This article describes the entrepreneurial story of GoPro founder Nick Woodman, how to become a billionaire from a sports enthusiast. At the same time, GoPro is also faced with a prosperous crisis. The motion camera market is still affected by mobile phones and other competing products. Competition with the portable photo drones launched by DJI in nearly the same period is fierce. Does the glory of GoPro have reached the edge of the cliff? ?
Nick Woodman is the founder and CEO of GoPro. He recently took a private plane to Vail, Colorado, USA. The GoPro Mountain Games event will be held there for a week. Fans can take sports cameras, go canoeing, rock climbing, and do a lot of things. Vail is a ski resort and it's a low season. Justin Wilkenfeld is a friend of Woodman's University. Now he is working at GoPro. He says that Woodman is not a "nine-to-nine person" but a "hippie surfer". . Woodman walked in the grass wearing flip-flops, shorts and a vest. The ground was covered in tents and surrounded by extreme sports enthusiasts.
In the GoPro community, enthusiasts often go to Colorado, not only because it is suitable for extreme sports, but also because there are a large number of grasslands, protected by the law. Woodman asked a GoPro activity coordinator and asked him what he was going to do later. The young man evaded the boss's eyes and shrugged and said with a bit of determination, "Nothing, why do you ask?" Woodman laughed. He said: "This answer seems to be saying: 'Dude, I'm not interested in your leisure activities.'"
The entire week is a GoPro festival. Looking anywhere, you will see some people doing crazy things that are worth recording. A woman stood on a surfboard and rushed down the torrent, and the lazy man tied his cautious walk through the rapids. A dog jumped from the dock. More than a hundred spectators surrounded the pond. Woodman was one of them. He embraced his arms and wore Persol sunglasses. After the ball was thrown out, many dogs would scramble to jump and they would be graded according to criteria such as height and distance. Many dogs wear GoPro cameras and half of the crowd also holds GoPro cameras. Woodman also imitated the posture of the dog in the air, sometimes shrugging and sometimes lowering his neck.
Formerly, Woodman was the center guard of the high school football team. He was still a fanatic surf enthusiast. His body was very flexible. During the conversation, he could use motion to demonstrate various experiences. As an entrepreneur, he was very proud of this kind of pride. After all, Woodman turned GoPro into a company that had a revenue of $1 billion a year. He did it before he was 40 years old. GoPro Games is an annual victory for Woodman. It tells us that the GoPro brand is still prosperous no matter how bad the company's stock price is.
Become a mini apple
Around the year 2000, Woodman assembled the first GoPro camera. He created not just a novel, durable device, but a new market: motion cameras. The company has grown rapidly and GoPro is everywhere in ski resorts, surf breaks and other adventure sports venues. GoPro sponsored 140 athletes. With their help, GoPro videos received more than tens of millions of views on YouTube.
By 2012, the company's annual revenue still maintained a high growth rate of 100%. GoPro went public in 2014 and was quite successful. The stock price has increased by 140% in the first three months. Prospective investors believe that relying on hardware, GoPro can enter the more lucrative software market, such as multimedia management, entertainment, and social networking. However, the disaster came in 2015, including the failure of the new camera, and the enthusiasm faded instantly. In the first quarter of 2016, GoPro revenue declined year-on-year, and the much anticipated drone was delayed. When Woodman participated in the GoPro Games event, the company's stock price fell to its lowest level, which was a drop of 90% compared to the peak period.
Woodman revealed that he plans to revive the company. He said that three products will be released this fall, including the delayed drone Karma. The three products can win new customers' hearts. With new software, editing videos will be easier and sharing content will be easier. For the future, Woodman is infinitely optimistic.
"In a sense, we are just going to turn the GoPro into a detachable lens on the phone," Woodman said. "GoPro can automatically upload content to the cloud and send the video to the phone. We need to clear these obstacles. â€
In Woodman's eyes, GoPro is a bit like "mini-Apple," a hardware company that is moving toward a software platform with networking features. Ultimately, GoPro's business model will include monthly subscription payments and hardware upgrades.
Some people don't look good at GoPro. They compare GoPro to Flip. Launched in 2007, Flip is a handheld digital video recording device vendor. Soon it dominated the camcorder market. It was acquired by Cisco in 2009 and closed in 2011. It can also record video due to the rise of smart phones, leading to Flip. Quickly eliminated.
