20VC: Whoop Founder, Will Ahmed on How CEOs Can Perform at their Highest Level, Why There is Value in Struggle Early On, Why Realism is Overrated in Startups and How To Create a Culture of Delegated Decision-Making

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Will Ahmed is the Founder and CEO @ Whoop, the company on a mission to unlock human performance with their wearable device that is your digital fitness and health coach. To date, Will has raised over $400M for the company with the last round valuing Whoop at $3.6BN and with a cap table including the likes of Softbank, Accomplice, Founder Collective, Foundry Group, IVP and more.

In Today’s Episode with Will Ahmed You Will Learn:

1.) How Will went from being a professional athlete and college student to founding one of the hottest startups in fitness and healthcare? What are the similarities and differences of being an athlete and being a CEO?

2.) What does Will mean when he says, "there is value in the struggle early on"? How does Will advise founders on when to give up vs when to stay the course? If Will had not struggled with funding in the early days, would the Whoop journey be different? How does Will advise founders when it comes to taking funding when it is on the table? What are the nuances to this?

3.) In what way does Will believe "realism is overrated"? When does Will believe it is good to be realistic? In what ways can it be good to be idealistic? How did Will get some of the largest sports stars on the planet to use Whoop in the early days? Why did Will always refuse to pay sports stars to use Whoop? What were the benefits of doing this?

4.) How does Will define high performance? Why does Will believe it is crucial for leaders to disassociate their own personal feelings from the progress of their company? What advice does Will give to leaders in an attempt to do this? What has Will done to be a better CEO in the last year? What does Will believe are his biggest weaknesses as a CEO?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Will Ahmed

Will’s Favourite Book: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back. This is the first 20VC of 2022 and what a year of episodes, guests and new podcast launching we have ahead of us.
0:06.8	However, with it being the new year and the start of January with many looking to change behaviours, adopt healthier behaviours and routines,
0:13.5	I thought it would be a really timely episode today as we welcome an individual reshaping the world of health and fitness, Will Ahmed, co-founder and CEO at Woop, the company on a
0:22.2	mission to unlock human performance with their wearable device that is your digital fitness and
0:26.8	health coach. To date, Will has raised over $400 million for Woop, with the last round valuing
0:31.9	Woop at $3.6 billion, and with a cap table including the lights of SoftBank, accomplice,
0:37.4	found a collective, foundry group, IVP, and more incredible names. But billion dollars and with a cap table including the lights of soft bank accomplice founder collective
0:38.2	foundry group ivp and more incredible names but before we move into the episode today
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	...

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