American businessman Nicholas D. Nick Woodman is a philanthropist and the founder and CEO of GoPro.
Early Life and Education
Nicholas was on born June 24, 1975. Attending the Menlo School, he grew up in Menlo Park, California and Atherton, where he graduated in 1993. His interest in surfing developed during high school and created the high school’s first surfing club.
At high school football games, Nicholas would sell t-shirts to increase money for the surfing club. He obtained a B.A. degree in visual arts. From the University of California, San Diego, he earned a minor in creative writing in 1997.
After school, Nicholas founded two startups, unfortunately, both of which never completely made it off the ground leave alone getting success. The first was a site titled EmpowerAll.com, which tried to sell electronic goods for no over a $2 markup, and the second one was Funbug, a gaming and marketing place that provide users the opportunity to win cash prizes. Nicholas took personally the lack of success from both companies.
Parents
Nicholas is the son of Concepcion and Dean Woodman.
His father, born in a Quaker family, co-founded investment bank Robertson Stephens.
His mother is of Hispanic descent. In 1992, she re-married Irwin Federman, General Partner of U.S. Venture Partners.
Personal Life
Nicholas is married to Jill R. Scully. They live in Woodside, California. They have three children. Nicholas is known as the mad billionaire because of his eccentricities and bit of unconventional behavior. As a way to success, Nicholas is a strong believer in following own passions.
Career
During surf trip in Australia and Indonesia, he used a 35mm camera to capture his surfing activities on film. His trip became his inspiration to create GoPro. His found the solution by developing a belt that attached the camera to the body. Nicholas and Jill, his future wife, financed the business by selling shell necklaces. His mother loaned him a lot of money to let him get her sewing machine, which he further used while experimenting with early designs to sew camera straps.
His dad loaned him additional money which Nicholas paid back out immediately of company sales. His wish inspired the ‘GoPro’ name, for a camera system that would capture close-up footage. The initial cameras he developed were 35mm film point-and-shoot cameras, mounted to the user’s wrist. Nicholas would go around selling his items while using his 1971 Volkwagen Bus, he name as his mobile home The Buscuit.
Nicholas appeared on QVC, in 2005, to sell his GoPro Hero. GoPro had around $150,000 in revenue in 2004, which grew to around $350,000 in 2005. GoPro went public on 26th June 2014, – closing the day at $31.34 a share. In 2014, Nicholas was the top paid US chief executive. GoPro developed a partnership in 2015, with the NHL, enabling NHL to use GoPro products to enhance the viewing experience for fans.
Nicholas has been invited to speak at several tech conferences. In October 2015, Nicholas was a guest on Late Show along with Stephen Colbert. He wore a GoPro camera for entirety of interview. Nicholas appeared as a shark investor in the 6th season of show Shark Tank. As of November 2015, Nicholas has invested $125,000 on Shark Tank on two investments.