Today's smart phones are more durable, including the Samsung S7 and iPhone 7, which are all waterproof; the performance of the phone's camera is also approaching GoPro's high-end products at a very fast pace. The iPhone 7 has a 12-megapixel sensor, which is the same as GoPro's new Hero5. The iPhone 7 has a true zoom lens, which is what Hero5 lacks.
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said: "My child is 16 years old. I went to a football game and never saw anyone using a GoPro camera. Everyone used a mobile phone to record video. I think this has limited GoPro's potential, its limited market. It can be imagined that if Nike just sells his shoes to professional athletes, Nike will not be Nike today, it will sell shoes to everyone."
Woodman did not agree with him. He said that the boom in smartphones is actually good for GoPro. Woodman said: "Sometimes, you don't want to put all your data in one place. You'll use GoPro at this time. For example, if a drone flies to an altitude of 2,000 feet, you'll put a cell phone on it. Will all the data exist above?†In fact, during the interview, the sun will make the iPhone hot, causing the recording to fail. The GoPro camera is more professional and can record the entire conversation.
Sudden creativity
GoPro is headquartered in San Mateo, California. Woodman's home is located in Moss Beach. The office is only a few miles away from home. It is at home that Woodman manufactures GoPro Hero's first prototype device. Woodman has a habit and his concept of time is very strong. With the development of the company, many projects have exceeded Woodman's professional scope. GoPro began to pay attention to software, drones, and VR. He has learned to follow the wishes of employees. Woodman is married and has 3 children. He enjoys his success. He is willing to share his experiences, such as surfing in Nicaragua, or having a birthday with friends.
Woodman's table is tidy. Behind him was a small showroom full of souvenirs, a motorcycle helmet, a big bottle, an Emmy trophy, and a Volkswagen model where he and his college girlfriend liked to drive to the California coast to sell beads. And shell belts, these belts were made by Woodman's girlfriend herself, and the money raised was used to start the company.
In 2002, Woodman went surfing in Niamey, India. He first created GoPro ideas. At the time, the cell phone camera was still a novelty. It was not popular. No one dared to take a video camera underwater. Woodman hopes to capture images from the surfer's perspective.
“I ran to a surfing shop, bought a body surfboard belt, bought all O-rings, bought off-the-shelf parts at Home Depot, and borrowed a sewing machine from my mom.â€
But what Woodman originally did was not a camera, but a leather belt with a one-time-use camera attached to it. It added some features and even pressed the camera underwater. The belt was very good, and Woodman decided to do it exclusively.
17-year-old is determined to become an entrepreneur
This is not Woodman's first venture. His father was an investment banker. He grew up in Atherton, California. He quit the high school football team for surfing. Woodman said: "Everyone was saying, 'Brother, you can't quit.' I didn't think so. I have my own things to do. It feels good. At the time, I first learned that Doing something different is so much fun."
At the age of 17, Woodman had a golf outing with his father when he was determined to become an entrepreneur. Woodman recalled: "We played at the seventh hole of the Burlingame Country Club in San Mateo (California, USA). There was a house next to the fairway. It was very old. My father said: ' Look at the house. It's my friend. His name is Peter Gotcher. He just sold his company.'' Peter Gotcher is one of the founders of ProTools and is now a board member of GoPro. Woodman's father told him that if you want financial freedom, doing business is the most reliable choice. The father also pushed Woodman with his elbow and said, "I bet you can do it someday. You have a lot of ideas."
In its earliest days, Woodman founded FunBug, an online video game company where weekly users had a chance to draw. This company was founded after he graduated from college. FunBug did not succeed. Woodman took responsibility on himself. He said, "I learned something from FunBug. It wasn't FunBug that failed. It was me. FunBug is just a company. It's a product you create. It's The team did it and the company didn't fail, but the people who run the company failed. It was a very difficult day for me.†Woodman set a deadline for himself to succeed before the age of 30. He also said: "If you are young enough, you can completely choose your career and you can have enough time to make yourself an entrepreneur. I promised myself that even if I fail again, I will not stop and I will advance anyway."
