WHOOP Podcast - Introducing WHOOP Strap 3.0 featuring WHOOP Live

Episode Date: May 22, 2019

WHOOP Strap 3.0 ft. WHOOP Live is now available! Will Ahmed and Robert Moeller discuss everything that's new with the 3.0 (2:12), including 5-day battery life (3:47), the ProKnit band (5:05), Bluetooth Low Energy compatibility (8:01), the Strain Coach (9:21), WHOOP Snap+ (14:20), heart rate broadcasting (17:48), how WHOOP Live features are enabled (19:12), what the 3.0 costs (20:24) and how current members can upgrade (20:57).Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

We discovered that there were secrets that your body was trying to tell you that could really help you optimize performance, but no one could monitor those things. And that's when we set out to build the technology that we thought could really change the world. Welcome to the WOOP podcast. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of WOOP, where we are on a mission to unlock human performance. At WOOP, we measure the body 24-7 and provide analytics to our members to help improve performance. This includes strain, recovery, and sleep. Our clients range for the best professional athletes in the world, to Navy SEALs, to fitness enthusiasts, to Fortune 500 CEOs and executives.

The common thread among WOOP members is a passion to improve. What does it take to optimize performance for athletes, for humans, really anyone? We're launching a podcast to dig deeper. We'll interview experts and industry leaders across sports, data, technology, physiology, athletic achievement, you name it. My hope is that you'll leave these conversations with some new ideas and a greater passion for performance. With that in mind, I welcome you to the Whoop podcast.

I know everyone here at Whoops work tirelessly to get this out, door. And, you know, we take our product very seriously. We want to make sure that when we release something new, it's awesome. And, uh, and people can really get value out of it. So I can't wait to see what, what the whoop community does with whoop strap 3.0. And more than anything, I'm proud of this team and our community. What's up, everyone? Welcome to the whoop podcast. My name is Robert Mueller. And for you diehard listeners out there, you may remember my voice from episode seven. That was our conversation between Will and I. Today, we're going to be talking about Woop Strap 3.0.

And of course, my guest is none other than Will Ahmed, CEO and founder of Woop. Will, what's going on? What's up, man? Fliping the script. So I'm super excited because we have just launched the Woop Strap 3.0, and I know today we're going to be talking about an overview and then digging deep into the features that are going to be coming out. Can we jump into this? So, I mean, as you know, the team's been hard at work. We're really proud that we'd launched Woopstrap 3.0, which features Woop Live, which is a suite of new features really

to improve performance of your overall experience on WOOP. The Woopstrap 3.0, it's got a five-day battery life. It's got a new pro-knit band, which is a super well-engineered band that we've spent over two years developing. We'll talk about that. And it's now Bluetooth low energy compatible, which allows you to pair it to all sorts of different products. The Woopstrap 3.0 also enables whoop live, which is this suite of features. One of the features is the strain coach, so that's actually going to allow you to see strain building in real time to be coached as to whether you should push more or take on less strain in real time. The whoop snap plus, which is a continuation of our whoop snap feature, you're going to be able to watch yourself

with real-time data, overlaid with video. It's really cool. We've been doing it in the office. And then lastly, Heart Raid Broadcast. So that's going to allow you to connect your whoopstrap to third-party apps and devices. Right. And actually see data in real time. So overall, really proud of the team, really proud of the product that we've launched. And, you know, I hope everyone really loves it. Yeah, well, there's a bunch of features in the suite that you just talked about.

And I definitely want to dig into. So the first thing I'm going to talk about is the battery life. The battery life is something that has been improved dramatically. dramatically. And you said it's going to last five days? Yeah, you know, our current Gen 2 on the market, that had about a two-day battery life in some cases a little less. So this is about two and a half times longer. And really, it's a breakthrough in algorithms. You know, there's a direct trade-off between accuracy, battery life, and the amount of data that you collect. Okay. And we've been able to maintain that accuracy, actually improve it

slightly with Generation 3, while massively boosting our battery life. Battery life was something that our users, some of which complained about. And it was something that we wanted to improve. We want you to wear the whoop strap 24-7. And so we really set out for a number of years to improve it. So with all the data that we were able to collect in the past, you guys were able to come in, make the battery last longer, and improve the algorithm all at the same time.

