First things first…
💍🧙♂️ One ring to analyze them all…
For my mum’s last birthday, we got her an Oura Ring, the sleek smart ring that doubles as a health tracker. After a couple of months of mum-testing, we can confidently say that, from a consumer point of view, it is a fantastic health tech product.
This is why we wanted to take a closer look at the innovative startup that’s transforming wearable tech in our weekly venture check.
💻 Today’s venture: Oura Health
🧩Category: Health Tech
🚀Founded in 2013 by Petteri Lahtela, Kari Kivelä and Markku Koskela
🤑 Financials: They are a true unicorn as according to sacra Oura generated about $ 130M in revenues and reached a valuation of $2.55B in 2022
📦 Their business model: A wearable health tracker in form of a smart ring, combined with a mobile app subscription service for advanced health insights.
💜 Why we love them:
- From a consumer point of view: because they managed to create a truly user centric product that easily integrates into daily life while providing detailed health insights.
- From an entrepreneur’s point of view: because of their clever business model combining high-margin hardware sales with a recurring revenue stream from subscription services.
What customer is Oura targeting?
Health-conscious individuals who are interested in optimizing their sleep, activity, and overall wellness:
- Fitness Enthusiasts focused on tracking their activity, recovery, and performance
- Health and Wellness Seekers who prioritize their health and well-being and want to gain deeper insights
- Tech-Savvy Consumers who are interested in the latest health technology
- Professionals and Executives who need to manage stress and optimize their daily routines
- Women tracking their menstrual health and fertility
- People focused on improving their sleep quality
Customer Segments:
🌍 Geographically:
- North America, Europe, and Asia, focusing on areas with high technology adoption rates
- Countries with strong interest in health and wellness such as the United States, Canada, Germany, and Japan
⚧️ Demographically:
- Tech savvy adults 30-50 who are more likely to invest in health and wellness technology.
- Middle to high-income individuals who can afford premium health devices and subscription services.
🛒 Behavioral:
- Regular users of wearable health technology who track health metrics daily.
- Usage for general health insights, accurate sleep tracking, stress management, fitness activity optimization, menstrual health.
- High engagement with app features and data analytics, actively using insights to improve lifestyle choices.
🧠 Psychographic:
- Health-conscious, prioritize wellness, fitness, and mental health.
- Strong emphasis on self-improvement and proactive about health.
- Tech-savvy, trend-aware, and data-driven decision-making.
How could a typical Oura customer persona look like?
🧑🏻💻Marc is a 38-year-old Head of Business Development at a tech startup in San Francisco, living a modern lifestyle with his partner and their 3-year-old daughter. Balancing his demanding career with family responsibilities, Marc values efficiency, health, and innovation. He is tech-savvy, health-conscious, and enjoys outdoor activities like hiking and biking, often seeking ways to optimize his sleep, manage stress, and improve overall well-being. Marc prefers premium, minimalist, and sustainable brands, and he leverages technology and data to make informed decisions about his health and lifestyle. Despite his busy schedule, he prioritizes quality time with his family and personal growth.
What JTBDs, Pains & Gains do Oura’s customers have?
⚙️ JTBD (Jobs to be Done):
- Monitor vital signs and health metrics
- Keep track of physical activity
- Better manage stress levels
- Improve sleep habits
- Optimize cognitive performance, productivity
- Establish healthy habits
😍 Gains:
- Improved sleep quality
- Peace of mind knowing vitals are monitored at any time
- Better Stress management & performance
- Ability to proactively manage health
- Data that can be shared with health professionals
- Early detection of health irregularities
😓 Pain Points:
- Circumstantial factors and mental state is not taken into account
- Large, uncomfortable health wearables
- Difficulty establishing healthy habits
- Generalized and unclear health improvement plans
- Inaccurate tracking
What is Oura’s value proposition?
📦 Product Features:
- A sleek health tracker ring
- Oura mobile health management app
- Oura membership
- Sleep Tracker
- Activity Tracking
- Daytime Stress Tracker
- Heart Rate Tracker
- Blood Oxygen Sensing
- Body Temperature Measurement
- Integrations with third party apps
- Insights: Personalized recommendations
- Experiments: Test new habits
- Trends: Detect pattern changes
- Reflections: Journal
- Oura Cloud
- Oura API
💝 Gain Creators:
- Advanced sleep tracking and bedtime guidance to improve sleep routine
- 24/7 Health Monitoring and Real-Time Alerts
- Daytime stress monitor to track, understand, and manage stress
- Oura experiments and trends to test impact of new health habits
- Health reports sharing function
- Symptom radar that assesses biometric data and health trends to track changes
💊 Pain Point Solvers:
- Journal to track mood and other external factors
- Sleek, lightweight, and comfortable ring design.
- Clear and actionable in app guidance each day
- Personalized insights based on detailed health data.
- High-precision sensors and advanced algorithms to ensure accurate tracking.
🏆 Unfair Advantage:
Their API allows for strategic partnerships and integrations with other health platforms, to expand their ecosystem and enhance the ring’s value proposition.
💬 Their hero message could be something like this:
Having a hard time establishing a better health routine? We make it simple to optimize sleep, manage stress, and improve overall well-being. Discover the Oura Ring – the sleek, accurate, and comprehensive health tracker for those who want to take control of their health journey.
How does Oura make money?
🤑 Revenue Model
Dual Revenues
- One time revenue from hardware sale
- Monthly subscription revenues from app membership
💸 Pricing Model
Hybrid Pricing Model: Users pay an initial price for the ring itself + a monthly fee for the app membership
This pricing model helps to:
- One-time price for hardware ensures immediate revenue upon sale
- Recurring revenues & maximized CLV
How is Oura acquiring and locking in customers?
🍝 Their Secret Marketing Sauce:
- COVID-19 as a Kickstarter: During the pandemic UCSF launched a study with Oura to see if the ring could detect COVID symptoms
- Oura for Business: Large Businesses started using Oura rings for their employees to detect Covid and keep business running during the pandemic
- Partnerships: They leverage collaborations with other brands to grow their ecosystem, add functionalities or increase distribution
🔊 Other Marketing Activities
- Celebrity Endorsements and High-Profile Users: The list of celebrities (paid or not?) endorsing the Oura ring is getting longer. Amongst them are Jennifer Anniston, Kim Kardashian, Gwyneth Paltrow and many more.
- Community Building and Engagement: Online community of users who share their experiences, tips, and success stories. Organizing health challenges and competitions within the Oura community to motivate users.
Where are their strength & weaknesses and what are opportunities & risks?
😣 Weaknesses:
- Entry barrier due to high pricing and additional subscription cost
💪 Strength:
- Strong reputation & brand awareness
- Extended ecosystem through partnerships
- Unique B2B approach
🚨 Risks
- Limited distribution (mainly) through D2C
- New (lower priced) smart ring options
🤩 Opportunities
- Build on partnerships to expand their ecosystem and distribution
- Offer an entry model version, like the Iphone SE to grab market share
- Offer tiered subscription model
- Free: Track data
- Basic: + personalized recommen-dations
- Premium: + third party apps
