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GoPro's Fall and Fightback

47:29 recording · EN · 5 speakers

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Brief overview

GoPro rose from a surfer's wrist-strapped camera to an $11 billion IPO, then smartphones made it obsolete.

  1. The problem came before the productWoodman started from his own frustration that amateur surfers could not afford action shots, not from a camera design.
  2. Customers on YouTube were the marketing budgetFootage tagged hashtag GoPro sent buyers into Best Buy stores, a loop the narrator calls marketing no agency could have dreamed up.
  3. Refusing the 2008 deal kept the company hisWhen the crash lowered GoPro's valuation, Woodman told his lawyer the valuation stands, knowing the investors would pull out.
Executive Summary AI
  • On November 3rd, 2016, CEO Nick Woodman tells analysts GoPro's third quarter revenue came in at $240 million, nearly $75 million under projections, as a roughly $37 million profit the year before turned into a loss of close to $85 million.2:38
  • The story rewinds to Bali in 2002, where 26-year-old Woodman, unable to get action shots of himself surfing, straps a disposable camera in a waterproof case to his wrist with an old surfboard leash and rubber bands.8:20
  • After two failed startups, he refuses outside investors and funds the company himself: about $30,000 from reselling 600 Bali seashell belts bought for under $2 each, $200,000 from his father and $35,000 borrowed from his mother, before paying Chinese manufacturer Hotax $5,000 to build a prototype around a camera costing just over $3.13:10
  • Winning QVC's Inventor Search in 2005 puts him live on air, where he sells about 3,000 cameras in ten minutes at roughly $18, and revenue climbs from about $350,000 in 2005 to $800,000 in 2006 and $3.4 million in 2007.24:31
  • The Hero HD, released in November 2009 at $270 with wind-noise removal, explodes as customers post footage tagged hashtag GoPro on YouTube, taking sales to roughly $64 million and about 70% of the home video camera market by 2010, and setting up the media-company pivot and the June 2014 IPO that values GoPro at $11 billion.37:11
Key Quote
“Revenue this quarter came in at $240 million.”
— Nick Woodman2:38
Key Quote
“We had some setbacks this year.”
— Brian McGee3:20
Key Quote
“but it absolutely sucked losing all that money for investors. I don't want to go through that again.”
— Nick Woodman12:00