Yeah, I mean, it's a real breakthrough from a signal processing standpoint. I think it puts our hardware well ahead of everything else on the market now as a result because it's not just accurate, but it's super efficient. And it should really improve everyone's experience with the product. Nice. And you mentioned the band. And I know we've had different bands that have come out, the Technico and the Churchill and all these different things. But I can tell you that the pro-knit band is the best band that I've ever had on.

my wrist. It's like I'm wearing cloud. And I have to dig into this because I know all the whoop listeners are going to be super excited when we talk about this. But tell me about the pro nip band because this is by far, you know, I would call this our Renaissance band and I'm super excited for it. Well, I don't think you're overselling the pro net band. I think that it really is a breakthrough from a fabric engineering standpoint. You know, the challenge with any band is that it has to adapt to a ton of different activities and a ton of different lifestyles. And, you know, we have very active users. And, you know, and we have very active users. And, you know, and And we've found that some of our bands have performed well for some activities, but not for others.

And so we wanted the out-of-the-box band to be world-class and to be something that would really adapt to anyone's lifestyle well. And I think the pro-knit band fits the bill. What's unique about it and innovative about it is we've actually created layers of material. So the top layer got the right degree of stretchiness and firmness. In the past, that's been something that we've wrestled with where some bands were very firm, like the Truman or the line. light wave and some bands were stretchy like the technica right right this is right in the middle and i think it's the right balance on top of that we've added these high tenacity filaments that that actually form an active layer between the band and the surface of your skin and what that's going to do

is it's going to allow you to absorb sweat or water and have it you know effectively displaced pressure to improve comfort i mean it's it's really a fascinating concept when you get into the weeds of how all these different fabrics work. And then on top of that, we've even added an internal rubber layer just on the very top, maybe eighth of the band that helps connect the top of the band to your sensor. So that in turn makes sure there's no slippage when your band's doing something active. Well, that's what I was going to say because I've had a lot of the bands. I think I've worn all of them.

Yeah, you're a good critic. And I have not adjusted this band at all. It doesn't move. It doesn't move at all. And that's what I love about this band, because I can swim in it with it in the morning. I can live with it during the day. I don't even know it's there where I think some of the other bands you had to at least adjust throughout the day. I don't touch this thing at all. Yeah, no, look, it's amazing. Our design team did a phenomenal job. It comes in three new colors, including onyx, carbide, and Arctic. So you've got a black, a blue, or a white to choose from. I think they're all pretty hot. And they also have corresponding clasps with the colors to match. It's going to look good on the street. Yeah, it's going to look awesome. So, you know, now we covered the pro-knit band, I definitely want to dig into the Bluetooth low energy.

Well, I think Bluetooth low energy is the most sophisticated Bluetooth protocol. You know, historically, we used Bluetooth Classic in the Woopstrap 2.0, and that had specific advantages at the time related to action. And we wanted to find a way to use Bluetooth low energy, but maintain the same accuracy. That goes back to the algorithm breakthrough that I mentioned earlier. Right. So what's nice about having Bluetooth low energy in your whoop strap is it's going to improve the connectivity to your iPhone or your Android phone for one. And then it's also now enabling the heart rate broadcast feature, which is going to allow the whoopstrap to communicate to other products. And I know we'll touch on that.

We'll talk about that here in a little bit. I definitely want to talk about size. We're talking about all these whizbang things here, but how big is this 3.0? Well, I think the amazing thing is that we've done all this development and increased the battery life 2.5x, but we've kept whooping the same exact form factor. So the overall footprint that is on your wrist or you can wear in other areas of the arm is still the same size. And that has some advantages too. So if you've stocked up on bands over the course of the last 12 months. Your bands will also now work with Gen 3. Right. What about Whoop Live? I know Whoop Live is something that everybody has been excited about. We've been using it here in the office.

Can you kind of dig a little bit deeper? Especially, let's start with the Strain Coach, because the Strain Coach, I see such a big advantage to, you know, and I think that the community is going to go crazy when they realize what they can do with it. Yeah, this future was pretty close to home for me because I know I've spoken to so many whoop users and athletes, and they say, to me, you know, based on my recovery, what should I do? Right. And that was really the mindset going into designing the strain coach is how do we coach someone to take on the right strain for the status of their body?

