Oura CEO Tom Hale Talks Wearable Rings

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bloomberg Talks

Episode: Oura CEO Tom Hale Talks Wearable Rings
Date: February 25, 2025
Host: Bloomberg
Guest: Tom Hale, CEO of Oura Health

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Episode Overview

This episode features an in-depth conversation with Tom Hale, CEO of Oura Health, the company behind the Oura smart ring. The discussion centers on Oura’s rapidly growing business, the unique value proposition of wearable rings for personal health monitoring, and the evolving demographics of the company’s user base. Tom shares insights about the impact of GLP-1 obesity drugs, data-centric differentiation, subscription business models, competition in the wearables market, and what the future holds for Oura—including an answer to whether the company has plans to go public.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Connecting Wearables with Health Trends (GLP-1, Metabolic Health)

• Metabolic Health & GLP-1 Drugs: Tom establishes a link between Oura’s origins in sleep tracking and the current consumer interest in metabolic health, referencing the impact of GLP-1 drugs (weight-loss medications).
• Product Partnerships: Oura recently partnered with Dexcom (continuous glucose monitoring) to give users finer metabolic data by mapping user meals to metabolic impact.
  • “Metabolic health and GLP1s, they act on your body in a way very similar to sleep… If you don’t sleep, you want to eat.” (Tom Hale, 01:12)
• Value Proposition: Oura aims to provide users with actionable insights across a holistic spectrum of health behaviors.

2. The Subscription Business Model

• Pricing Structure: The Oura ring retails for about $300, plus a $6 monthly membership fee.
• Subscription Fatigue: Despite industry-wide subscription fatigue, Oura enjoys exceptional subscriber retention due to perceived value.
  • “Your health is priceless… We are better than best in class consumer subscription products like Netflix or Spotify. It’s really stunning.” (Tom Hale, 02:52)
• Retention Rates: High retention is credited to the up-front hardware investment and the intrinsic value users place on their health data.

3. Competitive Landscape and Differentiation

• Long-Term Data Advantage: Tom attributes Oura’s competitive edge to its deep data archive and scientifically-driven approach.
  • “We’re a science-first company. We depend always on the research and always on the differentiation that science can provide.” (Tom Hale, 03:58)
• Expanded Health Focus: While competitors often target the fitness market (e.g., Fitbit), Oura targets broader health categories—sleep, women’s health, cardiovascular, and metabolic health.
  • “People don’t necessarily just want to think about one dimension of their health. They want to think about all of them.” (Tom Hale, 03:58)

4. Company Growth and IPO Speculation

• IPO Plans: Despite speculation, Oura has no current plans to go public.
  • “I don’t think we have any plans to go public. And quite frankly… I’m really enjoying operating a private company.” (Tom Hale, 05:09)

5. Fastest-Growing Demographics

• Diverse User Base: Oura has users from all walks of life, from CEOs to students.
• Women as Majority Users: The demographic has shifted recently from majority male to majority female, largely due to women’s health features such as fertile window prediction.
  • “We used to be majority men and we’ve slipped to majority women. And that’s on the back of our FDA approved features like fertile window…” (Tom Hale, 05:39)
• Youth Engagement: The 18-25 age group is now the fastest-growing—and nearly the largest—demographic.
  • “Young people have been really, really into health and really into being proactive about their health.” (Tom Hale, 05:39)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Metabolic health and GLP1s, they act on your body in a way very similar to sleep… So one of the things we do is we help people understand the impacts of their behaviors on all sorts of their health, including metabolic.” (Tom Hale, 01:12)
• “Retention rates for Aura are literally off the charts. We are better than best in class and consumer subscription products like Netflix or Spotify. It’s really stunning.” (Tom Hale, 02:52)
• “We’re a science-first company. We depend always on the research and always on the differentiation that science can provide.” (Tom Hale, 03:58)
• “I’m really enjoying operating a private company.” (Tom Hale, 05:09)
• “We used to be majority men and we’ve slipped to majority women… young people have been really, really into health and really into being proactive about their health.” (Tom Hale, 05:39)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Oura & GLP-1 Drugs, Metabolic Health: 01:12–02:29
• Subscription Model & Retention Rates: 02:52–03:38
• Competition, Data Advantage, and Market Focus: 03:58–04:51
• IPO Question: 05:09–05:24
• Fastest-Growing Demographics, Youth and Women’s Health: 05:39–06:39

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Conclusion

This episode offers a compelling look behind the scenes at Oura’s mission and business strategy. Tom Hale delivers honest insights on what sets Oura apart in a crowded marketplace, how they’re responding to health and wellness trends, and why their customer base is rapidly expanding among women and young adults. Listeners gain a sense of Oura’s science-driven mindset and customer loyalty, leaving little doubt about the enduring value—or future potential—of wearable health technology.

Transcript

[Indiana University Narrator]

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[Bloomberg Announcer]

Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio news.

