GoPro - How a Hero is Losing Millions - A Case Study For Entrepreneurs
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
- The Biz Doc dives into an interesting case study on GoPro who has gone from startup to millions to billions to losing profits. For those who have been vacationing on Jupiter, GoPro, Inc. is the American technology company founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman. It manufactures eponymous action cameras and develops its own mobile apps and video-editing software.
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From the Biz-Doc: THANK YOU to everyone who made a comment about Karma. You are correct!
1. I probably should have added that in detail - Karma was the drone that was (1) very late to the market - launched in October 2016; (2) performed badly and got recalled a month later when the battery suddenly would fail and it would crash and (3) got it’s butt kicked by DJI who was already in the market.
2. The core issue of trying to be a Media Company in 2014 was the strategic distraction to the company - and this distraction caused them to spend a TON of cash and directly caused them to lose focus on their core products. While on that path, they missed the rise of the drone market (the media team was laid off in December 2016, immediately following Karma) and played catch-up with a bad product.
3. All of this opened the door for cheap knock-off products to gain speed as well.
The rest is history...
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Gets 250k from parents to start = bootstrapped? What world are you living in?
A small loan of a quarter million dollar.
Are you listening to yourself? save $250k what fxxking planet do you live on.
Yet....usually that money goes to their children.
Stop denying the obvious, it just makes you look stupid.......dumbass
yea i kept waiting for the punchline, but no i guess he's an idiot
Just no.
LOL WHAT? ----> He was selling beads and handmade jewelry for a few dollars... and then suddenly "picked himself up by the bootstraps" when his parents gave him a quarter million dollars.
Sounds about right.
martin_e What if it was an investor who gave him the capital? Would you feel better? What do you feel about other companies who have angel investors put their money into a business is that pulling themselves up by their bootstraps? Just because it’s his parents doesn’t mean anything.
I don't believe that beads and handmade jewelry story. It's BS selling point. He went to Australia to surf for 5 months to explore new ideas. How many Average people can do that and still get $250,000 from parents to play with?
... saving pennies... boot straps like an entrepreneur...
*Gets 250k from parents*
... wait... what?!
Moral of the story: Not every company should go public.
You have missed something out. They got greedy and started charging overpriced licences to companies who use GoPro. The BIG one that comes to mind is DJI the drone guys. DJI got annoyed with GoPros arrogant view that they were the only people who could make small cameras and DJI went and made their own camera and put it on their drones...
Campbell Platt agreed. I still fly two p2s with GoPro together it chugs along like a Russian tank. Dji cameras are not crash friendly at all.
Yep, DJI are the ones that killed GoPro for me. They had enough clout to stick two fingers up at GoPro. The P3 camera was still inferior to GoPro, but once the P4 came out it was game over.
So true. The hero 6 was not for me because it didn’t offer anything that my photo didn’t. I still use a hero 5 session for mountain biking snowboarding, underwater, but that’s only because I don’t want to damage my phone. I actually did a comparison of footage from my iPhone 6s and the hero 5 session and proved that the phones audio and video (auto exposure and color detail) was much better than the go pros. They need to give me more reasons to pay $400 for a camera that’s worse than my phones. Other than damage protection and water safe, there’s not any other reason to buy one as of now
That right there is why they lost. They got beat on product value. It was not the implementation of the idea that you are a media company first like Gary Vee preaches. When you implement that idea and focus on consumer attention, you will either win faster or lose faster depending on the value of the product or service. I think GoPro camera's were once valuable in the eyes of the consumer but they just got beat by other products, mainly the iPhone.
If only go pro would have had a chalk board, they could have seen this coming :)
Gold 😂
They also needed a guy with serious artistic skills, instead of media executives
This is perfect for my chalkboard start up company!
Good thing Captain Hindsight is here to help.
Thumbsup for not saying “would of”. 👍🏼
GoPro jumped the shark when they went from $199 "throw away" cameras (GoPro 2) to $500 "OMG, I don't want to bring this thing on my boat what if I lose it" cameras (GoPro 3, up). And trust me, no one wants to buy that shitty GoPro session, especially for what they used to pay for a hero just a few years prior.
FPV drone users love the session my dude
$1,000. Mavic pro users aren't keeping GoPro in buisiness.
Yep I'm still using my gopro 3 since new in 2012. Looked at replacing it but way too much money
I just crash landed here, clicked on a suggestion just out of curiosity. I am following this channel straight away, I love it!
"Then he gets 250k ... right around a quarter million" followed by "He truly bootstrapped like most entrepreneurs"
GTFO
Most entrepreneurs go through a "friends and family" round of funding - it's still considered bootstrapping.
Golden boots 😂
Who hires a camera crew to film themselves surfing anyway? If you're getting along well enough selling beads in a first-world country it basically means you're already financially independent. People have a weird perspective sometimes - double entendre intended.
not to mention gorpo having 5 cameras out at once when they only needed 1 or 2. plus the huge fail of the karma drone
gorpo? =)
Wonderful video! They started out with a terrific product, and I still use my 3+ blacks regularly. Highly dependable and great video quality. It seems as they developed new products the improvement in quality had diminishing returns, while simultaneously reliability and build quality seemed to go down (based on reviews). My 3+'s are nearly flawless, there wasn't much of an incentive to upgrade.
