WHOOP (company)
WHOOP (company)
WHOOP, Inc. is a human performance technology, fitness wearables, and analytics company based in Boston, Massachusetts. [1] [undefined] It was formerly called Bobo Analytics.
History
WHOOP was founded in early 2012 by three friends at Harvard University, Will Ahmed, John Capodilupo, and Aurelian Nicolae, with the aim of analyzing and optimizing athletic performance at a higher level than other fitness trackers available on the market. [1]
Ahmed grew up loving sports and exercise.
Many of his childhood heroes were athletes.
He attended Harvard University from 2008-2012 and received a Bachelor's degree in Government and Economics. He was captain of the Men’s Varsity Squash Team.
He would train for 3 hours a day and was surrounded by athletes, including himself, who were overtraining, misinterpreting fitness peaks, underestimating recovery and sleep, therefore becoming injured.
The WHOOP Product
Wrist strap with companion apps
WHOOP launched its membership for consumers, not just pro athletes, on May 15th 2018.
The membership is designed for a 24-hour performance lifestyle, including the hardware, analysis and access to a community of like-minded individuals.
[6]
The WHOOP Membership costs $30/month with a 6-month minimum commitment to begin, totaling at $180.
Members receive the WHOOP Strap, which collects 5 variables 100 times per second to provide the most accurate data for your body.
The strap tracks and analyzes your lifestyle 24/7, then divides it into three categories: Recovery, Strain and Sleep, which can be accessed via a mobile or web app.
WHOOP Sleep: The strap measures how long you sleep but also how long you spend in each stage of sleep to better understand your sleep quality.
The WHOOP Sleep Coach tells you exactly how much sleep you need to reach your desired performance level the next day.
“Sleep can be the forgotten third of your life.
It’s the period to repair, regenerate and prime your mind and body for peak performance.”
WHOOP Recovery: It then calculates your recovery based on 3 physiological markers: heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate (RHR), and sleep.
These are then calibrated to your baseline, making your recovery personalized each day.
HRV measures the variation in time between each heart beat.
WHOOP Strain: You'll get feedback on every moment of the day, whether you’re exercising, resting, or going about your daily life.
Strain keep track of how your body is responding to things like stress, travel, and work, so you can make smarter decisions when it comes to recovery.
It is a measure of the cardiovascular strain your body takes throughout the day and quantifies it on a scale from 0-21.
“It’s been a privilege to serve many of the best athletes and teams in the world to date,” said Will Ahmed, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of WHOOP. “We’ve now taken many learnings from the top performers and applied them to a consumer facing membership. This is for a wider set of consumers – those that take performance seriously, whether that means securing a PR on their next marathon, or improving their personal habits as a business executive on the road for work. This service is designed to feel like a 24/7 coach on your body.”
WHOOP received an investment from Bose Ventures, an investment group within Bose Corporation.
The WHOOP Strap 3.0 has been the subject of a study conducted by the University of Arizona to determine the accuracy of its measurement of respiratory rates during sleep. That study showed it to be among the most accurate measurement tools for respiratory rate short of invasive procedures
Among WHOOP's customers are Penn State Football, Duke Men's Basketball, Major League Baseball, and the National Football League Players Association. [1] [undefined]
Advisors
WHOOP's Board of Advisors includes Yale University Professor Nicholas Christakis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor and MIT Media Lab Founder Nicholas Negroponte, and Wolfram Alpha Creator Stephen Wolfram. [1]
Funding
Since its founding, WHOOP has raised USD 49.8 million over a series of five funding rounds. Investors include the National Football League Players Association, Golden State Warriors Small Forward Kevin Durant, former NBA Commissioner David Stern, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, Two Sigma Ventures, Los Angeles Chargers Offensive Tackle Russell Okung, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor and MIT Media Lab Founder Nicholas Negroponte, and Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz. [undefined] [undefined]
A study conducted by the Central Queensland University in Australia will use data collected by WHOOP’s hardware from hundreds of volunteers who have self-identified as having contracted COVID-19 to study changes in their respiratory behavior over time.The data used has been collected from WHOOP’s 3.0 hardware.
The results of the study at the University of Arizona has led researchers to hypothesize that it could be valuable as a sort of early-warning system for detecting signs of abnormal respiratory behavior in COVID-19 patients.
WHOOP says that the respiratory rates it reports very rarely deviate from their established individual baseline, and that when it does so, it’s usually due to either one of two causes: environmental factors (unusually high temperatures or significant differences in oxygen concentration,) or something happening within the body (like a lower respiratory tract infection.)
COVID-19 is specifically a lower respiratory tract infection, meaning there’s a strong correlation between rate changes due to lower respiratory tract issues not accounted by environmental problems and the virus. The Strap is designed to be wearable and looks for deviations as a sign of distress, among the other sings it monitors. It could notice changes to respiratory rates in relation to the baseline before an individual becomes aware of any problems themselves.
WHOOP says it is scheduled to take around six weeks, and there are “several hundred self-reported cases” present in the app from which it will begin, aiming to enroll at least 500 people who’ve contracted the virus.
Additionally, there are other ongoing investigations to see if other wearable human performance technology can provide early warning systems for potential COVID-19 cases.
See Also
Human performance technology