Nicholas Woodman Stops By Reddit for Anr AMA

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Oct 8, 2016

Earlier this week, GoPros founder and CEO signed into Reddit for his second Ask Me Anything thread. He loved doing it a year ago, so as soon as he had another opportunity he took advantage. He announced his sign-on with:

What's the haps, Reddit? Nick Woodman, here. Last year, I had so much fun catching up with you all and I hinted at some awesome things we had in the works, like HERO5, VR, flying machines and editing tools that dont suck. Today, I'm stoked to talk about all of the above with you since weve finally launched a ton of it.

But first, a huge thank you to all our fans around the world. We recently announced HERO5 Black, HERO5 Session, and "dont call it a drone" Karma with its detachable stabilizer and included handgrip. And more! Much more. Check out our launch video here and then let's dig in.

Thanks again for having me!!

Hi5 - Nick

In case you missed it, check out some of the highlights from the vibrant Q&A.

Reddit User: I know it really helps to be optimistic and remain positive when starting a new company but did you really expect to expect the GoPro brand to blow up and become as successful as it is today? And thanks for making amazing products!

N. Woodman: If I knew then what GoPro would become and how much it would take to get here...I probably would have been too freaked out to get out of bed in the morning. But this is where the power of blind optimism kicks in. Think it, see it, do it and dont worry about the risks. Leave that to everyone else and youll wake up one morning successful at whatever it is youre focused on. Phew!

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Reddit User: Thanks for doing this AMA, Nick! Huge fan of your company and the emphasis you put on your customers. I use your cameras to shoot my universitys marching band. My question: what instrument would you be interested in seeing? Do you play a musical instrument?

NW: I play a mean conga...or at least I try to. Youve inspired me to make a video to share. Im on it! Conga is sorely underrepresented in GoPro world! No longer!

Reddit User: Is the new GoPro Plus a way to increase recurring revenue instead of relying solely on product release cycles every two years?

NW: GoPro Plus is how we make it easy for you to auto-offload footage from your HERO5 camera to the cloud so you can later access it and edit it on your phone...on the go. You can also plug older GoPros into our new Quik desktop app and your desktop will upload your footage to GoPro Plus. Yes, Plus will generate more revenue for GoPro but I think whats most exciting is how much easier it makes offloading, accessing, and editing your footage. Its a new world!

Reddit User: What do you think about the DJI Mavic?

NW: I think its a sweet drone. DJI did a really nice job and should be stoked with what theyve accomplished. Personally, Im partial to Karma because I want more than just aerial footage...I want amazingly smooth, sick footage of everything I do...not just buttery shots from the sky. Karma lets me capture "drone-smooth" footy from my chest while Im skiing, in my hand while Im chasing my crazy kids around the skate park, and yes...in the air when thats the shot I want. Being "more than a drone" is what Karma is all about...but in the area of drones specifically, DJI did a great job.

Reddit User: How do you decide when to stop adding new features and release a new camera?

NW: Really good question. Our approach is to envision a "total solution" rather than think about each new GoPro as a "product". Products are standalone things. We want to build solutions that help solve problems for people. So, when deciding which features to included in a new GoPro, Karma, or any new software we think about the total solution and experience were creating for our customers and not as much about the individual product itself. Hope this makes sense.

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Reddit User: Mr Woodman, big fan of the cameras! Thanks for doing this. How do you see the Karma line evolving from here?

NW: Thanks Stoicka! Call me Nick! Mr. Woodman makes me feel old. Im only 41 (and still 18 in my mind)! Karma is off to an exciting start and as you can imagine theres a lot of opportunity to evolve, enhance, and extend it as a platform for capturing insanely smooth footage be it in the air, in your hand, or mounted. Some of these enhancements will come as firmware updates to the current Karma and some will come down the road in new versions. I cant share more, but know this...Karma has only just begun!

Reddit User: Hi Nick! Will you bring out software/hardware improvements to Karma, like being able to track the user while moving or obstacle avoidance/detection?

NW: We will introduce updates to Karma to enhance its performance and what you can do with it. Karma already has a lot of hardware features built into it that were not exploiting yet, so expect more radness to come. We know everyone is excited to learn more and we promise to share more as soon as we can. Thanks for the stoke.

Reddit User: How do you feel the Karma holds up against recent drone industry competitors such as the DJI Mavic and the Yuneec Breeze-especially considering the difference in price point?

NW: I may be biased ;-) but I think Karma shreds...especially for $799! Its amazing that you get the drone, the removable stabilizer, the handheld grip, the touch display controller all together in the backpack for that price. A couple of years ago, all of this would have been $10K! We are living in the future.

Reddit User: I'm very excited about the Karma. Being able to take the same camera from being mounted on an object, to being handheld and stabilized, to flying in a drone is very compelling. There's one thing keeping me from a day one sale though, the current No-Fly-Zone scheme. It's been said on your community forums that it's likely going to be

LINK:	http://gopro.com/news/Nicholas-Woodman-Reddit-Ask-Me-Anything...
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