The great competitive advantage of Gopro was to allow users to install a camera on themselves, the founder of the company that makes mountable camcorders told CNBC Thursday.
"The first GoPro was really just a wrist camera that captured my friends surfing," Nicholas Woodman said in an interview, calling it "the original selfie: the incredible, immersive and exciting selfie ”. "It took us a few years to realize that there were many more people in the world who want to capture themselves doing what they want, what they love, their passions and interests," he said.
On Wednesday, GoPro's stock was at $ 24, valuing the company at $ $3 billion. A day later, they went up to $ 30. The structure of the public offering allowed Woodman and the others to take only a few shares. "I will own only a third of the company when this is over." He says he wanted to reward his employees for years of sacrifice. “We have been in business for 12 years. I call it an overnight success of 12 years. "
It all started when Woodman, 22, set himself 30 years to become an entrepreneur. Four years and a failed business later, he decided to tap into his savings and go on a surfing trip around Australia and Indonesia in search of inspiration.
But before leaving, Woodman stumbled upon what would be the idea behind GoPro. "In preparation for that trip, I had the idea of a wrist camera with which I could surf and record my friends," he reflected. "The irony was that this trip was supposed to inspire me for my next business, and the reality was that I had the idea before I left."
Although GoPro essentially makes cameras, Woodman views his company in a much broader light. "We believe that we are a company that makes it easy to create content." "Our customers are uploading about 6,000 videos a day to YouTube, tagged and described as GoPro," he added. "We make it easy for passionate people around the world to capture and share life experiences in the form of engaging content."
Woodman says his company's passionate customer base will not be easily supplanted by larger companies that want a piece of his stock. “It is an avalanche of snow from word of mouth promotion that it becomes extremely complex to compete against it ”.
Some of the extreme sports athletes who have used these cameras, which cost between US$199 and US$399, include Olympic snowboarding medal winner Shaun White and 11-time world-winning surfer Kelly Slater. In addition, the production team of the series "The Secret Lives of the Super Rich" has used them to capture some of their most expensive moments, giving viewers a feeling of what it feels like to be behind the wheel of a Lamborghini, a helicopter and an underwater jet.
GoPro is the first consumer electronics company to go public since the headphone maker's 2011 debut Skullcandy.
Fountain:
http://www.soyentrepreneur.com/
No Comment