Nick Woodman Biography

Nicholas "Nick" Woodman is the founder and CEO of GoPro.

Early life and education

Born to a Jewish family, he earned a degree in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego. After school he founded a marketing company called funBag but after it did not succeed, in 2002 at the age of 26, he decided to travel around the world surfing.

Career

While on hiatus and trying to capture his surfing activities in Australia and Indonesia on film, he used a 35mm camera attached to the palm of his hand by a rubber band. Seeing that amateur photographers who wanted to capture quality action photos of their activities had difficulties because they either could not get close enough to the action, or obtain quality equipment at accessible prices, his trip became his inspiration to found GoPro. His solution was to develop a belt that would attach the camera to the body. Woodman and his future wife Jill financed the business by selling shell necklaces they bought in Bali (for $1.90) from their car along the California coast (for $60) combined with $35,000 borrowed from his mother. His desire for a camera system that could capture close up footage inspired the 'GoPro' name. The prototype cameras he developed supported WiFi, were remotely controlled, waterproof, carried 64GB of memory, and were affordable to the average sportsman (~$300). In 2004, he made his first big sale when a Japanese company ordered 100 cameras at a sports show. Thereafter, sales doubled every year and in 2012, GoPro sold 2.3 million cameras. In December 2012, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn purchased 8.88% of the company for 200 million dollars which set the market value of the company at 2.25 billion dollars making Woodman, who owned the majority of the stock, a billionaire.

Personal life

Woodman is married to Jill R. Scully and they have two children. They live in Woodside, California. Woodman is known as the "mad billionaire" due to his unconventional behavior and eccentricities.

As of 2013, he is worth an estimated US$1.3 billion.