The wristband didn't seem to have any prospects, but Woodman took a look. He tried to sell products in a surf shop at $15 apiece, but the existing waterproof camera on the market was not performing well and was often unstable and easily damaged by waves. Woodman tried to license the wristband to Kodak to make it a better, more independent camera mounted on the wristband. He said: "At the time I thought I could make hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, but Kodak sold many disposable cameras and it didn't think this product had a future. Kodak was not interested in saving GoPro."
Towards success
At the trade show, Woodman searched for durable waterproof cameras and eventually was not satisfied. He decided to make his own. He developed a prototype machine, working 18-20 hours a day, carving plastic with a Dremel electric grinder, and fixing a plastic button and lens with a glue gun. Subsequently, he sent his model to Chinese camera company, Hotax, and Hotax returned a digital file. Woodman could not open it. It took a few hours for Woodman to figure out why. It was a standard 3D model file. He looked at the model, turned the model, had connection points, and could be attached to the player when he was in motion. Woodman said: "I was very excited at the time." There are still $200,000 left to create the FunBug. He borrowed $200,000 from his parents and signed an agreement with Hotax to make cameras for $3 each and then for $14 each. The price is sold to a surf shop. Ever since, the first GoPro Hero camera was born!
In the following days, Woodman proved his product design talent. Soon, the sports camera market began to grow into an industry with annual sales of 6 billion U.S. dollars. GoPro became the leader and sold more than 5 million units each year. With the steady increase in sales, Woodman admitted that the founder began to become a little arrogant, which is a bad habit. The company became the object of the media's pursuit, Woodman shine, durable camera changed the extreme sports.
The "GoPro" video itself becomes a type, and subjective viewpoint shots of strenuous exercise bring the viewer an immersive experience. The YouTube GoPro channel attracted more than 4 million paid subscribers, with over one billion video views. The company’s culture began to change the sports industry because athletes are willing to use the GoPro camera, which is lighter and smaller than any previous camera. . Professional ski athlete Mike Basich believes: "This is a huge change. No more photographers are needed. Before, you must match a group of people and you can now shoot your experience with the nearest distance."
Skiing, Skateboarding, Skiing, and Surfing. For these sports, the number of videos is increasing, quality is improving, GoPro has contributed to this trend; due to the explosion of social media, amateur athletes have many entrances to share content. GoPro has some rare qualities: It is a cool and wonderful company that has received wide acclaim in its product category and is popular in the young market. The profit rate of a single camera is close to 50%. Wall Street is also fascinated by it. GoPro went public in June 2014. In the following months, the company launched the Hero 4 Silver camera, which is the company’s best-selling camera.
In October, GoPro's share price reached 94 dollars. Woodman soon angered investors by donating 5.8 million shares to the Silicon Valley Community Organization, which diluted the shareholders' equity. Woodman said: "Soon, sunsets began to fade a bit. Through the public listing, we received a high degree of public attention, and we did not realize that our marketing methods also need to change." When camera demand began to cool, GoPro continued to rely on Viral video and word of mouth marketing, there is no effective advertising strategy.
I'm wrong
Analysts and journalists began to question whether the GoPro market is already mature. How much can GoPro occupy in the entire sports camera market? In this market segment, the share of Sony, Garmin, Praktika, and other cheap products was less than 10% at the time. In the entire video camera market, the most popular 10 cameras GoPro accounted for 6 models. Is there anything else that can grow?
If you introduce a new product, it is very successful and you may be able to dispel doubts. In July 2015, the $399 camera GoPro Hero4 Session was officially launched. This is a point-and-shoot camera. Its style is similar to that of competitors' Polaroid cameras, and the opponent's product costs as little as $99. Hero4 Session is a trivial product because it is ridiculed for being overpriced. The camera does not have an LCD screen and does not support 4K. In the end, GoPro had to lower its price and drop it down to $199. In the third quarter of 2015, GoPro's revenue only reached the lowest level of expected revenue. In the first quarter of 2016, revenue decreased by 50% year-on-year. In May, GoPro's stock fell to $8.80.