Great to see you here Jason. Your comment added value to the video as well. :)
Nonsense. I've never seen a review where the latest GoPro's were derided for being poorer than the first, the complete opposite actually (not that the earliest ones are bad or anything, they're great too). Older ones can't do battery swaps (apparently), so if you're doing outdoor stuff like enduro or hunting, then the newer ones are way better in case you run out of battery life!
wut? the 3 and 4 have replaceable batteries. the 5 and 6's audio is trash, if you haven't seen a video complaining about them, you just haven't looked. try Trail Features' breakdown of the audio quality on a GoPro 5.
100% agree GoPro quality and functionality is gone, they are completly disconnected from it's customer base. To require a valid internet connection and a log in to use the phone to control the camera was ridiculous. Even now GoPro can't maintain a solid Wifi connection to the phone when only 1m apart. With my DJI Drones I maintain a solid connection 3ks apart. Wake up GoPro
Engineering Explained quality has always been questionable but 3+ is good. I have had many issues for years. My hero 2 failed in Italy. My 6 has issues. I would never regard then as reliable. They are after all cheap marked Chinese cameras
“Bootstrapping” *recieves a small loan of a quarter million from parents*
Great point - I should have called the parent’s money “angel investment” which is what it was. Bootstrapping is using your own money that you saved - pure personal risk. Parents tend to be in that category - joining their son - but in reality they were Angel Investors. Keep me honest - thanks for the comment! - Tom
Just another upper 20%'r with transfer of wealth as Richard Reeves has point out. Not saying he didn't work hard, disrupt, innovate, produce a unicorn, etc.
Sounds like Donald trump too me but that’s the only way you can take risk if you have the assets behind you
The Donald Trump loan. :D
I was thinking the same thing. Wish I could pull my self up by my boot straps by borrowing a quarter million from my parents. Gotta love it.
6 years out of business school and how I wish his videos were around back then... Concise and to the point!
I think a huge point you missed is that for most consumers they don't buy more than 1 camera.. If they are coming out with new cameras every year.. the consumer market just couldn't keep up. Even with the technology advances. Think of your tv or your car.. not many people are buying new ones every few years let alone every year. I think this was a huge downfall of go pro. The sad part of it all.. is as a professional filmmaker.. Go Pro products are at their best right now. A Hero 6 with their Gimbal?! Are you kidding me?! INCREDIBLE!
I also think GoPro had this new rave about them at first.. you own a go pro?! People would ask?! Now.. It's do you own a iPhone X
well actually u upgrade like u do with your phone. i own a GP4, and was very keen to get GP6 because of the advancements that really improve the quality (4k@60 recording, much better picture in low-light condition) but decided to wait another year. this fall i'm buying it (GP7 or 6) 100%.
I think you are exactly right. I bought a GoPro Session and boom... I'm good... I have my perfect perfect perfect action camera. It's waterproof, battery lasts long enough to get the shot, super small and light so I can mount it on ANYTHING and it was rugged as hell. Why would I need another one anytime soon. What they SHOULD have done is slowed R&D a little and cut spending and just ride the wave for a while. Bring your costs down ... make your product more affordable and you can reach more of the market.
can't agree, they can't cut R&D because China competition is on the heels. but they spent way too much time and effort on money draining drones and such. second, as I mentioned, as you become an experienced user you see certain drawbacks of the camera. many things could be improved, for example only GP6 provides 4k@60fps which is critical for action sports (slow-mo). and yet we want 4k@120fps and so forth. second, the sensor is small, and there's constant battle to improve the output quality especially in low-light conditions. the performance of 2 cameras with 2-3 years difference could differ dramatically.
They use commercially available sensors. Namely Sony, which has been really tearing into their market.
I get a new phone every other year and it costs more than a GoPro does. So that’s not a problem. Cheap competition is the biggest reason for their downfall. All of the people who are making their first action camera purchase just to see if they like it. And instead of buying up other companies they should have simply licensed the software which would have been way cheaper and less hassle.
I disagree in part. Their problem was not the ideas (even possibly the media company one), rather the execution. The Hero 4 was their last great Camera. Each product release since that has been dogged with problems, and the competition has got better and better. Now you can buy a YI 4K+ for £239 that works just fine vs a Hero 6 for £385 (post £100 price drop) which has tons of problems. Yes, in theory the Hero 6 might be slightly better if it gets fixed, but that's no good for now. The same was true for the hero 5, the Karma, the Karma grip, and even the new 360 camera has issues with the speed of stiching. For a premium brand it's just not good enough.
Things that they should have got right:
*) Not made the GoPro studio require a login - (I'm without internet connection in a remote location what do I do?)
*) Got shot of the transcoding on GoPro studio. It was time consuming and crippled the quality of the final video.
*) Taken their time on the 5 to get it right. Sound matters too.
*) Kept the battery design the same if possible (not milk your loyal customers for yet another set of overpriced batteries)- therefore reducing the barrier to switching to the 5.
