Nick Woodman engages the Reddit community in his second GoPro AMA since 2014. Here at GoPro Ace, we have compiled the 6 main points and answers from the highly energetic CEO of GoPro.
GoPro became a publicly traded company in 2014, the company has risen from many tribulations since then. With 1500+ GoPro employees alongside GoPro founder, Nick Woodman, the team is passionately working effectively to deliver the best experiences to their customers and partners.
On October 6 2016, Nick Woodman took part in a ‘Ask-Me-Anything’ session on Reddit, representing his company and their vested partners. While the majority of questions were raising concerns about the upcoming KARMA products, Nick was steadfast in responding to an array of topics.
GPRO Stocks and the Jill+Nicholas Woodman Foundation
According to Nick Woodman, since 2015 he has consistently purchased GoPro stock by paying his taxes on vested shares in cash and holding vs. selling.
I’m a believer. – Nick Woodman
There was a slur of edgy comments made towards Woodman about the crashing of GPRO stocks. One Reddit comment stated “Stock was down 25% from the $85 price you sold before anyone else could touch it, and is now worth less than 1/5th it was when you sold”.
But it didn’t take long before Woodman corrected the comment by confirming that he didn’t pay a fee of any kind for an exemption to transfer shares for the formation of the Jill+Nicholas Woodman Foundation. In fact, the Foundation didn’t sell shares until later in 2015. The Foundation has gone on to fund causes supporting women and children.
Thoughts about the DJI Mavic Pro drone
When we asked Nick about his thoughts on DJI, he was pretty straightforward – which is great to see in a CEO. He did say he may be biased ;-) but I think KARMA shreds…especially for $799!
Re-iterating his stance about how amazing it is to get the drone, the removable stabilizer, the handheld grip, the touch display controller all together in the backpack for one packaged price.
A couple of years ago, all of this would have been $10K. We are living in the future. Being “more than a drone” is what Karma is all about…but in the area of drones specifically, DJI did a great job.
Ultimately, Nick thinks that the DJI Mavic Pro is a sweet drone – no resentments there. DJI did a really nice job and should be stoked with what they’ve accomplished.
Personally, I’m partial to Karma because I want more than just aerial footage…I want amazingly smooth, sick footage of everything I do…not just buttery shots from the sky.
Upgrades to the KARMA
The KARMA Remote has a function that returns the drone to the place where it launched, forum members were asking why can’t there be a Follow Me feature where the KARMA Remote sends the KARMA the flying commands on an interval based on GPS?
Nick swiftly replied on that comment and confirmed that GoPro is already working on updates to the KARMA and follow-me functionality.
Karma already has a lot of hardware features built into it that we’re not exploiting yet, so expect more radness to come. We know everyone is excited to learn more and we promise to share more as soon as we can. Thanks for the stoke.
Planning ahead on new features for the HERO cameras
Woodman told GoPro Ace on Reddit in regards to the HERO product line, GoPro is envisioning a “total solution” rather than think about each new GoPro as a “product”. According to GoPro, products are standalone things and they want to build solutions that help solve problems for people.
When deciding which features to included in a new GoPro, KARMA, or any new software we think about the total solution and experience we’re creating for our customers and not as much about the individual product itself. Hope this makes sense.
Evolution of GoPro KARMA
KARMA is off to an exciting start and the development team at GoPro has cultivated tons of opportunities to evolve their scope. Expect to see some of these enhancements as firmware updates to the current KARMA and some will come down the road in new versions.
I can’t share more, but know this…Karma has only just begun!
One comment pertaining to KARMA was very interesting because it asks Nick about the change in max flying range on the website vs. the press release. The originally stated range of 1km was a nod to safety and keeping KARMA within line-of-site. Since the unveiling of the KARMA drone, the developers realized that everyone wanted to know the actual technical spec of KARMA’s range capability, so the specs were updated to show more accurately what KARMA drone is capable of – Up to 3km.
Nick Woodman talks about entrepreneurship
“If I knew then what GoPro would become and how much it would take to get here…I probably would have been too freaked out to get out of bed in the morning. But this is where the power of blind optimism kicks in. Think it, see it, do it and don’t worry about the risks. Leave that to everyone else and you’ll wake up one morning successful at whatever it is you’re focused on. Phew!”
Find the best of those who believe and together, as a team, go kick the crap out of that problem. Understand it will take time to be successful, but if you follow above steps success will come.
According to Nick, he believes that people should try to solve problems that matters to them, personally. That way, what’s personal won’t feel like work and it’ll be passion instead.
Make sure you can tell a short and powerful story about the problem you are solving and how you are going to do it. This will help others understand and BELIEVE.
That wraps up the GoPro AMA from Nick Woodman and his team at San Mateo, California. Be sure to check out the new HERO5 Black and HERO5 Session. KARMA comes out October 23, 2016.
