Nick Woodman created his fortune out of his love for surfing. In Australia, he tried attaching a 35 mm camera to his hand with rubber bands to get good action shots while surfing. When he found other surfers wanted an easy, inexpensive, waterproof way to get good photos while surfing, Woodman and his wife sold shell necklaces and borrowed $235,000 from Woodman’s parents to start Go Pro.
The first Go Pro cameras were simple, 35 mm film cameras that mounted on a wrist strap. They’ve since evolved into a line of high quality digital cameras geared towards the sporting enthusiast who wants an affordable ($200-$400), quality camera that can handle difficult environments.
Nick Woodman Worth $4.8 Billion
Nick Woodman and Go Pro came a long way since his first order of 100 units in 2004. With sales doubling every year, Go Pro sold 2.3 million units in 2012. Foxconn, a Taiwanese manufacturer, bought 8.8% of Go Pro stock in 2012 for $200 million, valuing the entire company at $2.25 billion. Since Woodman owned most of Go Pro’s stock, he became a billionaire.
Since entering the digital camera market, the Go Pro has matured. What started as a strap on camera now has uses for all kinds of activities. There are mounting clamps for every imaginable use, water proof versions, and the technology is far superior to the early Go Pro models. Woodman says the next step for Go Pro is editing software that lets people condense 30 minutes of action footage into 2 minutes of “watchable” video.
Woodman has this to say about his own success: “I’m a big believer that when you’re pursuing your passions, your best ideas come to you. Your passions are a bit like your fingerprints: Everybody has them; everybody’s are different. One’s passions may just be a guidebook to one’s life.”
Nick Woodman Shark Tank Investor
Nick Woodman appears as a Shark investor in season six. His net worth rivals Mark Cuban’s, so when he is in the Tank, there will be two BIG SHARKS to contend with! Woodman is known in some circles as the “mad billionaire” because of his adventurous nature; it will be interesting to see how he conducts himself in the Tank. Will he be funny like Daymond, cold and hard like Mr. Wonderful, or analytic and intuitive like Mark Cuban?
Whatever Mr. Woodman does in the Shark Tank, it’s sure to be entertaining and it’ll provide some new blood in the water.
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