wearable or

0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:13.959
<v Speaker 1>big sports apparel brands excuse me, so you had the Nike,

0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.880
<v Speaker 1>under Armour, Adidas, Puma Crowd. You then had entries from

0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.759
<v Speaker 1>the tech market, so you had Microsoft and Google and

0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:26.160
<v Speaker 1>Intel and Amazon Meta and so there's been a lot

0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.279
<v Speaker 1>of players, I would say broadly in the wearable space.

0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.319
<v Speaker 1>Today there's actually maybe the fewest number of players that

0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:34.640
<v Speaker 1>I've seen in the last five years, and yet the

0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.840
<v Speaker 1>wearables market has grown enormously. You know, when I first

0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.400
<v Speaker 1>started the company, I think less than five million wearables

0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:42.880
<v Speaker 1>were sold a year. Now that figure is three hundred

0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.119
<v Speaker 1>to four hundred million devices a year and continues to grow.

0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:49.880
<v Speaker 1>So we're very excited about where the company's positioned, and

0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.120
<v Speaker 1>we think we're still in the early days despite the

0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:53.360
<v Speaker 1>maturity of the business.

0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.520
<v Speaker 2>So, you know, I'm obviously a customer, and so many

0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.440
<v Speaker 2>people here around me are customers? Do they stay? Do

0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:01.000
<v Speaker 2>we stay?

0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:01.640
<v Speaker 1>Are you?

0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:05.640
<v Speaker 2>Are you retaining customers? Those that have twelve month subscriptions,

0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.079
<v Speaker 2>are they going to twenty four? Are they renewing?

0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.800
<v Speaker 1>Well, we recently actually launched three membership tiers. So it

0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:13.720
<v Speaker 1>used to be sign up for two hundred and forty

0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:15.679
<v Speaker 1>dollars a year. Now there's a lower plan and a

0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.160
<v Speaker 1>higher plan three hundred and sixty dollars a year for

0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:20.840
<v Speaker 1>Whoop Life, and we've actually seen an overwhelming number of

0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.680
<v Speaker 1>people migrate from our middle tier to our highest tier,

0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.519
<v Speaker 1>and that demonstrates I think that our members are willing

0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:31.760
<v Speaker 1>to pay for enhanced features, premium capabilities, an additional medical

0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:34.679
<v Speaker 1>sensing portfolio that we've rolled out, so now Woop has

0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.880
<v Speaker 1>ECG monitoring with aphib detection. We've come out with blood

0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.040
<v Speaker 1>pressure insights, which were the first wearable to do. We

0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:46.000
<v Speaker 1>recently launched Advanced Labs, which is blood testing. So overwhelming

0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.280
<v Speaker 1>we see our members wanting to invest more in their

0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.720
<v Speaker 1>health with Whoop, They're buying additional services, they're moving up

0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.600
<v Speaker 1>in their membership tier. And then in addition to that,

0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:56.840
<v Speaker 1>we have some of the best user engagement in all

0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.160
<v Speaker 1>of health. Our members are opening the Whoop back up

0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.760
<v Speaker 1>eight times a day, which is pretty extraordinary user engagement.

0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.200
<v Speaker 1>We have an eighty three percent down mau ratio, which

0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.720
<v Speaker 1>I believe is second only to WhatsApp in terms of

0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.440
<v Speaker 1>how often people are using and engaging with the product.

0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:14.840
<v Speaker 1>So it really speaks to I think the value that

0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.120
<v Speaker 1>we've been able to create and the fact that our

0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:19.800
<v Speaker 1>members are in fact improving their health.

0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:22.440
<v Speaker 2>You know, I think about all this stuff that you

0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.080
<v Speaker 2>can do, and I see the labs myself as well,

0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:30.760
<v Speaker 2>and the blood pressure monitoring you can not predict, but

0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.320
<v Speaker 2>you know you can see whether you're in line for

0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:36.760
<v Speaker 2>a stroker a heart attack. Is this a fitness company

0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.960
<v Speaker 2>or is it like a clinical diagnostics tool.