[Bloomberg Host]

All right, we want to go back to health and wellness for a moment and turn to Aura Health. The company is on a mission to help wearers of their smart ring live healthier and longer lives by providing personalized health data. And in fact, the company's latest funding round has aura valued at $5.2 billion, we're pleased to say. Joining us right now is the CEO of Aura Health, Tom Hale. Tom, great to have you on Bloomberg Television. I want to start with connecting the dot between the weight loss drugs, the GLP1 drugs, what you provide to your users. Have you seen the popularity of those obesity drugs? I'm curious what kind of impact or spillover it has to the market that you are serving.

[Tom Hale]

Yeah, so we started in sleep and you know, for everyone's information, we make a wearable ring that tracks your biometrics and gives you insights and data. And of course, one of the things that our customers are extremely interested in is metabolic health. One of the things that we did last year was start to enable people to track their meals by taking a photograph and seeing the results of what they had eaten and then start to map that to their metabolic impact. We signed a partnership with Dexcom and also received investment from Dexcom. And Dexcom is the maker of continuous glucose monitors, which is a way you understand your metabolic health through data. So in oura, what we see now is that people who are generally trying to monitor and manage their health and improve and optimize their health are really focused on their metabolic health. And GLP1s basically affect your metabolic health. Now here's a little known fact. Metabolic health and GLP1s, they act on your body in a way very similar to sleep. So the more sleep you get, the better off you are. It helps reduce your appetite. Midnight snacking is a real thing. If you don't sleep, you want to eat. And it also helps you feel more satisfied. So one of the things we do is we help people understand the impacts of their behaviors on all sorts of their health, including metabolic.

[Bloomberg Host]

Got it, Got it. Thank you for explaining that. So the ring itself can cost about $300. And then there's a membership fee as well, a monthly fee of about 6 USD a month. Do consumers have subscription fatigue? And I ask that because your monthly fee is pretty low relative to, you know, a lot of other subscriptions out there. And I'm just wondering how you arrived at that.

[Tom Hale]

Yeah, it's interesting. I think people do have subscription fatigue, particularly for things that don't provide value. Of course, your health is priceless. And so for people who get value out of managing and monitoring their health, actually they're willing to pay quite a lot more than the modest subscription fee that we charge. The thing that I find most interesting as somebody who's been in subscription businesses for most of my life, is that the retention rates for Aura are literally off the charts. We are better than best in class and consumer subscription products like Netflix or Spotify. It's really stunning. And I think that just goes to the fact that if you've invested in a piece of hardware, which people do, they buy the ring first before they pay the subscription. And you care about your health, you will retain really, really well. And so our subscription business is both large and very, very stable. So we're very pleased with the outcome.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

I am curious, Tom, where's the competition? When this ring first started to become popular, there was this idea that, you know, you were going to be knocked off in a big way. And I know there have been a few entrants in this space that have kind of come and gone or certainly didn't get traction. Well, I mean, what are you doing that I guess these other companies can. And particularly the larger companies, you know, the Apples and Samsungs of the world.

[Tom Hale]

Yeah. I think the most important thing is that we've been doing this for a long time. As you probably know, the power of AI and machine learning really depends on data. And we've been collecting not just data from our users, but scientific research data to really inform our algorithms and inform our product. We're a science first company. We depend always on the research and always on the differentiation that science can provide. The other thing that's really important to recognize is that as people come to this market, many of them come to it thinking about the problem that they're solving is fitness. Sort of a classic use case for wearables, you know, so the Fitbit, that's, that's how people think about it. Whereas I think our approach has been to think much more broadly about health. So for example, we started in sleep, we expanded into women's health. Now we're looking at cardiovascular health and metabolic health. As we started this conversation and the breadth of that offering, people don't necessarily just want to think about one dimension of their health. They want to think about all of them.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

So what's next for this company? We talk about a company that's more than 10 years old right now. It's had phenomenal growth, phenomenal revenue. And obviously, Tom, your appointment. A few years ago, a CEO raised a lot of speculation that they would be ready to go public. That was 2022, is 2025. Are you going public this year?

[Tom Hale]

You know, I don't think we have any plans to go public. And quite frankly, as someone who's operated public companies my entire life, I'm really enjoying operating a private company.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Tom Hale]

And so I don't think we've got a lot of ambition to go public anytime soon. And if we do, we will definitely let you guys know.

[Bloomberg Host]

Yes, let's, let's make sure that that happens. Tom, final question to you. What is your fastest growing customer? Is it, you know, or is it someone who is on a new fitness kick because of something like GLP1? Are they seniors?

[Tom Hale]

Well, this is stunning. So we have customers across the entire spectrum, you know, from CEOs to moms to busy dads to teenagers and college kids who are managing their health. The interesting thing to me is that two big changes in our demographic in the last 12 months have been one, women. We actually used to be majority men and we've slipped to majority women. And that's on the back of our like FDA approved features like Fertile window or just basically the ability to predict when you're going to have your cycle. Which by the way, the ring can do very accurately because it's using temperature to predict it. The other side of it, of course, is young people have been really, really into health and really into being proactive about their health. And we've seen that that group, basically kids and young adults from 18 to 25, is the first fastest growing demographic and is about a couple percentage points from being the largest demographic for aura. Really interesting to see how important health is to the youth and the young people around the world.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

All right, Tom, appreciate you taking time for us. Tom Hale, CEO thanks for health.

[Bloomberg Announcer]

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