Sitting in the office, Woodman leaned against the chrome armchair and clasped his hands. He seemed to meditate. He was willing to take full responsibility for the company's failure. Woodman said: "There was a mistake in the pricing of the Session. This mistake was made by me. There was a regression in marketing. It was also a decision that I made. We released too many products and made consumers very confused. This is also My decision. All the mistakes I made.†Woodman believes that Session is a great camera: the shell is waterproof, easy to use, and provides a one-button shooting function. He said he was blinded by greed and his price was too high. Woodman said: "Ultimately, we think this is a unique camera, but we think it is too good and worth it."
The sale of the Session was terrible after the listing. In the past year, the ghost of this failure has been scattered. It is generally believed that the initial growth of GoPro is over. Woodman said: "When we encounter difficulties, the media is too harsh. This is what we deserve. We did not rush out and shouted: 'You do not understand.' We know this. We bow our heads and find out Where is wrong and correct it."
The release of Hero 5 is an important part of the correction plan. Hero 5 was officially launched in October. It is by far the most advanced GoPro camera, with a faster processor, waterproof housing, support for linear level stabilization technology, improved sound quality, and an automatic microphone adjustment function that corrects for noise or wind noise.
Into the software
At the same time, GoPro also released a software package, the internal code is called "Yellowstone", which is a huge improvement. Even the most loyal GoPro users sighed and said that although it is easy to shoot videos with GoPro cameras, it is still too difficult to transfer videos from cameras to computers or mobile phones, edit them to attractive videos, and share them on social media. . Each step of the process is slow, such as turning on the camera's built-in Wi-Fi transport video, or editing the picture into short clips. Woodman thinks that handling too slowly is a "pain point."
Enthusiastic athletes may have patience and are willing to spend hours editing the video of the day into a short video of three minutes long, but most people do not have the patience. Brad Erickson, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, said: “There are many GoPro videos that have not been watched and edited. Shooting editorial videos is daunting. If you ask some people, they were two years ago. Purchased GoPro cameras and asked how many of them actually used the camera. How practical the device is, and many people may reply, "I used it twice and never got it out of the box.""
GoPro was a bit slow when it came to solving problems, and Woodman blamed himself again. He said: "We need to improve the software experience. To develop this experience requires a strong team, requires a wealth of experience, I underestimated the difficulty. It is completely different from the hardware." Back in college, Woodman gave up programming courses, He said: "In my life, I became so mediocre for the first time." In 2014, he invited Prober, and also made technology company executive and network infrastructure expert Tony Bates as president. A few weeks later, we met again at Woodman's office. Woodman talked about inviting the two to join. He also hired other people to help develop software and new products. Woodman tried to prove that he was willing to take responsibility for his mistakes. It also emphasized that "every good faith must be". GoPro has six core values. Honesty is always one of them.
“Make friends, act fast, don’t just assert...†Woodman tried hard to recall the company’s six core values: “The last one is 'to be a hero' and the first is 'forever good faith'. I only say Five o'clock? We have a few big values? Another one, 'keeping balance', forgot one moment. In any case, you have to take responsibility for your own mistakes. People respect this."
To develop, GoPro acquired two mobile video editing companies, one is Replay (later to become Quik), and the other is Splice, totaling US$105 million, acquired in 2016, and then it will integrate the products of the two companies. According to Prober's description, the integrated product can provide a seamless experience, from shooting to sharing; including an intelligent system that can highlight important moments in life, it can also automatically upload content to the cloud, return home, open the APP, You can see content on your computer right away.
The demo shows that the new software package can quickly extract video, edit, play, and share. Will it fundamentally change GoPro's business model? Woodman responded by saying: “Where are we and where are we going to get a good understanding that only after the launch of Hero 5 and Yellowstone, GoPro will undoubtedly have achieved the same success as the iPod, but we don’t have iTunes.â€
"Imagine if Apple doesn't have iTunes. The iPod will only be a pure MP3 player. Apple makes it easier for consumers to manage large amounts of content." Unlike iTunes, where GoPro's software requires payment , 5 dollars per month. Paying is "greedy" or a wise step. It will take time to verify if it can become a new revenue stream. On the YouTube channel, GoPro also produced different types of short videos, some of which require payment to be viewed. GoPro is at the junction of social media and high-definition video. From the beginning, GoPro is an entertainment brand and electronics manufacturer. The company has been using this advantage. The company also established the GoPro Awards program, which provides sponsorship to athletes. The athletes produced the best and most watched videos. The publicity of this project is very good. Now that GoPro is ready to do more, it will work together with Real Madrid and the GP superstar Valentino Rossi to create original programming that will be launched at the end of 2017.
