Woodman is the son of Concepcion (née Socarras) and Dean Woodman. His father was born into a Quaker family and co-founded the investment bank Robertson Stephens; and her mother is of Hispanic origin and remarried Irwin Federman, general partner of US Venture Partners in 1992.[4] Woodman grew up in Menlo Park, California[9] and Atherton, California[10], attending Menlo School, graduating in 1993.[11] He earned a bachelor's degree in visual arts and a minor in creative writing from the University of California, San Diego in 1997. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay After school, Woodman founded two startups, which never really got off the ground. The first was a website called EmpowerAll, which attempted to sell electronic products for a maximum markup of $2, and the second was Funbug, a gaming and marketing platform that gave users the chance to win cash prizes. [14] Nick received a $235,000 investment from his father,[15] a Silicon Valley investment banker,[16] and used his parents' venture capital connections to launch GoPro. While on a break in Australia and Indonesia on a surfing trip, he used a 35mm camera attached to the palm of his hand by a rubber band to attempt to capture his surfing activities on film. Noting that amateur photographers like him – who wanted to capture quality action shots of their activities – were having difficulty, either because they couldn't get close enough to the action or because they were unable to Buying quality gear at affordable prices, his journey became his inspiration for founding GoPro. .[13] His solution was to develop a belt that would secure the camera to the body.[13] To finance the business, Woodman borrowed $200,000 from his father, who still held a 6.4% stake as of May 2014.[18] Nick also borrowed $35,000 and a sewing machine from his mother, which he used to sew camera straps while experimenting with early designs. Nick and his future wife Jill generated an additional $10,000 selling shell necklaces they purchased in Bali (for $1.90) from their car along the California coast (for $60). His desire for a camera system capable of capturing close-up images inspired the name "GoPro." The first GoPro product was a 35mm film camera developed by a Chinese company named Hotax that incorporated Woodman's custom strap, slight modifications. to the GoPro case and logo. Hotax sold Woodman the renamed camera for $3.05 and the cameras retailed for around $30. Woodman sold his products while using his 1971 Volkswagen bus which he named "The Biscuit" as a mobile home.[24] The product has since evolved into a compact digital camera that supports WiFi, can be controlled remotely, has a waterproof body, and records to a micro SD card. In 2004, Woodman made its first big sale when a Japanese company ordered 100 cameras at a sports show. Subsequently, sales doubled each year,[12] and in 2012, GoPro sold 2.3 million cameras.[13] In 2005, Woodman appeared on QVC to sell his GoPro Hero.[25] In 2004, GoPro had revenue of approximately $150,000, which increased to approximately $350,000 in 2005. In December 2012, Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn purchased 8.88% of the company for $200 million, which set the company's market value at $2.25 billion, making Woodman, who owned the..