Harvard in Tech Spotlight: John Capodilupo, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of WHOOP
I spoke with John Capodilupo, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of WHOOP, a technology and data analysis company providing a feedback tool for coaches and athletes.
When fellow Whoop co-founder Will Ahmed was captain of the squash team at Harvard, he wanted to get more data to track his training. At the time, wearables were not yet well known and certainly not mainstream. Will was able to track his steps but hardly anything more. He wanted to gain a deeper understanding of all the crucial nuances around training intensity and monitor his health and performance outside of his workouts as well.
Will and John met at Quincy House. John was studying computer science and statistics at the time, and his father was a professor of anatomy, so he had long held an interest at the intersection of the quantitative world and physiology. He realized that the research studies completed in anatomy struggled with quantitative tracking, so he was incredibly excited not only about WHOOP’S immediate mission but also about their long term vision of building the world’s largest physiology data set to advance human knowledge.
John and Will brought on Aurelian Nicolae, who had a mechanical engineering background to focus on the hardware development side. Their first office was in the Harvard Innovation Lab.
WHOOP has grown incredibly in the past 8 years, having recently raised their Series E. The platform is the world’s most powerful fitness membership, helping people track and actionably understand their cardiovascular health, sleep quality, and recovery in real time.
John shared his perspective on the founder journey, evolving startup leadership, and startup hiring.
Don’t go at it alone. Having co-founders has helped John tremendously in navigating all the highs and lows of founding and building a business. His co-founders are able to share in the joy, help in the challenges, and provide feedback on every idea, big and small.
Develop your grit and determination. A major part of founder success is in their perseverance. Entrepreneurship is incredibly grueling. Raw talent will not get you over the biggest and longest hurdles, but staying power will.
Focus on people management early on. As CTO, John’s role revolves less around writing individual lines of code but rather in effectively leading people. Growing from just himself to now over 40 software engineers and over 30 hardware engineers, John has learned to align team members, resolve disputes, and set visions. Rather than focusing on execution himself, his priority is to efficiently empower his team to force multiply.
Look for people who don’t have ego. The most elegant solution is often a living, breathing code base, rather than a stagnant deliverable (which is quite different from a traditional, problem set or assignment oriented way of thinking). Consequently, companies, especially fast growing startups that are constantly iterating, need people who can put their ego aside, take critical feedback, and incorporate it to adjust course.
Find people who can drive product led growth. Instead of optimizing solely for raw technical prowess, John looks for engineers who have a nuanced and holistic understanding of the product. He looks for people who can understand not just the “what” but also the “why” behind existing features and future roadmaps. In this way, they can be a part of not just the execution but in truly driving product led growth for WHOOP.
Hire people who are process, not outcome oriented. Working at a startup is incredibly hard. There will be countless unexpected challenges and roadblocks. As a result, John looks for people who are passionate about problem solving and truly enjoy the process of building, including all the obstacles involved.
Never stop learning, both in and outside of your field. Creativity often stems from drawing non intuitive connections between different fields. Although you may be a technical person, spend time learning about nontechnical areas as well to build a strong foundation to generate this creativity and relate to others.
Work with people who push you. John underscores the power of working with incredibly intelligent and diverse people who push you to learn about different spaces and do more. This type of community is what he appreciated most at Harvard and in the startup world.
