The idea for GoPro was born in Australia, says chief executive Nick Woodman
Few people know that the idea for GoPro – which this week releases its latest camera – was born in a Mitre 10 parking lot in Sydney’s Kings Cross.
It’s the American technology company that has a distinctly Australian origin story.
GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman dreamt up the idea for his action cameras on a 2002 surfing trip in Australia, when he realised that quality camera equipment was too expensive and unwieldy for amateurs.
Back Down Under to launch GoPro’s next-generation camera, Mr Woodman – who is now based in California – said a Mitre 10 parking lot was the place that started it all.
“GoPro loves Australia and Australia seems to love GoPro,” he said. “I developed the first prototype GoPro in a Toyota HiAce panel van in the parking lot of a Mitre 10 in Kings Cross, in Sydney.
“Then later when I was back home in California I wrote the first GoPro patent, and came up with the name GoPro and the name Hero camera while camping in my Volkswagen van.
“Australians are super active, they’re very outdoors-oriented people and Australians travel a lot and are engaged in almost all the major activity markets that we sell to. So I think it’s fitting that Australia was the country that led to my inspiration for starting GoPro.”
GoPro this week launched the HERO12 Black, a $649 camera that Mr Woodman said featured up to two times longer run times than its predecessor, wireless support for Apple AirPods and a new Max Lens Mod 2.0 accessory for video that “feels like you’re there”.
The camera and Max Lens Mod 2.0 are available for pre-order today and will be available in stores from September 13.
“We’re 21 years into building the brand and building the company, and it’s just frankly exciting to see how far we’ve come,” Mr Woodman said. “Our focus is enabling capture beyond the phone, and helping the world’s most creative people capture immersive, exciting, engaging content of their life experience.”
As GoPro ages into adulthood as a company, Mr Woodman said his next goal was to open up the company’s software – in particular its desktop editing software – to users who didn’t even have a GoPro.
He said its automated editing features would benefit anyone creating content regardless of what camera they were using.
“We recognise that it’s a bigger opportunity for us to leverage the technology that we’re developing for the GoPro community and make it available to anyone who’s seeking to create content,” he said.
“There’s a big opportunity between the free tools that come with your phone’s native operating system to the more expensive and complicated tools from a company like Adobe. In the middle there’s a significant opportunity to serve people who want the performance and capability, but not the complexity or the cost for complicated solutions.
“And that’s a great place for us to leverage our brand and software development to serve those customers. Our subscription business is growing quite steadily, it’s now over $US100m of annual recurring revenue, and that’s been built just with a focus on people that own a GoPro.”
AI has raised all sorts of questions for the future of video and “deep fakes”, and the executive sees the rise of AI as a positive for GoPro given the company’s research shows its users are excited to capture their experiences far more than they are to edit them.
“I know AI is scaring a lot of professions who are wondering if they’re still going to have a job, but we see to as a positive because it’s only going to make the editing experience more automated and convenient for people,” he said.
“We don’t see consumers being interested in faking their experiences; for sure it’s gonna be good for a laugh to show an AI generated video of yourself surfing a wave you never surfed or jumping a cliff on skis that you never jumped.
“But beyond the occasional laugh, we think that AI is going to serve our community and our business really well in helping automate the editing experience.”
Mr Woodman has served as GoPro chief executive throughout the company’s entire existence, and has seen a number of ups and downs – including a successful IPO, lay-offs, a turbulent share price and the creation then discontinuation of its quadcopter drone, Karma.
“It’s challenging in different ways,” he said. “As an innovator, it’s always challenging to imagine the future and help position the company for that future.
“And as a CEO, the challenge is to find the most talented people to help you realise that future and also to help you see what the future could be. And recognising that as the world changes and as the business goes through different cycles, that sometimes the people who were terrific for one phase of the business change, and you need to find new leaders to help you carry the business into the next the next phase.
“Right now we have such an incredibly strong team, that I feel like we’re really well positioned for the next few years, so that’s really exciting.”
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