Nick Woodman's GoPro: Shell Belts, the Karma Drone Recall and a 2026 Sale

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On a 2002 surf trip to Australia, Nick Woodman wanted footage of himself on waves, something only sponsored pros with camera crews could get. He named his company GoPro after that goal and his cameras Hero. Funded by $230,000 from his parents and $20 bead and shell belts sold from his Volkswagen van, he spent two years prototyping and in 2004 launched a 35 mm film camera in a waterproof wrist case at an action sports trade show in San Diego. It sold about $150,000 in its first year. The first digital GoPro in 2006 recorded silent 10-second clips, yet revenue jumped to $800,000 and then $3.4 million.

HD video and a 170-degree lens followed, and from 2010 GoPro built its marketing on customer videos, eventually paying out a million dollars in challenges. The 2014 IPO raised over $427 million at a valuation near $3 billion, and shares peaked at $86. Woodman pushed into media channels on Xbox, PlayStation and Virgin America, then built the Karma drone in-house; launched in late 2016, it lost power when vibration shook the battery loose, forcing a recall, and GoPro left drones by early 2018. With memory prices driven up by AI data centers and the stock at $1.33, Woodman agreed on September 1, 2026 to a $285 million merger with Starman Optical.

Layoffs ran from 100 and then 200 jobs in 2016 to 270 in 2017, 250 in 2018 and 20 percent of staff in 2020.
In July 2026, entities affiliated with Woodman put $20 million into GoPro through senior secured notes.
Starman Optical took 90 percent of the company, leaving existing shareholders with 10 percent.
Starman plans to point GoPro's lens and sensor technology at AI data centers and aerospace.
GoPro cameras flew around the moon on NASA's Artemis II mission in April 2026.

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