And then how can they actually get feedback in real time that they're doing the right thing? Right. And so the amazing thing about the strain coach is at any point you'll be able to go into the menu and you'll be able to pull it up. And based on your recovery and based on the strain that you've already accumulated, it's going to tell you how much more strain you should put on your body to be optimal. And you can set your own goals or you can listen to the whoop coach. And then when you start an activity in real time, you'll be able to see, am I building the right amount of strain?

Have I met the right amount of strain? Should I stop? Or, you know, do I need to keep going? Right. So from that standpoint, I've found it to be super interactive. If you're looking for a kick in the pants, it can be motivational because, like, you know, it'll show you you haven't met your goal. And on the flip side, if you're someone who, like me when I was a college athlete, like, likes to overdo it, it'll hold you back. Right.

You know, if you need to taper and you need a lower strain today, it'll hold you back. If your body's run down and you really shouldn't crush that workout, it'll hold you back. And so I think the strain coach creates a lot of accountability, and I think it's going to be a feature people love. Yeah, I get a lot of questions around when they wake up or when a user wakes up and they're in the red. And that's to say they're 23% and they're in the red. The question I get all the time is, should I just skip the workout? Because I don't know what I should do in order to benefit for me waking up in the red, meaning I don't have that strain coach.

And I think now when guys or girls wake up in the red, they're able to use that strain coach, utilize it so they don't overtrain, and so they're staying away from injury. I think that's going to be massive. Yeah, we've been joking about it in the office because for some people, it's been holding them back and for other people it's like they're finally going hitting the treadmill after the light weight lifting workout they just did

right no yeah I think it's going to be a game changer for a lot of our users because it's going to be that much more I mean it really is it's going to be like having another coach I think is a great point like if you go in the app today you see that there's a weekly performance assessment that balances

your strain and your recovery right and it's looking at over the course of a week were you training in an level or even were you living in an optimal level? You know, we have a lot of users who just take on stress because that's their life. And I think what's powerful about the strain coach is it'll guide you every day to be in that optimal range. Right. And then at the end of the week, you know, you'll be able to reflect on Monday morning, according to the weekly performance assessment, how well did I listen to the strain coach?

So that balance between the strain coach, the sleep coach, and the weekly performance assessment, we're really designing that. to try to balance your life. It's been pretty phenomenal. I've noticed just personally using it that my optimal range has gotten more dialed in because, you know, I can ask the strain coach, hey, should I do more or do less? Right. And it's a little bit less of a guessing game. You know, before, when you would work out, you'd look back afterwards and be like,

oh, that was a 12 or, oh, that was a 15 or, wow, that was a 17. Right, right. So now you're more proactive about it because you'll, know, oh, I'm out of 13. Should I keep going? Sure. Or should I stop? Right. I think that's going to help with not overdoing it week over week because like you said, a lot of people do live in that high stress environment and they just don't know what to do at the end of the day or the beginning of the day when it comes to their workouts and not just workouts, but just to live that overall better holistic lifestyle. And the point I'll add is that we designed it not just for athletes in

mind. Like this is really a feature that I think everyone can benefit from. Absolutely. Because, you know, if you're someone who's trying to get back in the shape or you're someone who's dealing with a lot of stress in your life, you need to find that balance of pushing your body but not overdoing it. And this feature is actually going to hold people back and make them more accountable.

And I think you'll realize that consistency every day becomes the important thing. It's not just one big workout or big stressful day and then nothing, right? Right. Yeah, I think that's huge. I definitely think that's huge for all of our users from, you know, military to

to pro athletes and everybody in between, I think it's going to be a game changer, and I think it's going to be massive for injury prevention and longevity. What about whoop snap plus? So whoop snap plus is a continuation of our whoop snap feature, and for all members now, you'll notice the whoop snap functionality has been upgraded.

So instead of just taking pictures with whoop data on top of it, you'll now be able to record a video that will still have your static day strain or your static recovery or your static recovery. Right. or your static sleep. So that's something that was requested, and it should make the whoop snap basic functionality more enhanced.

