GoPro's Nick Woodman on drones, virtual worlds and money

SAN MATEO, Calif. — It's a good time to be Nick Woodman.

The longtime California surfer has seen his dream of a company, GoPro, defy critics with sales of nearly 15 million cameras and profits that doubled last year . It's the only major camera company still thriving in the smartphone era.

Still, the stock GPRO is down 18% this year, and he's got a host of worries, including cheaper knock-off competitors and a possible entry into his action-camera market by Apple.

But Woodman has both eyes on the future and in the sky, with virtual reality, manufacturing drones and a new edition of the GoPro Hero camera. And he just turned 40.

Being Nick Woodman after four decades is "awesome" says the GoPro CEO, in an interview at company headquarters here. "Forty is the new 20."

Right now he's "living the life I always dreamt of living, doing what I love to do. Isn't that what life is all about?"

Woodman, whose company is now worth more than $7 billion (he owns 40% of the firm) has been cited by Bloomberg as the highest paid American CEO in 2014 with $284 million, based on a package of restricted stock units.

"We're building a great business," he says, of the good times. "The money is just a side product of that."

He still brings his three kids to school every morning, chasing them from the car to the front door, usually playing monster with a GoPro camera in his mouth. He continues to engage in active sports like mountain biking, car racing and snowboarding, and puts in long, long days at GoPro HQ.

There, Woodman is navigating GoPro's launch into new products: In August, the firm will expand into virtual reality. Its 16-camera unit will work with Google's new Cardboard VR device to bring 360 degrees of awesomeness to those with bundles of cash to spend. GoPro hasn't announced a price, but 16 GoPro Hero Silver cameras at $400 a pop alone come to $6,400.

For next year, Woodman plans to sell a quadcopter drone with a built-in GoPro camera.

"It will be really exciting to see what the world comes up with...what they do with the GoPro," says Woodman, who credits the success of the firm to the outpouring from GoPro fans who regularly post content shot on his cameras.

GoPro's YouTube channel has 3.4 million subscribers and is closing in on 900 million views of videos produced by the company and users.

"As we attract more consumers to participate in the GoPro movement, it's limitless what these little guys can achieve," he said.

Francis Gaskins, an analyst with IPO Premium, says GoPro stock started off red hot, as investors expected the company to advance from hardware sales to a strong content play, with ad-supported videos flooding the Internet.

But while the GoPro YouTube channel does well, investors expected more. The stock peaked at about $93 a share, before settling in the $50s.

"Hardware is hardware," Gaskins says. "It's not as sexy as content."

For the here and now, there's that new GoPro Hero camera, Hero 4 Session.

It looks 360-degrees different from the familiar small, silver GoPro box consumers have come to know and love.

The new $399 camera is a tiny black box, with one button, to turn it on and off.

"It's the smallest, lightest, most convenient GoPro ever made," Woodman says.

It can't shoot in 4K like the previous Hero 4 Black. It has higher resolution than the $299 Hero + LCD camera, but lower than the Hero 4 silver, which shoots in 2.7K high def.

But, Woodman says, it's much easier to use, with just one button to turn it on and off.

His hope is that being so small, folks will shoot even more video with it. The goal was to make "the smallest, lightest, most invisible capture solution for customers," he says. "If we make it so small, so light and so convenient to use, you never ask yourself, do I want to pick the GoPro and go use it?"

With so many viral GoPro videos flooding the Internet, typically of Peter Pan types jumping out of airplanes or surfing, we asked Woodman for his pick of the ultimate GoPro video.

His answer: shooting his family. "The scariest experience is how fast they grow," he says. "When I imagine being able to relive that in virtual reality, and looking back when I'm 80, that's awesome."

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