Specialist
Former divisional leader at Whoop Inc
Agenda
- Healthcare wearable device market trends and developments, including market demand growth
- Whoop’s differentiation across modalities, pricing, commercialisation and innovation
- Competitive positioning vs Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN) and others
- Top-line revenue streams – Whoop’s subscription base model and impact of acquisition of Push
- Exit strategy and future growth initiatives, including international expansion and series F SoftBank (TYO: 9984) money allocation
Questions
1.
What major trends or developments have you been following in the healthcare wearable device market over the past 12 months?
2.
How do you assess the demand uptick for health-specific wearable devices? Could you quantify the TAM for a company such as Whoop?
3.
How do you assess the wearable devices regulatory landscape? Is there any risk of regulatory scrutiny from the FDA around patient data collection, given the capabilities of devices such as a Whoop, an Apple Watch or a Fitbit to collect sensitive information?
4.
Could you outline Whoop’s revenue model and subscription pricing dynamics? How much leverage does Whoop have to raise subscription prices over time?
5.
To what extent can Whoop leverage more discriminate pricing models to expand its user base and maximise revenues? Do you think its higher price point is hurting its customer acquisition efforts?
6.
How is Whoop different from other players in terms of customer engagement and personalisation? How important are these aspects to a product’s branding and success?
7.
How valuable is the user data that Whoop collects? What efforts is the company making to monetise the wealth of information that it has obtained on its user base?
8.
Could Whoop eventually be incorporated into employer health plans? How do you assess overall payer receptiveness to a product such as Whoop given the focus on preventative healthcare? How would you assess the financial opportunities in the enterprise B2B and the health plan market, respectively?
9.
What are your thoughts on Whoop’s 8 September 2021 product announcement of the Whoop 4.0?
10.
Are there any upcoming innovations are you’re excited about for Whoop? How might these complement its existing product offerings and help the company drive further incremental revenue from its customer base?
11.
What are some of the challenges with merging form factor and modality decisions with data collection efforts on wearable devices? What’s important for us to understand about balancing UX with data collection?
12.
Could you compare Whoop’s competitiveness to that of the Apple Watch, Google’s Fitbit, Garmin’s offerings and other wearable devices? We’ve talked about the Whoop having more of a niche with athletes and sitting at a higher price point. What other areas of differentiation would you note? Additionally, how do you assess its efforts to capture further market share from these incumbents?
13.
What are your thoughts on Whoop’s September 2021 acquisition of velocity-based training system Push? How does this technology augment Whoop’s capabilities and enhance UX?
14.
Do you expect any challenges in integrating Push into the Whoop interface? Whoop’s CEO, Will Ahmed, said Push should be fully streamlined in 6-12 months. What are your thoughts on Whoop’s historical integration efforts?
15.
Whoop announced in August 2021 that it raised an additional USD 200m in funding from its series F round. How do you expect this capital to be deployed? Which avenues make the most sense for further revenue growth?
16.
Are there any companies that could be an attractive target for Whoop to acquire due to their potential synergies?
17.
What are your thoughts on Whoop’s opportunity in ex-US markets? Which geographies’ patient populations or regulatory environments could be most attractive for Whoop to move into?
18.
Where do you see Whoop’s business headed over the next couple of years? Could you outline potential exit opportunities such as an IPO, a SPAC [special purpose acquisition company] merger or a take-out by a competitor? What are the strategic benefits and drawbacks of each?
19.
What are your thoughts on Whoop’s management team, including CEO Will Ahmed? Do you think the company has the right team in place to continue its positive trajectory?
20.
What do you think Whoop’s management worries about? What are the biggest risks to the company over the next couple of years?
21.
Is there anything that we haven’t discussed about Whoop that you would like to highlight?
22.
What are the most important factors to monitor over the next 12-18 months when evaluating Whoop’s success?