*) If you have to change the battery design, then keep the battery price to a sane level, otherwise people with just get clones anyway.
*) Made the battery on the Karma gimbal replacable and the gimbal itself water-resistant and cold-proof. This is a rugged action camera brand - what are you doing selling a gimbal that will run out of power, not work in rain or cold? Also it needed to be easily chest mountable right from the start. They had plans for this, but I don't know if they ever sorted it.
*) Co-operate with DJI on the drone and not bail on the deal.
*) If you do have to create your own drone, bring your own values. Compact yes, but ruggedness too. Make it waterproof. If it lands in the water when filming, or gets rained on, it should keep working. Just about the only legal place to use these things is over the sea, so engineer for that.
*) Don't have your drone fall out of the sky, it's bad for PR.
*) Hero 6, test it, test it test it some more. Don't release the damn thing until it works. Also put it out at a vaugely competative price point.
*) GoPro Fusion with overcapture is a gamechanging product, put the effort into the software. Make the performance on processing the film clips actually bearable. Don't force people to subscribe to the Adobe tax to process their videos, it makes your product look crazy expensive.
If they really sort out the Fusion and the associated software pipeline, there's a chance they can turn this around. Overcapture is a fantastic concept for action sports. Being able to direct the camera after the shoot it incredible. But has to work and work well - especially for £650!
Exactly what i thought. I feel like the guy just ignores the products of the companies he takes a look at. Taking a look at the products requires lots of insight and knowledge and that means that you wont be able to make as many videos because you have to skip some companies or learn about them.
I am not allways happy with the quality of the videos, becuase everyone can look at the company history, stock value, throw around some techical terms and look really smart.
Well said.
he got $250k from his parents next quote "he truly bootstrapped like most entreprenuers" what? lmao
It has not been easy for me. And you know I started off in Brooklyn, my father gave me a small loan of a million dollars.
lolol
Donald Trump has no problem telling the world how he got his start though. On the other hand Nick Woodman tried to hide his family wealth to promote is rags to riches story to lift his company off the ground.
A quarter million dollar loan from your parents is NOT boot-strapping! You are right!!
Lol, i laughed so hard at it....!!!
That's not bootstrapping asking mommy and daddy for $250,000.00 that's called angel investing.
Edward A I thought the same thing.
You are actually correct and I should’ve articulated correctly. Even though parents often don’t think of it as angel investing. Keep me honest! Thanks - Tom
Edward A wish my parents were that rich
same here unfortunately were not all born to a rich or wealthy family...
Weng Ten " If you are born poor it's not your mistake but if you die poor it's your mistake" Bill Gates
biggest problem... gopro session (great camera) was over priced, they got greedy... second biggest problem they had a window where the Karma would have taken off but they delayed it almost a year. But i do think that gopro fusion is one of their best products every and has a real good market to sell... but they arent marketing it right.
Anyone remember when Apple hired John Sculley? Well, the same thing happened here. GoPro's Fundamental Error was hiring a president from Microsoft, a software company wth a HORRIBLE track record developing hardware (anyone remember the MicroSoft Zune?). GoPro was a hardware company, and their market changed but they didn't. While they were busy raising prices, 1) Drones were introduced, 2)Their core market got saturated, and 3) Competition was driving down prices.
The real lesson for would-be entrepreneurs? Get an EXPERIENCED Board of Directors. A good board would have prevented this.
BTW, the term the 'Biz Doc' was searching for is "Market Cap." The Market Capitalization of a company in the stock market is the number of outstanding shares multiplied by the share price. A lesson for the Biz Doc.
What a coincidence. I just learned what market cap was a few minutes ago. :)
You forgot to mention the Karma debacle. DJI *owns* the drone market, and GoPro decided they wanted to go from knowing almost *nothing* about drones to competing directly with DJI. They failed miserably. When they announced the big klunky, buggy Karma drone and DJI announced the little folding Mavic Pro in the same week, I knew GoPro was done for. Yes they totally lost focus on their core competency. They still make good cameras, but not great ones. Every new camera brings with it a bunch of new features, and new bugs, which they take months to address. Their customer service is *horrible*, which just adds salt to the wound.
The real reason for its demise was the hundreds of cheap chinese alternatives that are just as good for a fraction of the price.
You don't know what good is
good enough and just as good are two different things though. The original poster said just as good and I say he doesn't know how good the gopro is. Especially the session 5 for it's durability. The way i use a session, i'd have broken a thousand yi's by now. If you are just trying to film your kids at the playground then any cheap chinese camera will do. If you really need an action camera, then there is nothing as good as the gopro session.
mooosestang yeah, GoPro session is just amazing. There are no alternatives in terms of size and durability. And don't forget the superview which allows you to have a much larger field of view than any other action cam with very little distorsion.
I’ve previously bought multiple cheap action cameras. I eventually switched to a gopro
Still regulaly using my 2013 GoPro (had to get a new battery though)... Why ? Because the quality is still as good as when I got it !
I doubt a 50$ chinese gadget would hold that well that long (?)
