This profile is part of the Wellth 30, a curated recognition of the leaders building enduring brands, communities, and culture.
Will Ahmed, Founder and CEO, WHOOP
Will Ahmed was rejected by 143 investors before WHOOP became a $10.1 billion company with millions of members around the world.
He started it at 22, after his own body stopped cooperating. As captain of Harvard’s squash team, he trained himself into chronic fatigue and became obsessed with understanding why getting fitter could make him feel worse. He read hundreds of medical papers and eventually built the company around measuring what athletes could not see.
The bigger business decision came later. In 2018, WHOOP stopped selling its $500 band and moved to a membership model, making continuous health data something ordinary athletes could access rather than something reserved for professionals.
Ahmed has spent the years since arguing that the data belongs in the conversation about performance. When Australian Open umpires made players remove their WHOOPs, his response was four words: “Data is not steroids.”
The product measures the body. The business is built around persuading people to listen to it.
