protos.com
GoPro, the action camera maker once worth more than $10 billion, just announced that founder Nicholas Woodman will extend $20 million in financing to keep his company afloat.
That’s the Nicholas Woodman who previously made over $284 million in a single 12-month span, making him the highest paid chief executive in the US that year.
Still a billionaire today, thanks to years of GoPro stock and compensation, Woodman is slowly becoming its lender of last resort.
As a condolence for presiding over a 99% stock decline from the company’s peak, he’s returning a fraction of the fortune he made to keep things running.
Through entities affiliated with Woodman, he’s agreed to hold $20 million in senior secured notes plus warrants to purchase Class B shares, the class that already gives him majority voting control.
Woodman framed it as a vote of confidence. “My financing reflects my enthusiasm for GoPro and its several go-forward opportunities,” he said in the announcement, adding that an independent board committee had reviewed a range of financing options and concluded the structure offered the most favorable terms for GoPro and its shareholders.
GoPro was trading above $98 per share on October 7, 2014. It closed yesterday at $0.73, a decline of 99%.
From highest-paid CEO to lender of last resort
Even by 2014 standards, Woodman’s executive compensation package was extraordinary.
Woodman received 4.5 million restricted stock units three weeks before GoPro’s June 2014 initial public offering (IPO), a grant worth $284 million by the end of that year and enough for him to rank #1 on Bloomberg’s Pay Index.
His personal fortune tracked the hype for affordable cameras for sports and outdoor content creators, peaking near $3.9 billion per the 2014 edition of the Forbes 400.
The delta between then and now, however, defines that story.
GoPro shareholders made Woodman a billionaire. Now, those same shareholders are relying on him to fund operations.
By 2018, GoPro had already cut Woodman’s salary to $1. The gesture was supposed to look humble and sacrificial, except for people who remembered that his GoPro stock and compensation would keep him a billionaire.
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Declining numbers and a bailout
GoPro stock is down roughly 48% year-to-date and more than 93% over the past five years. The company’s market cap is now approximately $123 million or less than a single year of Woodman’s peak executive compensation.
Revenue has also declined by from $1.6 billion in 2015 to roughly $650 million in 2025.
GoPro earned $128 million in 2014. After years of losses, its shareholder equity had turned negative by the first quarter of 2026.
The rescue attempts kept coming. The company borrowed $50 million from Farallon Capital Management in August 2025, then Woodman’s family trust bought $2 million of stock in November.
In May 2026, the board launched a review of strategic alternatives. By June 2026, an SEC filing carried a going-concern warning.
Woodman’s $20 million is the latest patch, and this time the capital comes directly from the founder.