On September 9, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and WHOOP founder Will Ahmed—whose wearable technology company is headquartered in the city—came together in the John F. Kennedy Forum at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics to discuss Boston’s innovation economy, the role of AI in business, and economic development in the city. They spoke directly to students, offering advice, sharing job opportunities, and encouraging young people to think big for their careers (ideally ones in Boston). Mitch Weiss, Richard L. Menschel Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, moderated the discussion. 

We share lightly edited excerpts from the conversation below. You can watch the full conversation online at the Institute of Politics’ YouTube channel.

The traits that drive impact 

Wu: 

The ability to say, “Here’s where I’m trying to go … even when I’m told no,” [whether it's] from an institution, from your peers, from the classes, from the material you’re being able to access, that there’s a belief that you can still figure out how to make something happen if you found your way here and you are inspired to get it done.

In government these days, that is a recurring theme—it can feel like one door is being shut, another set of barriers is being put up, often by the federal government. And how do we just stick with these challenges that need to be solved? Not accept that, “Okay, this is too hard, too expensive, not politically palatable in this moment,” and find ways to innovate, find ways to channel all of those other qualities and bring community into it, to still get to a place where you’re solving problems?

Ahmed:

It’s helpful at a young age to try to develop some relationship with your own intuition...The important thing is that you ask yourself, “What do I want to do with my life? What am I drawn to?” Ultimately, I really believe in young people who are hardworking and willing to chase what they’re passionate about.

Will Ahmed smiling.
“It’s helpful at a young age to try to develop some relationship with your own intuition.”
Will Ahmed

Keeping great talent in Boston

Wu: 

We want everyone who wants to stay to be able to stay, and I think that is a place where we have to continue to really push and do work. We know that the cost of living in general, but particularly the cost of housing, the cost of childcare, in Massachusetts and in Boston, is the number one challenge that I hear when I do town halls with major employers...we want to get rid of the barriers, particularly around cost and affordability, so that people can make that decision to stay—to love our city as a place to grow not only a business, but your life and your family. 

 

Companies are uprooting themselves to be where people want to live, to follow the talent...the best city for families is going to be the best city for talent and the best city economically. So, safety, cleanliness, city services, opportunities, arts, sports, all of the amenities, and really just knowing that this is a place where you can live your fullest self—that is our strategy for also being the most competitive and economically strong community.

Ahmed: 

Every year of building the company, it became more obvious to me that actually this was going to be a great place to build WHOOP—and that was contrary to what a lot of people had told me about Boston. They said, “you can't build a consumer brand here.” They said, “If you want to be a serious technology player or algorithms player, you need to be on the West Coast; if it’s going to have a media background or a marketing edge, it needs to be in New York.”

And really, that was all BS—it just wasn't real. If I think about what Boston has provided to WHOOP— first of all, it’s a phenomenal tech ecosystem. You get great engineering talent…[and] a great sports culture, which at least for Whoop was important to our DNA. We work with many of the best athletes in the world, many of the best sports teams in the world, so it’s been great to have that additional sports culture here. What we’re doing is entirely focused on health, and over time Boston as a city produces 10% of the world’s medical research. It’s the number one city in the world for producing medical research. 

On top of all of that, there’s a remarkable set of universities here in Boston that we get to partner with for research purposes, or we get to work with young talent that ultimately comes into WHOOP. For those reasons I found Boston to be a really phenomenal place to build this company.

Mayor Michelle Wu smiling.
“We want to get rid of the barriers, particularly around cost and affordability, so that people can make that decision to stay—to love our city as a place to grow not only a business, but your life and your family.”
Mayor Michelle Wu

What AI means for young people 

Wu:

On the school side, we’ve been working with the UMass Boston AI Institute and [tech entrepreneur and philanthropist] Paul English, and partners from Mass AI Coalition and other spaces that have already had years of government—city and state—and business sector partnerships to define what the challenges are, what the risks are, what the opportunities are. And we’re now in the implementation phase. 

It was a similar approach that we had in city government, where Boston was very proud to be the first municipal government in the country to proactively issue guidelines encouraging responsible and guided use of AI in our city workforce—to aid and improve the delivery of city services, but also ensuring that there was fact-checking and source citing and a recognition of the ethics needed—as well as in our schools. 

The idea is that every single Boston Public Schools graduate will have fluency. They will know the types of tools that are available, the kinds of decision-making that happens with that, and they will also be educated on risks, ethics, challenges, and be able to really promote responsible use in a safe and guided environment, so that they’re out into the world able to take full advantage of the opportunities, technologies, and resources in front of them. 

Ahmed:

I think the conventional wisdom is that AI is going to take entry-level jobs, and young people are less valuable to a workforce. We at WHOOP certainly do not believe that. We really believe that AI can be a force multiplier—it can level the playing field. I certainly believe that young people, especially on this campus, know more about AI than many people who’ve had 20 years of experience. So they’re going to use these tools the best.

I don’t feel like we're going to outsource everything to AI. I think we in turn are going to be able to do a lot more with AI. That’s my optimistic point of view.

I think from the standpoint of entering the job market, a huge component of that is going to be demonstrating fluency with these tools and a willingness to use them. You’re going to be a leader the second you join a workplace because you know how to use these tools. 

From high school and college graduation to jobs 

Wu: 

In health care and in biotech, there have been really concerted efforts where we want to ensure that everything we're doing in the Boston public schools is also directly feeding into our key anchor industries here and the vacancies that they very much need to fill. 

Mass General Brigham is directly partnering with our health careers high school [The Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers (EMK)]. They are ... mentoring, providing workshops, creating opportunities for school-year experiences, summer internships, with a guarantee that by the end of their time there at the EMK, there will be a job interview lined up for you—and the opportunity to step into a job that you will be well prepared for an advanced—not just an entry-level—position.

It's been huge. It’s highly motivating for the students as well…the more direct connections we’re making between education and career—early college, and in between as well—the more we’re ensuring that our students recognize and see the value of their time and are also contributing to our economy and our community.

Ahmed:

We’re rolling out WHOOP Pace Setters, which is a new program specifically designed for graduating [college] seniors. So we’re going to have a class of 2027—they’re going to start in July of next year—and we’re going to be looking for young people, no experience required. You have to be hardworking, you have to be competitive, you have to have a drive to improve your craft, whatever that may be. This is a program that we’re now launching, and it’s targeting maybe many people in this room who are excited to build a career and interested in technology or health or performance or hardware, software, data science, design, marketing—you name it.

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Photographs by Martha Stewart.

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