That Karma drone was the last nail in GoPro's coffin. Sadly
I subscibed the moment he smoked a blunt.
Why?
Reminds me of every Atari corporate meeting until they went under..
Once, some Atari execs went so far as to light up on a corporate jet
Because it was funny asf
haha i was dying laughing. soooo funny!
So funny, loved that part
8:21 I have never seen a video from your channel, and i was watching this like ok ok this looks serious and very informative. And then I see this. Humour works best, subbed instantly!
In China these things grow on trees.
lol
Here's the real story- When Nick was getting worried about the dropping share value, he started following Garyvee. That's where he heard that every company needs to act like a media company. Now Vaynermedia will buy Gopro. Gary will revive the company, flip it and buy the Jets.
best!!
Gary planned it all out
Siddharth Sharma smart for Gary, but how is he going to get $1 billion+ to buy GoPro. They're still doing like $400m+ in revenue
2jzandy s By increasing the revenue...
if this is true, gary is a genious
360?? 360 is a gimmicky buzz. 360 does catch that much. You forgot the most important thing!.... Competition! ThiEye, Xiaomi... To name a few. They all came out with fair enough products to compete with the way overpriced GoPro. Products that are 1/4 of the price.
Yan Thériault I couldn't agree with you more. This video missed the point completely. How can you tell a tech company to "stick to what works" when competitors from all over the world are coming out to compete with your products. I wonder if he thought of blackberry when he offered that advice.
Ishhhh... ;-)
"Chinese copies" provides you with more features for much less.
LOL... k k
ha ha ha!!
not anymore..we have the hero7 black with live stream ...go pro you will always have my loyalty
Ha, you apparently don't have that much go pro experience. That is obvious.
Thanks for making this video. As an entrepreneur and business owner, I like to remind myself that most business are not meant to last forever. Sometimes you strike luck and what started with humble beginnings grows into a more serious and profitable operation. But you should never forget what made you stand out in the first place,and never get overconfident.
I own an excavation company and I am still hesitant to purchase dump trucks. Trucking is a different field of work and although it is a whole new field of work for me, I think it will be a great addition to our services.
This helps explain why I've gotten more disappointed with my GoPros as they've come out.
WALTERRIFIC fancy seeing you here ol chap. Hopefully by now you have crossed over to the fdr x3000. Just use your creativity and paint it to your liking.
WALTERRIFIC oh hi :D This has just reminded me about your channel :D Time to catch up on your videos :)
WALTERRIFIC two hero 3+ black editions were the last ones I got
Had the GoPro 3 and 4 and the last action camera was the Sony FDR-X3000 which wasn't waterproof without the case, but has BOSS (image stabilization) that is far better than GoPro. Just hope DJI never goes public but I wouldn't mind some stiffer competition to keep them competitive :)
WALTERRIFIC!
You learn from mistakes but they don't have to be yours.
This is the best channel for entrepreneurs. 👍👏👏👏
OK - I'm 75% thru this video and you fail to mention two MAJOR factors: 1.) the Karma drone fiasco and 2.) CHINA. You can't talk about GoPro's decline without these so you get a thumbs down...
China did hurt their bottom line a little for sure but anyone who spent the $35 on a chinese goPro alt knows they are nowhere CLOSE to being as good as an actual GoPro. Also chinese action cameras don't have customer service, they don't last very long, shitty quality is putting it mildly and no product support like editing software or again ... CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! Truly goPro's worst decision wasn't going public as much as it was hiring a Microsoft exec to run the company. When you build your company from a cult and then turn around and hire a guy from another company who's know for fucking their customers as hard as possible... you can't possibly survive.
I bought GoPro Hero2 Outdoor edition, LCD screen and extra battery. Cost $500. It was great when biking. Took it on a dive, it flooded. Contacted GoPro and got a dance from them via email. I said I would buy another Hero2 directly from them (at a reduced cost and send them back the old one), but they never returned an email. Contacted again... nothing from GoPro. $500 gone. I bought a Chinese knockoff, SJ4000 when it was first released. I still have it, and it works just fine. It cost me 1/5 the price of a GP.
Also, remember that DJI used GP for their drones in the beginning and then went to using their own cameras.
Then the failed Karma. The idea was good with the removable camera/gimbal system for the selfie crowd. Too bad they kept falling out of the sky.
I care about people losing their jobs, but I do not care about GP, Nick and his expensive toys, nor would I buy another product from them when the Chinese knockoffs provide a much less expensive alternative and excellent image quality. I get burned only once.
I bought my first and only GoPro in 2017 without doing my research about the company--or enough research about the product. Before that, I was using a mid-range LG (Android) phone for videos related to the business I'm developing. And I was actually pretty impressed with the phone videos' quality; I just wanted something a little more professional and thought GoPro was the way to go. Well, I ended up upgrading the LG videos with stabilizing equipment and better editing software and let the GoPro gather dust on a shelf. I'm glad I saw this very informative video, because it emphasizes something I should have learned a long time ago: "Do thorough research, not only on the product, but on the company that sells the product." Subbed.
