Nicholas Woodman Net Worth & Biography

Nicholas Woodman is an American businessman and the founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of GoPro, a camera manufacturing company. He has been the Chief Executive Officer of the company and a member of the board of directors since 2004, and has been the Chairman since January 2014 and was also the company’s President from 2004 until June 2014.

Woodman got his start in 1998 when he started an online gaming company called Funbug.com. When that venture did not register any success, he planned an international surfing tour to look for inspiration. While preparing for that trip, he had the idea for a film-based wrist camera that he could wear during sports like surfing, enabling him to capture images while engaged in the activity. This idea became the first product of his GoPro – the HERO Camera.

In the years that followed, Woodman, along with family, friends, and employees, capitalized on the HERO Camera concept along with a variety of mounting devices that would ease mounting the camera to everything from vehicles to helmets, surfboards, and more.

Mr. Woodman holds a bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego. We believe that his experience as the GoPro’s founder and the knowledge he has amassed from actively participating in the tech industry gives him the experience and leadership capabilities that have helped him accomplish all that he has in his career so far.

Early Life: Childhood, Education

He was born Nicholas D. Woodman in Santa Clara County, California, United States on June 24, 1975, to Dean and Concepcion Woodman.

After his parents divorced, his mother married Irwin Federman of United States Venture Partners in 1992.

His father, Dean Woodman, came from a Quaker family and was a co-founder of the Robertson Stephens investment bank.

Nicholas attended the Menlo School in Atherton, California, and graduated in 1993 before enrolling at the University of California, San Diego. In college, he minored in creative writing, and in 1997, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in visual arts.

After graduating from the University of California, he founded the startups Funbug and EmpowerAll.com. The purpose of EmpowerAll.com was to sell electronics cheaply for $2 and below. Funbug on the other hand was a gaming and marketing platform on which users could win prizes. His father later gave him a $235,000 investment, and he started GoPro with the help of the venture capital connections of his Parents.

Professional Life: Entrepreneurial Career

In 2002, Woodman set off on a surfing trip around the world attempting to photograph his experiences. It was during his trip that he came up with the idea for a decent and affordable camera that would be used to capture quality close-up footage, while attached to the photographer’s body. This led to the founding of his GoPro Company and the GoPro camera. He raised funds during the first year of his company by selling imported belts from Indonesia while traveling through California in his Volkswagen Bus. The first version of the GoPro camera was waterproof, could be remote-controlled, had Wi-Fi, and had 64 GB of memory. It also cost less than 300 dollars. Nick knew he was on to something when a company from Japan ordered 100 units of his product. Sales grew astronomically, and Nick’s company sold 2.3 million cameras in the year 2012.

On June 26 2014, GoPro went public on the NASDAQ and hit a market cap of $3 billion on the first day of trading. At that valuation, Nick’s 45 percent stake in the company officially gave him a net worth of $1.45 billion. GoPro was worth $11 billion at the peak of the company’s performance and Nick was worth $4.5 billion. Unfortunately, the ride halted and GoPro’s stock took a big slide. In January 2016, GoPro laid off 7 percent of its workforce after losing 80 percent of its share price. In January 2018, the company started another big round of layoffs. By this point, the company’s stock price was down 90 percent from its peak, and Nicholas Woodman’s net worth, by July 2020, had sunk to $300 million.

Achievements: Awards & Honors

In recognition of his numerous accomplishments in the tech business, CEO Woodman has won a number of prestigious awards and has also been recognized by several reputable bodies.

In 2013, he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. The following year, His GoPro HERO3 HD camera won a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award. Nicholas made it onto several “Forbes” lists in 2015, including “Richest in Tech”, “‘Forbes’ 400”, and “Billionaires”.

Personal Life: Family, Kids, Private Interests, Philanthropy

Nicholas and Jill Scully have been married since 2012. They met in a college art class and now have three children together.

The husband and wife have owned many properties together. They owned houses in Hawaii, Montana, and California, in addition to a 180-foot yacht and a Gulfstream V jet.

Mr. Woodman and his wife are also dedicated to charitable causes as philanthropists.  In 2014, they donated 5.8 million shares of the GoPro Company to their non-profit organization, the Jill + Nicholas Woodman Foundation. The donation reduced Nicholas’s taxable income by a whopping $450 million.

The Jill + Nicholas Woodman Foundation also donated $2.85 million to a San Francisco child abuse prevention center in 2015. In 2019, it donated $4 million to a Montana community center.

Nicholas Woodman Net Worth: Salary, Income Sources, Assets, Real Estate

As of the time of this writing, Nicholas Woodman has a net worth of $300 million. He is mainly a businessman and entrepreneur, and his wealth and fame have been earned from the founding of the tech company GoPro, which he currently leads as chairman and chief executive officer.

In 2014, Nick spent $13.7 million in the acquisition of a 150-acre California ranch known as “Boogie Ranch.” He put the property on the market for $20 million. He previously sold a nearby property for $18.4 million. To also mention, Woodman owns houses in Hawaii, Montana, and California, in addition to a luxurious yacht and a Gulfstream V jet.