0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.120
<v Speaker 1>Well, we want to build the most powerful personal health

0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.400
<v Speaker 1>platform in the world, and we see that as an

0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:49.720
<v Speaker 1>evolution from fitness and sports, which is our origins, to

0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:53.920
<v Speaker 1>now working very broadly across health and medical capabilities. You know,

0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.760
<v Speaker 1>two of our investors in this latest financing were Mayo

0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.560
<v Speaker 1>Clinic and Abbot. Mayo Clinic of course being one of

0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:04.040
<v Speaker 1>the best health institutions in the entire world, and we're

0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:05.960
<v Speaker 1>going to be announcing a lot of research with the

0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:08.560
<v Speaker 1>Mayo Clinic, an Abbot of course being one of the

0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:11.360
<v Speaker 1>best medical device makers in the world, and we're going

0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:13.320
<v Speaker 1>to be announcing more with them as well. And so

0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.640
<v Speaker 1>I think this overall financing really shows the past and

0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:20.920
<v Speaker 1>the history of WHOOP with the athletes coming in Christiano Ronaldo,

0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:25.280
<v Speaker 1>Ory McElroy now Lebron James as well as the future

0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.000
<v Speaker 1>of Whoop. With many of these health strategics, you.

0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.039
<v Speaker 2>Need to get some squash players, You need to sponsor

0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:31.159
<v Speaker 2>some squash players here.

0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.320
<v Speaker 1>Well, we love squash. I've played squash my entire life.

0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.360
<v Speaker 1>Ali Farrag, former World number one, is a good friend

0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.040
<v Speaker 1>and a WOOP member, So we'll do more in squash.

0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:42.800
<v Speaker 2>You are cash flow positive, I mean, you're making money,

0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:48.440
<v Speaker 2>so why raise this additional half a billion dollars plus now?

0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.080
<v Speaker 1>Well, we want to accelerate a lot of the work

0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.159
<v Speaker 1>that we're doing. We think the opportunity to own health

0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.200
<v Speaker 1>monitoring and integrate deeply into the healthcare system is now

0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.320
<v Speaker 1>just completely up for grabs and there's only a few

0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.159
<v Speaker 1>players in the market, and we really want to attack

0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:05.280
<v Speaker 1>the opportunity. So we're going to be leaning in on

0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.760
<v Speaker 1>research and development. We've announced that we're hiring six hundred

0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.200
<v Speaker 1>roles this year, really across every single function, so we're

0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.359
<v Speaker 1>actually growing our headcount eighty percent, which seems to be

0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.919
<v Speaker 1>a counter narrative move right now. And then we're also

0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.320
<v Speaker 1>growing internationally, so we've brought in some really great strategic

0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.000
<v Speaker 1>investors from around the world. Sovereign wealth funds like Qia

0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:30.240
<v Speaker 1>and two point zero and Mubadala and others, and we're

0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.800
<v Speaker 1>going to be investing heavily in growth around the world.

0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.800
<v Speaker 2>How can you put AI to work? And I know

0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.440
<v Speaker 2>you already have an AI assistant on your platform obviously

0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.800
<v Speaker 2>I'm on there many times a day, But how much

0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:43.400
<v Speaker 2>do you think it can be improved?

0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.400
<v Speaker 1>Well, I think ultimately Whoop will either make you healthier

0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:50.920
<v Speaker 1>or it will save your life, and those are really

0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.880
<v Speaker 1>the two areas of development for WHOOP, and as we

0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.640
<v Speaker 1>think about coaching and alerting, those are the two areas

0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:00.480
<v Speaker 1>that we're investing in. And so we do believe that AI,

0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.520
<v Speaker 1>sitting on top of all of this data is going

0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:05.599
<v Speaker 1>to be able to deliver value in those categories. I

0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.279
<v Speaker 1>think it's inevitable that a huge percentage of humanity will

0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.000
<v Speaker 1>be continuously wearing a health monitor and it's going to

0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.240
<v Speaker 1>make you healthier or it's going to save your life

0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:14.640
<v Speaker 1>one day.

0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:16.960
<v Speaker 2>Will you go public before that? I mean, I think

0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.920
<v Speaker 2>I read Series G right, We're getting pretty far along

0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.120
<v Speaker 2>in the alphabet. When is the IPO plan for.

0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:24.680
<v Speaker 1>Well, we still see it on the horizon of eighteen

0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:28.000
<v Speaker 1>to twenty four months. You know, Fortunately, whoops. Operating cash

0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.960
<v Speaker 1>flow positive. We've just added five hundred and seventy five

0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.240
<v Speaker 1>million to our balance sheet, so we've got a very

0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:36.360
<v Speaker 1>strong balance sheet and it allows us to be I think,

0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.840
<v Speaker 1>really thoughtful and control our destiny and root to IPO.

0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.040
<v Speaker 2>All right, Will, great having you on sett Thanks so

0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.240
<v Speaker 2>much for joining us. Will. I'm d there, the CEO

0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:45.240
<v Speaker 2>of we