When Will Ahmed launched his wearable tech company WHOOP, the odds of success were not in his favor. The iconic company Nike had just entered the space with its own wearable product, FuelBand. How could Ahmed's startup possibly compete with an international powerhouse whose name literally comes from the Greek goddess of victory?

It turns out quite well. Nike discontinued the FuelBand in 2014, while WHOOP became a $4 billion company. How did Ahmed slay the swoosh—not to mention other competitors in the space, such as Microsoft, Google, Fitbit, and Jawbone? He credits his success to a combination of a well-defined strategy and a healthy dose of naivete.

"I had an idea for a product that I thought should exist in the world. And it didn't make sense to me why that product didn't exist. I thought it should be there," he said on my podcast One Day with John Bier.

Here are four key takeaways from our lively conversation.

Ironically, Ahmed's strategy for WHOOSH took a page out of Nike's playbook of old. Back in........

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