9781422277355

Tech 2.0

“That’s how I came up with the name GoPro,” he says. “Most surfers, at some point, wish they could go pro. My friends and I want- ed to go pro just so we could get some footage of us surfing . . . it was that difficult. So, I figured at least a few surfers would be down with the concept of a wearable camera.” With the concept firmly rooted, Woodman needed some startup cash. He credits his then-girlfriend and now wife, Jill, with helping to come up with that side of the business. While surfing in Bali, Jill found what Woodman calls an “insanely cool bead-and- shell belt.” He ordered 600 of the belts at a low price in Bali. Two months later the belts were done for less than $2 each and Woodman moved back to California, where he sold most of them out of the back of his 1974 VW Westfalia van at an astro- nomical markup while living with his parents. He made enough money selling belts to pair with a family loan that let him launch GoPro. It was while selling bead-and-shell belts out of his van that Woodman developed the idea of a better wrist strap for camer- as, as the common wrist straps on the market weren’t particularly

The GoPro camera came with a mount.

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