Last week while visiting Wahoo Fitness, I sat down with the founder and current co-CEO of the company, Chip Hawkins, for a wide-ranging interview discussing everything from past Wahoo initiatives (and failures), to the status of current products, as well as what the future brings. We covered a lot of ground, and rather than try and slice it down to a smaller size, I’ve just left the whole thing as one big interview. I’ve YouTube-chaptered the various portions linked below, though I think you’ll find a lot of it fascinating.
Here’s what we covered, noting that you can easily just listen to it podcast style in the background:
0:00 Quick Intro & Wahoo Company Size/Employees
0:40 Wahoo Docks vs Wahoo Fitness
1:52 Which Wahoo product is his true favorite
2:40 Future of Wahoo Rival watch?
3:46 Why are Wahoo products so expensive?
5:24 Why hasn’t Wahoo trainers changed design?
6:30 Why did the RGT acquisition fail?
7:46 Why did you drop lawsuit with Zwift?
9:02 What happens next with Zwift partnership?
9:57 What about how that impacts competitors?
10:56 Are open standards dead?
12:30 Why hasn’t the KICKR Desk been updated?
13:08 Plans for Wahoo CLIMB, Headwind Fan, etc…
13:33 Single favorite run/ride route in world?
15:15 Do you worry about fitness industry consolidation?
15:58 Where does AI work in fitness best today?
16:50 Why did you close Boulder sport performance center?
17:48 How is Wahoo structured geographically?
19:15 What’s Wahoo’s biggest market?
19:35 Is the indoor cycling industry recovering?
21:00 Are you hiring employees again?
21:50 How did Wahoo buy itself back from banks?
24:22 Is Wahoo financially sound now?
25:00 Why isn’t SYSTM on Apple TV?
26:02 Is the ELEMNT Bike GPS still competitive?
27:30 What’s coming in 2024?
Again, I think you’ll find a slate of nuggets throughout this interview. Obviously, there are some pretty big hints at the future in there on a lot of products – both in terms of new products, but also ones going away. Give it a listen, and again, there’s very little that requires foreground attention, so it’s perfect to just set in the background and listen through.
At some point I’ll edit together a post with the actual behind-the-scenes tour of their HQ, testing labs, museum of sorts, and plenty more. But for now, go forth and enjoy the interview.
With that – thanks for watching!
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