⚡ How Multiple Start-Up Failures Turned a Hobby into the World’s Biggest Wearables Company

Morning Innovators ⚡ In less than 5 minutes, we’ll cover…

🥳 The best funding opportunities, events and jobs in the start-up world
📰 The biggest news stories in the start-up world
🏄 How multiple start-up failures led to the world’s biggest wearables company
🛍️ How a very distinctive shopping bag made a company go viral
👀 Our favourite start-up to keep an eye on this week
🐇 A tool revolutionising code reviews

✨ Last weeks most clicked link was this link to get tickets to our next Start-Up Social. Unfortunately tickets have already sold out, but you can join the waitlist in-case any spaces open up.

Happy hustling,
Rich & Gary

🎤 Events/Opportunities

📢 Want to get some experience pitching to make sure the next time you’re in front of your target investor, you nail it? Apply to pitch at one of PitchClub’s community events.

💸 Malta is opening its doors to the global start-up community with a massive €100M funding initiative aimed at fostering innovative technologies and sustainable growth. Discover how you can access up to €1.3 million in grants and loans through Malta's government schemes tailored for tech ventures.

🧓 Ada Ventures announced the final close of Ada Ventures Fund II at £63m/$80m targeting breakthrough ideas across the fund’s three themes: climate equity, healthy ageing and economic empowerment. They will invest between £250k and £1.5m at pre-seed and seed stages.

🏢 Satgana, announced the final closing of its first Climate Tech VC fund, with €8m in LP commitments. The fund will invest in climate tech start-ups throughout Europe and Africa with a strategic focus on early-stage climate tech, with first tickets ranging from €100,000 up to €300,000 at pre-seed and seed stages.

💼 Job opportunities

☂️ Product Designer, umbrel
💊 Junior Full Stack Software Engineer, Verisian
📧 Product Manager, Hunter

📊 French SaaS company Pigment, which provides enterprise customers with a platform that lets them visualise critical business data in real-time, ranging from profit and revenue to burn rate and headcount, has raised $145m in Series D funding. Sifted

🍄 A trend in Silicon Valley for years, now a growing number of founders and investors are taking magic mushrooms on this side of the Atlantic. Sifted

🤖 OpenAI is expanding a program, Custom Model, to help enterprise customers develop tailored generative AI models using its technology for specific use cases, domains and applications. TechCrunch

🏠 Five months ago, Rooms, a 3D design platform made by ex-Google employees, launched its beta version on the App Store. Today, the free iOS app is getting a big update that will bring a wave of new discovery-first features, including an activity feed, an explore page, the ability to browse by category, and more. TechCrunch

🏄‍♂️ Crashing Waves, Rising Tides: The Story of Overcoming Startup Failures to Found GoPro's Empire

Nick Woodman's journey from failure to triumph demonstrates the resilience often required when operating in the world of start-ups. His story isn't just about creating GoPro, a brand now synonymous with adventure and resilience; it's a tale of how when things go wrong, you can use that to fuel future success.

Fresh out of college, Woodman longed to start his own business with an office in Silicon Valley. His first venture, EmpowerAll.com, had a vision of selling electronics for less than $2, however, the concept failed. Undeterred, Woodman plunged into his next venture, Funbug, a gaming platform that promised to merge the thrill of gaming with the allure of marketing. Investors, captivated by Woodman's fervour, poured $3.9 million into the dream. A year later, in April 2001, the site was still not online and suddenly, the dot-com bubble exploded - cue his second failure and the realisation that he's lost not just his dream but the trust and money of those who believed in him.

In 2002, at the tender age of 26, Nick Woodman embarked on a pivotal journey that would change the course of his life. Setting off to the surf-laden coasts of Australia with a waterproof camera and a Velcro strap in tow, his initial goal was simple: to create an epic surfing video. Yet, as the waves crashed and ideas surged, Woodman realised that this could be more than just a personal project—it could be the cornerstone of his next business venture.