Woop snap plus is actually going to allow you to stream whoop data on top of video. And I think there's going to be really two ways that people use this. So the first is fun and cool where you're creating a video of yourself, busting ass in the gym, and your heart rate's jacked, and you're doing something cool, You see the strain building and your calories building and you create a short video and you can share it with your friends or you can share it with the world. The second is actually going to be using it for coaching purposes, right? Where you can look at in real time, how is your body responding to whatever you're putting it through?

So in the sports setting, that can be actually understanding technique or strategy alongside your body. You know, you think about the NBA playoffs are going on right now, right? there's all these conversations around minutes and whether the players are being pushed too hard, right? And if you actually were using the whoopsnap plus during a game, you'd be able to tell, hey, how's this player responding to the amount of strain that they're putting on their body alongside their form? So you could take a video of an athlete doing that jump shot and see where their heart rate is and their strain is. And maybe you realize, okay, their shots start to keep coming up short when their strain hits a certain level. You can picture the same thing in baseball with pitches, right?

So it's really interesting. I think a lot of endurance athletes will see value in it too because it'll show them when their forms breaking down. Definitely technical athletes. So for me, in playing squash, you know, I've now been watching videos of myself with this data overlaid and I realize, okay, in the third, fourth, fifth games, how's my body responding to certain points? When should I have taken a longer rest, right?

So it makes a video so much more dynamic and interesting. Yeah, I think with that feature, when you go into a training session and you have the ability to record what you're doing and then you're able to compare that same. So let's just say for me running endurance, if I'm doing a 10-mileer and I'm doing the same course, I can take that video with my strain building over that 10-mile period or whatever I'm looking at and compare it to a month later or two months later and bring them together and see where I am physiologically using the whoopsnap plus. Yeah, and I'll go a step further. Like if you had a running coach looking at your form during it, you know, he or she might be able to give you feedback on how is your form relative to, to the strain relative to the pace.

So it's a feature that I think can be really playful and really silly. I think it's also a feature that can be something that really is for hardcore coaching. And I'm mostly excited to see how the WOOP population uses it. Yeah, I can't imagine what people are going to do, but I think it's going to be fun. It's going to be cool to see and see how people are using it for sure. So with the WOOPstrap 3.0, you mentioned that the HR broadcast feature is able to now connect to different type of devices. Can you expand and let us know what it can connect to? The heart rate broadcast feature is now going to allow you to connect your whoop strap 3.0 to other devices, other

software. That's going to include Peloton, Concept 2 Ergs, Wahoo Bike Computers, and then a lot of products that you'll find in your favorite gym, you know, so a lot of the treadmills, the exercise bikes, the rowing machines, those are Bluetooth, low-energy heart rate profile compatible, and that means that you'll be able to turn on the heart rate broadcast and pair. Beyond these devices, WOOP broadcast is also going to allow you to connect other apps. So let's say you like to use Strava to track your runs and your cycling. You'll now be able to see your heart rate in the Strava app by just enabling this heart rate broadcast feature within the Woop app.

Yeah. So I'm really excited. about this because, you know, when I'm running, I'm always pulling my phone out and looking at the app because I wasn't able to connect to my watch in the past. Sure. But now I can just look down and see exactly when I'm doing that heart rate zone training, whether I'm on the skier or whether I'm running on, you know, on the road. Yeah, and even if you're just in a gym and, like, all of a sudden you jump on a treadmill,

you'll just be able to see your heart rate right there. You don't necessarily have to have your phone with you. Yeah. So, Will, did the new whoop live features work with the whoop strap 2.0? The whoop live features do not work. with whoop strap 2.0. Now, we will continue to upgrade features for our entire population,

both Woopstrap 2.0 and Woopstrap 3.0. We will continue to support Woopstrap 2.0. However, those features are just enabled by the fact that Woop 3.0 has new guts, right? Heart rate broadcast, real-time data, real-time strain. Those things are enabled by the technology that's in the Woopstrap 3.0. However, there's still, you know,

there's still plenty of things in the roadmap from a software standpoint, analytics standpoint, that we'll be doing for 2.0. It's just that these features specifically work with 3.0. Yeah. And what about the WOOP 2.0 users? Are they able to buy a ProNet band? So today, the pro net only comes with a Woop Strap 3.0. We're working to improve our inventory on the pro net,

but today it only comes with the Woop Strap 3.0. Okay. Now, the good news is if you've got a bunch of bands on your, gen 2, you'll be able to wear those with your gen 3. Does it cost more than before? So the exciting thing about whoop strap 3.0, and I think it's what's cool about the way we approach our business model today, is that, again, joining whoop, you get your Woopstrap 3.0 for free.

