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WHOOP founder Will Ahmed on how a desire to avoid overtraining turned into a $10 billion company

Wearable devices manufactured by WHOOP can be used to track sleep. (Emilie Megnien/AP)
Emilie Megnien/AP
Wearable devices manufactured by WHOOP can be used to track sleep. (Emilie Megnien/AP)

As the team captain of the Harvard squash team, Will Ahmed found himself constantly overtraining. To solve that problem, he came up with an idea for a device that would measure your body for physiological recovery and sleep to help avoid overtraining and injury.

Thus, WHOOP was born: a fitness-tracking, screenless, wearable band, worn by several professional athletes — including LeBron James and Michael Phelps.

Will Ahmed sat down with WBUR Morning Edition host Tiziana Dearing as part of The WBUR Breakfast Club.

They discussed the inspiration for WHOOP and how it grew from an experiment in the Harvard Innovation Lab into a $10 billion company.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR

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