The puffing a joint overlay was SOOO AWESOME
So much value here. Learning from failure can help you so much
Brian I see you everywhere man, I subscribed to you a week ago
They got hit by KARMA. Released a product that has less features compared to a first generation MAVIC on the same premium price.
Yes you can learn from failure and in life, it is how many of us do learn in many different aspects of life, however, while they may learn from their failure it does not mean that they will have enough financially left to be able to put these lessons into good effect and it will not help those who invested heavily into GoPro stocks recover their money.
Brian Tobias also lets us know.. if your parents aren’t rich.. or know someone rich, you can’t do something like this.
Maybe that’s why they want a high tax rate for the rich. So the government gets to pick winners and losers and no one like this has rich parents or friends..
So much for people not investing savings into ideas.. lol
No mention of the Karma drone seems like a huge oversight in this analysis; that no doubt put the company in the red alongside the other sketchy business choices that were mentioned...
I have to say GoPro is too expensive for me. Last Year I bought a Yi 4k for around 130$ new on amazon it performs even with the hero 5 which was at over 450$ at the time.
How's that Yi audio? The Yi is such crap, terrible audio, i won't even get into why the video is worse, because i can't get past the terrible mic.
This is a very nice case study! Congrats for your work and keep it up!
Fantastic video and breakdown, loved the info and takeaways - great job!
Did you mention the Karma drone? I think that was one of their biggest downfalls. I think they launched their drone too early, did not have enough experience in the industry and complicated the tech. It was a great concept (camera + gimball that you can use separately and then "plug" into the drone). But they were trying to compete on price with DJI who's been in the drone market for much longer. Maybe they should have launched a smaller drone first. Having to pull that bird from the market must have hurt their pockets.
Also, some of their upgrades did not impress. They launched the 6 and all they were on about is "stories" but we are here for the camera, right? So what's bigger and better with the camera? Can your software finally hold a connection and download the photos efficiently without dropping connection? That's a real (frustrating) issue. So yes, now kids just strap an iphone to their heads, 'cause it's a mission to get content on your phone.
If I was DJI I'd buy them. Waterproof cameras with built-in gimbals. That's what I want to see with action cams.
Alfred Thorpe, action cam its tough this day. They have to compete with sony and cheap chinesse knock off.. even dji wont stand a chance in this action cam business... Dji is in the right direction to produce high end camera for drone only... Thats what they good at.
The Karma was smaller, it was as small as they could get it. Remember they were going against the Phantom. The Mavic didn't exist yet.
I think it got flanked by cheaper action cam with almost same picture quality
$250k from parents is not bootstrapping.
Razster yeah, even i thought the same thing
Sounds like Trump saying he got a small loan of 1 million dollars from his parents lol
he said selling belts and other stuff out of his van and then 250k from his parents was a bit funny
Thank you!
GoPro Quik is the reason I found this video...Im a long time GoPro fan, Started with the Hero2 camera and loved it, fix it to my bike, surfboard or helmet and turn it on, point in the general direction off you go, it did its intended job great, now they have voice control, Bluetooth/wifi, zoom etc.... Just because you can doesn't mean you should!!! Keep it simple.
Now you've got a camera with all the bells and whistles and with Quik "editing" software the best you can do is a 60 second selfie clip, so I'm here on CZcams looking for alterantive software or a different camera....
This is why having a clear mission and vision is important for a company of any size.
no, it was always a boutique company. not many people are going to pay $400 for an action camera when moore's law made everyone else's $150. only reason why they were able to sell at that price in the beginning is because they were the only game in town
$659 for their flagship camera 🤣. So glad they came down in price
Excellent review. I love GoPro (Still use them - 7 cams) and hope whoever purchases the company takes it back to its roots.
Good comment sir. Agree.
and dont forget about the Karma, that was crushed by the Mavic. Feel bad for GoPro, hope they go up again
Diego Soruco
i really feel bad for gopro because they pretty much made the action camera industry.
first comment i see that makes this point. the drone killed the company plain and simple. they sunk a ton of money into something they should not have
Was literally the worst drone in its price class. What the fuck did these cockbags think when they dreamed up that they could take on the world's biggest prosumer drone manufacturer?!? The Karma had zero downward facing sensors and couldn't stay in one position for longer than 5 seconds without drifting around the place. They thought that their household name in action cameras could put them near the top in this technological space and the market looked at their offering and went "Nnnnnope, I can get a far superior DJI at that price"
FunkteonRecordings exactly, it’s hard to believe people actually bought that piece of shit. They should have stuck with camera and fumble setups you can use on other drones if anything. They should have just never touched the market at all
Very interesting! It makes me understand a lot more about my frustration with the new goPro cameras
GOOD presentation and points...a fan from kerala , india
Midhun, your location reminds me of the Blood Rain incident. Do you know about this? Not sure how long ago.
"Kerala" Great song by Bonobo
Dude if you are not already a college economics professor then you ought to consider it. Thanks for making it entertaining :)
Thank you, teaching is a passion of mine and this is a way I get to pursue it. Thanks - Tom
No, he shouldnt. He cannot admit mistakes. Instead he just says nothing. Second: He doesnt cover the main issues. Karma, China, GoPro lies about specs.