We haven't changed anything about membership pricing. You just now, when you join, you get an upgraded hardware that is much more advanced. If you're thinking about joining Woop, you can join today. for as low as $30 to start. You pay $30 and we send you a brand new hardware and you're off for the races. Now, I also want to be mindful of our existing users, right? So we've created what I think is a pretty awesome upgrade profile. For a lot of our WOOP members, if you're out of contract and you're just paying $30 a month,

you'll literally get a Woop Strap 3.0 for free. You just commit to a new membership, a number of months over time, and you could pay as little as $0.00. and get this thing in the mail. And can current WOOP members actually do that through the app? Yeah, it's all done through the app. I think a lot of your profile information is already in there, so that should make it easier.

And we wanted to make the experience pretty simple. Yeah. I'm sure people are dying to know how fast is this going to ship? So we're fulfilling orders right now based on demand. You know, initial quantities are limited, so there is some degree of you buy first, you get first. And that's going to keep updating on the website. Okay.

So, Will, before we wrap things up, if the current listeners or users want to learn more about the Woopstrap 3.0, what can they do? Yeah, I mean, all of the new assets are at Woop.com. You can go to Woop.com and check it out. If you're an existing member, I would encourage you just to go into the Woop app and look at the upgrade. That should be right there in the menu, and it'll walk you through a lot of the new features and the new product.

And beyond that, you know, our membership services team is there and waiting to help. You know, I think that's part of what it means to be part of a club. You've got to get good customer support. And hopefully our team's there to support that. So it's not very often, well, that you're on this side of the mic and I'm controlling the podcast. So before we get out of here, you're able to tell the WOOP community and the WOOP user community that's listening to the podcast, anything. And I know that everybody here at WOOP is extremely proud of the launch of the WOOP 3.0. And what would you like to say to the community before we get out of here?

Well, thank you for supporting us this far. And hopefully you see a lot of your feedback in this new version, in these new features. I know everyone here at Whoop's worked tirelessly to get this out the door. And, you know, we take our product very seriously. We want to make sure that when we release something new, it's awesome. And people can really get value out of it. So I can't wait to see what the Whoop community does with Whoop Strap 3.0. and more than anything, I'm proud of this team and our community.

Yeah, for sure. Well, I appreciate the time. Like always, it's always good to talk to you, and I'm sure we'll be talking soon. Thanks, man. Thanks to Robert for coming on the show and hosting this special Woopstrap 3.0 episode with me. If you're not already a Woop member,

you can join our community for as low as $30 to begin. We provide you with 24-7 access to your biometric data, as well as analytics across strain, sleep, recovery, heart rate variability, and more. The membership comes with a free Woopstrap 3.0. We offer 6, 12, and 18-month memberships. The more you sign up for, the more you save. If you enter the code Will Ahmed at checkout, that's W-I-L-L-A-H-M-E-D, will give you $30 off a membership, just for listening to this podcast.

For our European customers, the code is Will Ahmed E.U. And that'll give you 30 euros off when you join. And for our current members, you can upgrade to the Woopstrap 3.0 and get access to all the new Woop Live features by following the link in your Woop app. If you're out of contract, you'll literally get the 3.0 for free when you commit to another six months. Check out Woop.com slash The Locker for show notes and more, including links to relevant topics from this conversation and others. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review the Whoop podcast on iTunes,

Google, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. We'd love to hear your feedback. You can find me online at Will Ahmed. I try to respond to everyone who reaches out. And you can also follow at Whoop on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can email The Locker at Whoop.com with any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions you may have. Thank you again to all our last. listeners to all our WOOP members. We love you.