Will Ahmed was a 22-year-old Harvard squash player obsessed with a problem. He needed to know if his training was actually working. That obsession met with years of rejection from investors and potential hires became Whoop. Today, over 2.5 million people wear his company’s bracelet. His journey from cold calls to Time’s 100 Most Influential People in Sports is a masterclass in focused innovation and human-centered leadership. It also offers a crucial lens on technology’s next frontier.
When Ahmed first sketched his business plan at MIT, his target market was microscopic. He aimed for 10,000 professional athletes. “You can’t have a much smaller market than that,” he told students at a recent Northeastern University fireside chat. This wasn’t a limitation. It was a strategy. By solving a complex problem for the most demanding users, he built a product with undeniable credibility. The data had to be flawless for elite athletes. That foundation made expansion possible. For any founder, the lesson is seductive in its simplicity. Start small, solve deeply, and scale from a position of strength.
This philosophy permeates his leadership. Ahmed frames his role not as a visionary barking orders but as a servant to his team’s needs. “When you take an approach of thinking that challenges are going to bring out the best in you, you’re going to overcome these things,” he explained. For him, leadership is an exercise in getting out of his own head. Fourth-year student Ethan Menezes noted this humility paired with high intensity was his key takeaway. It’s a potent combination. The leader sets the extreme standard, then clears the path for others to meet it.
That human focus becomes most relevant when discussing the industry’s biggest disruptor. AI is rapidly transforming healthcare, from diagnostics to personalized treatment plans. A 2023 report in Nature Medicine highlighted AI’s growing role in predictive analytics, a core function of devices like Whoop. Yet Ahmed sees a counter-trend emerging. “As the world gets more artificial, there will be a strong movement toward being real,” he predicted. The data is meaningless without the human context to interpret it. The algorithm might flag an elevated resting heart rate, but was it due to stress, an impending illness, or a great workout? The technology informs, but the human decides.
This sentiment resonated with the students. Rae Yang, a computer science and music major, appreciated this nuanced stance. “Sometimes hearing big founders talk about AI, they can be a little out of touch,” she shared. “It was really nice to hear the point about people wanting to connect.” In an industry racing to automate, Ahmed’s vision insists on augmentation, not replacement. The wearable collects the biometrics. The AI spots the patterns. But the human experience—the coach’s intuition, the individual’s feeling—remains the final piece of the puzzle.
Whoop’s own growth hints at this balance. The company has hired over 500 co-op students from Northeastern in the past decade, with 262 since 2024 alone. This pipeline isn’t just about recruitment. It’s a direct infusion of fresh, human perspective into the company’s engine. The co-op model embodies a core truth. Technology companies are built by people, for people. The most sophisticated AI model still requires curious minds to guide its development and interpret its outputs.
| Year | Co-op Students Hired |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 50 |
| 2015 | 60 |
| 2016 | 70 |
| 2017 | 80 |
| 2018 | 90 |
| 2024 | 262 |
The road ahead for health tech is not a choice between silicon and soul. It’s the integration of both. Ahmed’s leadership forged in early rejection and refined by serving a niche points the way. Build technology with a specific, demanding human problem at the center. Lead by enabling the people who build it. And view every algorithm, every data point, as a tool to enhance human understanding, not replace it. The wrist may be where the hardware lives, but the value is created in the loop between the data, the intelligence, and the person trying to live better.