Lol Karma? Is that a business word we don't know about?
You missed out the GoPro Karma drone - that they tried to beat DJI with. Dumb move. Now remaining stocks are getting sold off, and they're not flying out the door either. That must have had a massive effect on their expense budget... Very, very ill judged.
The Karma was a complete and utter failure.
I don't think their Karma drone was a failure as a strategy, just in the execution of the strategy. They could have made a huge splash into what was basically a one company market. Much like GoPro had to deal with major players like Sony and Nikon moving into the action camera arena, DJI had basically no serious competion in the quality drone market. There was a lot of excitement when GoPro announced their drone and they would have had some serious success and fan backing if it weren't for the fact that they rushed to market and had serious technical issues that forced a total recall. At that point they were done. They had a window but tried to go through it before they were ready. DJI just laughs now on the way to the bank as they sit atop the drone world with no serious competition to contend with, much like GoPro in the early days of action cameras.
IIRC The DJI Mavic was released only a few months after Karma and was superior in almost every way.
The original Karma in my opinion was the 3DR Solo.
They should've stayed private, realized where the market was headed, and made the GoPhone.
great
Some of the most successful companies are still private. W.L. Gore (GoreTex) is one of them...
The GoHome. Jk I love GoPro
Biz Doc, you're the best and what I've been looking for. Great videos on how big companies fail, great lessons. I've subscribed to you and will probably watch all your vids, I learned a lot from your Krispy Kream and this GoPro
OMG, just found this channel....amazing content! Subscribed!
I will save you 15 mins folks, what happened to GoPro? Nick Woodman got rich and lazy, you are welcome.
you're so right...
he actually got sloppy
Actually it was Nick Woodman being the same old Nick Woodman. Poise and character can't be bought.
I don't know this for sure but it sure sound about right.
“Karma” killed go pro
yep
Its a sad story as I really love the brand. They've been with me in so many places, adventures and experiences. For me those cameras have always worked really well, and felt more reliable than some cheap china copy.
You are the best ! Thank god I didn’t go for expensive college to get MBA level case studies. Keep crushing it. With ya
hahaha i immediately subscribed when that joint came out..i couldn't believe my eyes.....Man! your explanation is epic!....now to binge watch the rest....
Receiving $250,000 isn't bootstrapping.
Great point - I should have called the parent’s money “angel investment” which is what it was. Bootstrapping is using your own money that you saved - pure personal risk. Parents tend to be in that category - joining their son - but in reality they were Angel Investors. Keep me honest - thanks for the comment! - Tom
Drones killed GoPro.
People strap GoPro's to their drones. (Search up "FPV" on CZcams for examples.) Or they used to. GoPro attacked RunCam for a similar form factor product called a "RunCam 3" thus removing it from the market. RunCam is a small Chinese company who are specifically supporting the FPV sport. The RC3 was a great little camera like a Session5 but at 1/4 the price. This pissed off most of the FPV community, and rightly so. Thanks GoPro. Now days many FPV's use GoPro only as a last resort.
They are failing because there is no barrier to entry; simple as that, and nothing is going to save them at those ridiculous valuations.
Damn! That was a good video. Timely, relevant, concise, entertaining... Subbed!
Very well delivered! Clear and to the point. Thanks!
I think there is still so much potential in it and it's gonna come back, no matter what ...
derek karani as Nokia with their phones. :)
There’s so much competition now though with YI and Sony proving better footage(currently) and many cheaper ripoffs too. GoPro won’t fail as they have their name but unless they do something outstanding, innovative and more affordable then they’ll remain as they are.
Potential is useless until it’s realized. And the clock I ticking. There’s a lot of potential out there but few who harness and maximize it.
nope
i cant see it
It will, but when it gets sold
Why is he dressed like a racing car driver?
These are formula one shirts. Some of them I got from friends on the teams. When I did my very first case study I happened to be wearing one. People seem to think it was cool so I rotate them. No other reason than that. Thanks for the question - Tom
They are very distracting. Are you making advertising revenue off them? As I watch that’s what I assumed, which just cheapens and distracts from the fascinating information you are giving us. I love your videos, which are rare CZcams gems 💎. Thanks!
David Gaugamela yes I thought the exact same thing. Why is this so well done but he is wearing advertisement covered shirts? I actually only scrolled down to find out the reason behind it. It feels very out of place.
Zaid Al-Khaled He’s doing this for fun, and running his own show, so I guess he’s entitled to dress any damned way he wants. He is giving us these fascinating little videos free of charge, so if he wants to be whimsical or quirky, he’s entitled.
That being said, “the medium IS the message,” Marshall McLuhan famously declared. The form conveying the information has as much or even greater impact on the audience as the content. The shirts he’s wearing are a major distraction to his audience.
He isnt dressed like a driver. He is dressed like the pit crew.
A case study on Xiaomi and it's extremely insane growth , plz tom plzzz..
First video i viewed of the channel. Definitely going to be taking a deep dive. Hope all your other videos hold up to the bar you set by this video. Great work!
old dude have too much energy~ I LOVE IT!!
