MGMT Boston - W4, Q1 25 - WHOOP / Two Lanterns & Make Hay
WHOOP / Boston Startup Database / Two Lanterns & Make Hay on The Lantern
Welcome to MGMT Boston where we try to help 1,100+ of you manage your awareness of top Boston startups and local up & coming operators putting in the work. Glad to have you here!
TLDR:
WHOOP - a late stage consumer technology startup on a mission to unlock human performance, revolutionizing how people better understand their bodies
Thanks to WHOOP for putting out some great updates in 2024
Boston Startup Database - 543 local venture backed startups powered by RevenueBase
John Harthorne, Founder & Managing Director at Two Lanterns - an early stage software investor shares that it’s all about the team
Thanks to Brendan O’Neil at Robin for the intro
Scott Nelson, Co-Founder & CEO, Make Hay - consumers want to know where there food comes from, farmers need help, and brands need engaging content
Thanks to Drew Condon at BlueTrace for the intro
Other Resources:
MGMT Boston Operators Club - a community and opportunity engine for 100+ Boston based up & coming venture backed operators
2025 Boston Tech Big Board - 2025 Startup Directory (NEW) + Startups to Watch
Powered by RevenueBase
Trusted Partners - top local partners we’ve worked with directly at MGMT Boston or would trust with our own resources
The Endeca Effect: Overview / Markets / People / Products / Conclusion / Bonus - Steve Papa Alumni Learnings
Q1 Highlighted Startups: Cimulate, Connective Health
Q1 Highlighted Operators: Jeremy Aubin / TireTutor, Evan Klein / Benevity
2023 1H Recap / 2023 2H Recap / 2024 1H Recap / 2024 2H Recap
NEW: Boston Startup Database
One of the biggest challenges over the past year (+) has been trying to build a comprehensive startup database of local venture backed startups. Thanks to RevenueBase, we’ve got a pretty awesome first draft!
We’re just scratching the surface. There are a LOT more insights to come!
RevenueBase has 150M+ global B2B contacts, 13M+ global companies, and 95% e-mail deliverability. Do you want contact level data to go along with this slick RevenueBase powered company database? Reach out to their team. Thanks Mark Feldman!
WHOOP
Founders: Will Ahmed, John Capodilupo, Aurelian Nicolae
Founding: 2012
Mission: Unlock human performance
Employees: 660 (U.S.) & ~65% Local
Workplace: Hybrid
Stage & Capital Raised: Series F & $400M+ raised
Investors: SoftBank, IVP, Cavu Ventures, Thursday Ventures, GP Bullhound, Accomplice, NextView Ventures, and Animal Capital
Key Customers: Cristiano Ronaldo, Alex Morgan, Rory McIlroy, LeBron James, Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and tens of thousands more
Glassdoor Rating: 4.1
Valuation (estimated): $3B+ (announced a $3.6B valuation in the $200M Series F fundraise)
^ this is a useless number from MGMT Boston. There is no tangible valuation until the business is sold or goes public. Don’t forget it!
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: I didn’t talk to anyone at WHOOP for this profile. Yes, I know a few people over there. No, I didn’t want to put any of them in an uncomfortable position so this is all me & my own research, commentary & extrapolations based on publicly available info. They’re busy with Cristiano!
WHOOP is on a mission to unlock human performance, revolutionizing how people better understand their bodies. This late stage consumer tech company, located just over the Green Monster in Kenmore Square, is a global leader ushering in a new generation of AI driven technology for the human body.
What should you know about WHOOP?
WHOOP is growing up
This is an AI, data & research company
International expansion is a key strategy in the coming years
If you believe that health is wealth, you should believe in WHOOP. Here are ten things to know about WHOOP and shout out to Will Ahmed for surviving the earthquake this week. What can’t they endure over there??
Origins in Athletic Training - Co-Founder Will Ahmed was a Harvard athlete who wanted to know how training was impacting his body from sleep to training to recovery. After reading hundreds of medical papers, his research led him to believe that monitoring key biometrics like heart rate and heart rate variability 24/7 did more than just help with training - these metrics could also make athletes feel better, perform better, and live better. He teamed up with John Capodilupo and Aurelian Nicolae in 2012 to bring this vision to life backed by Accomplice, Founder Collective, NextView & others
New Product Coming Soon? - WHOOP released their first wearable, the WHOOP 1.0, in 2015. 2.0 followed in 2016, 3.0 in 2018, and 4.0 in 2021. If we are to infer future timelines around historical product development lifecycles, we could be seeing 5.0 pretty soon..
