The opinions expressed by Entrepreneur authors are their very own.
When Will Ahmed founded the wearable technology company WHOOP, the odds weren’t in his favor. Iconic company Nike has just entered the space with its own wearable product, the FuelBand. How could Ahmed’s startup compete with an international powerhouse whose name literally comes from the Greek goddess of victory?
It seems quite well. Nike discontinued FuelBand in 2014, and WHOOP became a $4 billion company. How did Ahmed beat the hype – not to mention other competitors in the space like Microsoft, Google, Fitbit and Jawbone? He attributes his success to a combination of a well-defined strategy and a healthy dose of naivety.
“I had an idea for a product that I thought should exist in the world. And it didn’t make sense to me why this product wasn’t available. I thought he should be there,” he said on my podcast One day with Jon Bier.
Here are the 4 most important takeaways from our full of life conversation.
Learn from the greats
Ironically, Ahmed’s strategy for WHOOP took a page out of Nike’s old playbook. Back in the days of Air Jordans and “Bo Knows,” Nike was “deeply obsessed with creating a shoe that could help athletes run faster,” Ahmed recalled. However, Nike didn’t apply the same strategy to the FuelBand, which it launched without consulting athletes.
(*4*) he says. They just skipped this whole step… They didn’t validate it with their athletes.”
Conversely, Ahmed conducted extensive market research before launching the product, which gave him an edge over his competitors.
Make technology your servant, not your master
Sometimes you wish a product that whispers, not screams. Ahmed rejects the concept that wearables ought to be constant companions, all the time vying for our attention.
“Technology should enhance life, not disrupt it,” he says.
Therefore, WHOOP silently collects data without requiring constant user involvement.
“We wanted to gather this information in the background and then say the right things at the right times,” he says. “There’s a principle behind it, which is to let the product fade into the background on your behalf.”
Don’t be afraid of failure, but don’t idealize it either
Ahmed believes that the fear of failure has killed many great ideas before they will change into reality. However, he also believes that in today’s technological culture, “failure is idealized as the appropriate end state. There are a lot of strange phrases in the tech industry like ‘test, iterate, fail’.”
Instead of focusing on our failures, he says we should celebrate our successes.
While building WHOOP, there were many moments when we were close to failure, and to overcome these moments required a deep level of focus, coping with pain and overcoming stress,” recalls Ahmed. “I have a lot of pride in that. I feel a connection to my younger self and the team around me who were able to weather the darkness when the company almost went under.”
Choose gratitude
Ahmed says many entrepreneurs chase dopamine by setting goals and achieving them. The problem is that success is never pretty much as good as we think it is, so we keep moving the goalposts until we not feel true happiness.
His solution is to inject gratitude into your life.
“I know it sounds weird to some, but gratitude releases serotonin. It’s another way to feel happy,” he says. “Gratitude is appreciating where you are and the team you are on, and that is the kind of happiness that brings to a hard-working entrepreneur.”
How does he practice gratitude? “I meditate first thing in the morning and as part of that, I actively think about things I am grateful for,” he says. “I also keep a journal where I write down three things I am grateful for.”
It could possibly be so simple as your morning cup of coffee, a loving look from your wife, or perhaps even beating Nike in 2014.