The company also established the GoPro Awards program, which provides sponsorship to athletes. The athletes produced the best and most watched videos. The publicity of this project is very good. Now that GoPro is ready to do more, it will work together with Real Madrid and the GP superstar Valentino Rossi to create original programming that will be launched at the end of 2017.
Into the drone market
GoPro's Karma drone is an "air-shooting device", which is GoPro's own statement. It proves from the side that the company is eager to get new users. Some analysts believe that the potential size of the UAV market is as large as a motion camera and it is growing rapidly, but it is dominated by companies such as China's Dajiang and its flagship drone Phantom 4. Charles Anderson, an analyst at Dougherty & Company, said: "If GoPro drones are successful, the company's size can quickly double." Throughout the first half of 2016, speculation on GoPro drones was rampant, and it was very popular. Fire, but the company announced in April that it would postpone the listing of its products, resulting in a sharp setback in stock prices.
Now, Woodman believes that GoPro has got drones. They released four-axle drones, including a Hero 5 camera, a handheld remote control, and a detachable three-axle balance ring (also known as a stabilizing device). As a result, Karma becomes a land. Or one of the best shooting devices in the sky. The user can take out the drone from the backpack and the aircraft can be lifted within 2 minutes. The wings and landing gear can be easily folded. To install and assemble high-end drones, such as Phantom 4, it often takes one morning.
Pablo Lema, GoPro’s senior director of aviation products, believes that the company’s mission is to help users capture cool footage. Karma is a logical extension of this mission. He said: "The drone is really just a very, very complicated self-timer. You can fly it anywhere in the world."
From an image capture point of view, Karma does have a killer camera, it incorporates Hero 5, the balance ring is excellent, and the team solves tough engineering problems. Consumer drones are plagued by problems when shooting videos. For example, visibility in the corners and sides of the image can be problematic. Karma's ability to change the camera can solve this problem. Woodman believes: "With our equipment, it will be easier to shoot great movies." Nevertheless, Karma could not beat all opponents.
The GoPro Karma drone is slower than the Phantom 4 and is slower than the new Mavic Pro folding drone. The competitor has the “Follow†function, Karma does not, and “Follow†allows the drone to shoot Tracking users, in addition, DJI drones can also avoid obstacles and travel longer distances. GoPro believes that Karma can appeal to both the first-time purchase of UAV consumers and the ability to find buyers from existing users. Someone who plans to purchase Hero 5 may purchase a drone kit for $1,100, Hero 5 Requires $ 400, the overall purchase more cost-effective. Phantom 4 is priced at $1,400.
"Put the whole Hollywood into the backpack. Our concept is similar to this." Woodman said, "Using super easy, carrying very comfortable, you even forget that they have carried it. Our goal is to make the drone experience In part, rather than limiting the experience to the unmanned body."
In order to launch new products, GoPro's burning speed has accelerated, and it is faster than any time since 2010. By the third quarter of 2016, the amount of GoPro-owned cash has dropped to the lowest value after listing. It also introduced new products, including Omni, a product that may disrupt the industry. It is a VR camera device that costs up to $5,000. It consists of four Hero 4 cameras and can shoot 360-degree content. It also comes with hardware. VR software management suite. If Woodman really wants to prove that he has learned from the past, he should pay attention to the deadline and do not let the product be postponed again.
Maybe Woodman will succeed in creating a company like “Mini Apple†that will allow sports camera companies to enter the digital payment ecosystem, build drone business, integrate the company’s life with users, and eventually win from outside the extreme sports community. user.
Even if software and drones don't pay off, that doesn't mean GoPro will fail. Just as a camera company, GoPro is still very successful, with revenues reaching US$1.6 billion in 2015. Analyst Anderson believes: "They don't need to learn Apple. They just have to make the camera powerful and make the editing software powerful. They can be a good company, with annual revenues of around 1 billion U.S. dollars, paying healthy dividends. Make people's lives better. It just doesn't seem to be their goal."
Woodman firmly said: "No, we have created the best camera in the world and we have a huge sales. Our pursuit is even greater."
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