Software Enabled Evolution - In 2018 the company transitioned from a $500 consumer hardware product to a subscription based model, changing the economics and incentives of the business to become a hardware enabled software company
Secular Growth in Consumer Wearables - Over the last decade, WHOOP and the consumer wearables market have grown rapidly. In 2024, wearables revenues hit $125B and are on track to more than double by 2030 (src). WHOOP (although not publicly reported) likely has north of 100,000 subscribers paying $200+/year as it expands to use cases outside of high performance athletics
Hub & Spoke Distribution Model - The company sells a single flagship hardware device (with 70,000+ customizable color & material combinations) alongside an array of software & data products including WHOOP Coach & WHOOP Labs
WHOOP Coach (launched in Q4 ‘23) acts like a search engine for your body, using OpenAI’s most advanced generative AI tools to generate highly personalized, highly specific recommendations and guidance
WHOOP Labs has an on site research facility in Boston and conducts research digitally through member devices. They’ve published novel research about women’s reproductive health and have even laid the groundwork to help estimate labor timelines based on HRV (heart rate variability)
WHOOP is AI Driven - Their team is partnering with OpenAI to drive adoption of LLMs internally, educate & empower employees, and scale knowledge sharing across the company
Less than 30 days into full deployment, 100,000+ messages were exchanged within their Enterprise platform
50+ internal GPTs have been built to help functional teams
An AI Steering Committee was created to drive overall AI strategy & roadmapping
A 25 member AI Guild was spun up to help teams build GPTs, create a library of L&D AI resources, hold office hours, run events, and more in the coming quarters
2024 Features Round Up - In December they announced their top features released in 2024. Highlights include tracking Body Composition and Weight change, Heart Rate Zones, Pregnancy Insights, Strength Trainer, Journaling, and more personalization features
The Executive Team is Growing - Garrett Bastable recently joined as COO to kick off 2025. Ed Baker joined in 2023 as Chief Product Officer after his startup, AnyQuestion, was acquired. Longtime Marketing leader John Sullivan was promoted to CMO in February 2024 and Michener Chandlee joined as CFO in Oct ‘23 to bring more expertise to the C-Suite
International Growth in Focus - In Q4 2024 WHOOP announced a partnership with Flipkart to bring WHOOP to Indian consumers and are now selling into 56 international markets
International Ambassadorship(s) - Cristiano Ronaldo was announced as a new investor and partner in 2024 to help further elevate WHOOP’s brand and start a new chapter in the Middle East, coinciding with WHOOP availability in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain
Operators to Know (Locally):
Radha Bennett, VP. Business Development
Amit Bhatt, VP Finance
Vivian Cantu, Tech Lead, AI
Ellen Cizek, Director of Strategic Marketing Initiatives
Alexi Coffey, VP Product
Ryan Durkin, VP of Growth
Elliot Franford, Director of Software
Nate Giacalone, VP of Product, Growth
Hilary Gridley, Director of Product Management
Kellin Haley, Group Product Manager, Growth
Jordan Halteman, Director, Manufacturing Engineering
Alex Hammerman, Sr. Hardware Engineering Program Management
Ingrid Hartman, Group Product Manager
Kristen Holmes, Global Head of Performance, Principal Scientist
Jonathan Jeffrey, Chief of Staff
Reha Jhunjhunwala, Director, Clinical
Anahis Kechejian, Tech Lead, Mechanical Engineering
Matt Luizzi, Director of Business Analytics
Brian Manning, Staff Tech Lead
Charlie Pino, Head of UX
Taylor Raftery, Director of Product Marketing
Henry Regan, Director of Media
Ian Richardson, Research Manager WHOOP Labs
Elizabeth Schanne, Head of Hardware Program Management
My investigative powers continue to need work so apologies to the WHOOP team I know I missed many *excellent* up & coming operators internally
Key Roles To Be Hired:
If I were interviewing here are some questions I’d ask:
What are the key 2025 initiatives across the company, departments, and functional teams?
How does AI transform WHOOP’s opportunity?
What are the biggest challenges as you scale the team internationally?
What are the most important roles you’ll be looking to add in 2025 // teams that need the most help?
We’re optimizing for readability here so to learn more about WHOOP you’ll have to D.Y.O.R. I’m excited to watch this team unlock human performance in the AI age. All competitors applaud your efforts. See you around town!
John Harthorne, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Two Lanterns VC
John shares insights on building a venture capital firm during one of the best times to be an investor in software, startups are ALL about the team, and Two Lanterns is on the hunt for the next generation of great founders:
Scott Nelson, Co-Founder & CEO, Make Hay
Scott comes on The Lantern to tell us how consumers want more insights into where their food comes from, farmers want to tell their stories, and brands need engaging content to better market their products & services. Make Hay is building a bridge to cross the divide!
Any feedback for me? One thing you liked? One thing you didn’t? Local startups or operators to highlight? Just reply to this e-mail!
See you next week!
-Matt