Upon his return to the United States, Woodman transformed his garage into a makeshift workshop—a nod to the legendary tech innovators who had blazed their trails in similar humble beginnings. With a new-found determination, he poured every ounce of his resources into his vision, investing his own capital ($30k) and drawing on the financial support of his parents ($235,000). In this creative crucible, the first GoPro camera was born.

By September 2004, Woodman's brainchild materialised into a tangible product, marking the official launch of GoPro. In these early days, Woodman was a one-man army, the sole employee of his burgeoning enterprise. He traversed the length and breadth of California in his Volkswagen Kombi, a mobile base of operations from which he pitched his innovative cameras to surf shops and professional athletes. His relentless hustle paid off; GoPro ended the year with revenues of $150,000 and the following year in 2005 with $350,000 after Nick started selling on the QVC shopping channel.

The introduction of the Digital Hero in 2006 was a game-changer for GoPro. This new iteration of the camera came equipped with 10-second video capabilities, a feature that captivated the market and ignited a surge in demand. The Digital Hero wasn't just a camera; it was a passport to adventure, enabling users to capture fleeting moments of glory and the raw thrill of extreme sports in a way that had never been possible before, and all this led revenues to hit over $800,000. The year after, 2007 saw a massive revenue leap, with GoPro hitting the $3.4 million mark.

The years that followed saw Woodman's fledgling start-up transform into a formidable force in the tech and sports world. From a solitary entrepreneur to the CEO of a company boasting over 860 employees, Woodman's journey was nothing short of meteoric. In 2013, his achievements were officially recognised as he was catapulted into the ranks of the world's millionaires—a testament to the power of innovation, perseverance, and the enduring allure of the perfect wave.

What has been the defining moment in your entrepreneurial journey that tested your resolve and how did it shape the future direction of your company?

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Lots of people immediately turn to posting on social media when they think they have to do some marketing. Whilst Lego have used social media to go viral, it’s not in the way that most do.

Have you ever thought about your packaging and how you can take it up a notch? Use Lego as the number 1 example! This Lego shopping bag has people across the globe going crazy, both kids and adults. By creating this shopping bag, which makes it look as though you have the hand of a Lego character, they’ve made adults feel incredibly nostalgic, and kids feel like they’d be the coolest kid in the World with this bag!

By creating an emotion with their packaging, Lego are being talked about the World over, and are seeing great results because of it!

How can you create packaging for your product that gives people a lasting feeling that they’d share about on social media?

Each week we’re featuring one start-up we love. We’d love this to come from community recommendations, so if you know a start-up doing something awesome who deserves a shout-out, please reply to this email. 

The Slø Fashion Company is dedicated to revolutionising denim fashion by offering made-to-order denim products with over 63,400 customisation options. With a strong commitment to sustainability, their products are crafted from 80% organic and 20% pre-consumer cotton, repurposing unsold fast fashion waste. Operating from their own factory, they aim to prove that slow fashion can thrive in a fast-paced industry. They emphasize personalisation, allowing customers to add unique identifiers to their garments, and prioritise ethical and sustainable handcrafting processes at their Groovy Labs facility

Each week we highlight our favourite tools - either something we’ve been using in our businesses, or tools that our innovator community have recommended.

CodeRabbit revolutionises the code review process with its AI-driven platform, providing line-by-line code reviews with one-click fixes. It leverages auto-learnings from user feedback and provides real-time chat for advice and code generation. It employs a configurable rule engine for setting coding standards and combines static analysis with Gen-AI for a high-quality review process. The platform supports complete codebase verification, PR validation with project management tools, and generates insights from feedback for continuous improvement. Additionally, it offers daily stand-up reports and ensures data privacy, making it a tool that not only speeds up development but also enhances code quality.

Next week we’ll be looking at how a software company built a hugely successful business by first becoming their own customers to deeply understand the problem they were trying to solve. As usual we’ll also be highlighting our favourite start-up of the week, funding opportunities, and plenty of awesome tips, tricks and tools.

P.S. Connect with us on LinkedIn…