Good video, but how in the world did you not mention the Karma drone disaster? That was supposed to be their secret weapon.
Why didn't you stay with it?
Greed, my man. Greed.
Well, dji, sony, yii and bunch of capable cheap action cams were the main reason, and gopro faild to have a good outlook regarding drones and 360cams, additionally nick took too much money in his own pocket. Nevertheless they are still among the best action cams with still good reputation
Robin Bri they also didn't really listen to the customers. Like wtf no mic input without that crazy dongle. And the lame Jump from 4 to 5
indeed, why the hell no mic input^^ your right
I enjoyed this video very much while learning a lot. Video is very well done, profesional, entertaining, instructive and appealing drawings to explain ideas. Thank you very much for uploading.
One BIG turn off for many customers is the decision to "update" the software so that it doesn't work with Windows 7 while still some 40% of the customers use that OS. I managed to find an older version so that I could go on using the overpriced camera. But at the same time noted that buying GoPro isn't gonna happen anymore. That decision to deliberatly sabotage the sold item really pissed me off! 😡
How is getting $250000 from you parents boot strapping?
My parents could not even spare $250
@@TTOTheTrueOne lol same here 😂😂
I would love to have a mom and dad who was loaded with money to give me =) Alot harder to fail.
Great point - I should have called the parent’s money “angel investment” which is what it was. Bootstrapping is using your own money that you saved - pure personal risk. Parents tend to be in that category - joining their son - but in reality they were Angel Investors. Keep me honest - thanks for the comment! - Tom
angel investors at a quarter mil. thats a quarter to donalds million dollar angel investor loan from his dad. i heard he made a million in profit, but still thats a huge advantage.
trust me i know (im broke and my parents used to be lol)
I think it’s easier to fail when you’ve got something to fall back on. When it’s yours to lose you’ll work much harder.
For individual labour perhaps. But many great starting companies fail because they run into liquidity problems. Rich parents are great for avoiding that trap.
You all do realize that 250k is not that much money at all, right? That's just ONE year salary for ONE good hardware engineer. And he needed hardware, software, sales, marketing, and slew of other people.
GoPro is a NoGo. Overpriced and under performs along with all the glitches.
You also missed the gopro copies that are a fraction of the price with some out performing the gopro.
Plus many of them come with a host of different attachments, ok they may not be the same quality totally as Gopro stuff but you can save enough to buy some better mounts if really needed.
Thanks. Really like the presentation on the blackboard. Confidence in what you are presenting rather than non-stop slides.
Go Pro reminds me of the Blockbuster effect. Smart phone cameras knocked out Go Pro like Redbox, Netflix knocked out Blockbuster. Blockbuster also sticked their roots and look at what happened to them.
Good point.
blockbuster store still down the road from me.
Only just seen this video and it's probably already been said, but the Karma drone was a colossal waste of time and money which hurt GoPro's reputation and most importantly, they've suffered from competition from cheaper Chinese action cameras of equivalent quality and the Sony FDR-X3000 which is better than the GoPro 6 in most regards. The GoPro 6 is too expensive and not good enough. Their core product is not as attractive as it used to be. I think GoPro has had it to be honest. Mid March and their shares are at around $5.6.
Of course they also lost a lot of credibility not to mention money with the much touted but ill fated collaboration with 3DR and the (ditto) GoPro Karma drone which couldn't fly.
I laugh when i saw you smoking ... lol; good one!
By the way; you’re explaining very well; you’re a very good teacher.
So good. Just great. Keep em comin!
Its all Karma's fault
I totally think so too! I have really liked gopro's products and karma was a great idea. The idea of a stabilizer and drone in one system was attractive. They went up against Dji and got spanked big time with reliabilty issues and the release of the Mavic pro. Shame
That's why you shouldn't name a product "Karma"
Brayden Bella it didn't help that's for sure. Dji has the drone market on lock
it's the investors fault
The Karma was certainly a contributing factor, and deserves at least a mention
Great Vid
American Apparel had the ball n dropped it due to lack of business also.
Heroes dosn't need money
I think the good thing for new comer is that their pricing is more accessible to the average consumer now..
Hmm, to be honest I didn't expect GoPro goes this way (actually - I am shocked, I watched entire video without blinking!), but I am sure they tried their best to be on top. I see they are now selling new 360 degrees GoPros, software is great, connection w/ iPhones is also great... Maybe I am new here and I am more than impressed with the video quality (even I have iPhoneX since it came out) - I like throwing my GoPro Hero 6 Black into the aquarium, river, sea... attaching to quad-copters... record in 240fps and then slow it down in video editing software... it is really great fun and quality is (still) amazing... I am trying to find descent head mounter because default one slips off the head (I have longer hair)... I will have to try to get "Adjustable Head Strap Mount" which seems that does exactly what I want... I really love GoPro a lot (like some die-hard fan) so I hope this situation gets solved asap :) Maybe Google buys the company and implement it into Google Glass! The only one thing that would beat GoPro now is - Google-Glass I am waiting for years to come out =)
Hi Tom. What would you assess the assets as worth, vs. $6 valuation?
My question exactly. At $6 is it undervalued and a potentially worthy investment?
I just got a DJI Osmo mobile 2, and a Iphone SE.. 4k filming.. instant upload to youtube and facebook.. super easy to use.. got a session, but never really got to use it much.
Same except I have a smooth q and a session 5
You do 4K on an SE? How!?!?
Settings > Camera > Record Video
Wow! I've had this thing for years and I never knew I could do that! Thanks!
GoPro is history, imo.
Why would spend $300 where I can buy the same for $30 ?
Why would I buy any product, where I know they sell with a 600% profit margin ?
Because that's what is going on with current technology.
You cannot compete for very long with new technology at too high prices.
Unless you're Apple.
Werner Boden that’s like, super naive. First, have you looked at recent smartphone prices? Most companies beat apple now when it comes to high prices.
Second, research and development costs a lot of money, just because the parts don’t cost so much doesn’t mean developing the product was cheap either
@@julius4858 Wrong on both counts
@@wernerboden239 Please elaborate how I am wrong? Please tell me the price of the newest Samsung and Huawei flagship phones?
Please tell me how R&D is cheap?
The features in the Hero7 are reasons to finally jump back into new gopro purchases. Haven't wanted to upgrade my Hero3 until now.
The first time I saw one of those GoPro kiosk displays I was mesmerized by the HD quality. I stood there and watched for almost 10 minutes. Then I told my myself the iphone and Samsung will have the same quality video within 4 years and Amazon will simply sell waterproof cases and mounts. Nobody is going to buy two devices to do the same thing unless one sells cheap...with a battery that isn't a pain in the butt to keep charging. I believe the CEO and founder sold a boatload of stock at one point since that day.
Gotta wonder how much they lost on the karma.
Gopro = overpriced products.
Products support is gone the time they release the new one (no more firmware update for previous products)
Bugs (without solution) like blur photo taken with gopro hero 4 indoor.
Love gopro (product and brand image) but feel they don't respect to user.
GoPro's philosophy seems to be, "Maybe the old model was crap, but the new model is much better. Give us another $4-600. Really. It's better." It's the rich kid mentality. Wreck your Porsche? Just get a new one.
The lie about everything to the customer.
Gopro are great cameras..but there are many other cheap cameras. Like me, as a beginner couldn't afford a gopro for my motovlogs. So I bought a cheap firefly 6s which serves my purpose after some hacks. Sad to know gopro may go down.
Firefly 8S rocks man!
b0t b0t my next buy is 8s..
What do you mean "hacks"?
Dániel Horváth Firefly action camera are direct fit for gopro waterproof casing. But sadly mine doesn't support external microphone for my motovlogs, so I record my voice seperately and add it in post.
I heard a lot and read the comments, no one really knows why GoPro failed and here I should tell you. And it's a technology company and the answer lies in there as well. (user of GoPro for 4 years)
1. GoPro cameras don't come with accessories, other action cameras do, when an avarage person is buying the camera he has to spend another 30 to 40 dollars on mounts which is not true for other camreas.
2. Initially, GoPro targeted athletes and motorcycle racers and common people with active lifestyle, in order to sell more they started making their cameras more consumer friendly saying you can take it to your normal holiday. That type of photography is not well done by GoPro. Their Instagram became ruled by photos whereas it's a video camera. They started going after the wrong audience which took them away from their core audience. (The speed and active lifestyle people)
3. Going after fashion influencers and not hardcore action influencers.
4. THE BIG ONE: The hero 6 is amazing but it has terrible image noise in low light and very poor ISO performance. The camera hangs up. This has never happened with any GoPro camera in past. People who cared about quality bought GoPro not cheap Chinese ones. But Chinese cameras closed the gap and GoPro created a glitchy camera that they couldn't fix in firmware.
Ride With Rahul by far one of the most misunderstood product ever. Even you made a comment about Chinese alternatives not realizing that that is what it is. It was a cheap Chinese camera that they rebranded. That’s why it’s so unreliable. Something cheap and branded it is something really cool and amazing but underneath it all it’s cheap Chinese,
@@FIXProtocol apart from hero 6 nothing is unreliable.
@@RideWithRahulOfficial was that why myself and several others lost footage 2013 when using the hero twos? Is that right when I came back one of them later had the microphone died on me?
@@FIXProtocol initially they were chinese, I started using Gopro since hero 3 plus, bought hero 4 black later. (During time of hero 3 plus and hero 4 no Chinese camera could do what these could do) like 4K and slow mo. Footage loss is possible mostly for card faliure. But sometimes for camera as well. For hero 3 and 4 never lost a single file for 4 years. Bought hero 6 last year and amazing quality but as soon as firmware upgrade came it became unreliable.
@@RideWithRahulOfficial do the research. I did. The way the company started was by the owner getting these cheap Chinese cameras and rebranding them. He didn't make the camera all he did is attach it to his wrist in a very rudimentary way. He's no inventor. The biggest thing is is a Salesman and that he's really good at. Not really much else.
Wow, CZcams's finally turning into a learning platform (as it should've in my opinion)! Thanks for the content, really informative! Great material Doc!