I took my five-year-old son snowboarding over the vacations.
He’s new to the game and nonetheless timid. However late one afternoon, he had a spurt of confidence. For the primary time ever, he bought off the raise and headed for one of many extra superior hills.
On the prime of the run, he paused. He seemed down the mountain, then up at me. With out a phrase, he took off.
I couldn’t consider it. There he was, gliding down the hill, carving turns like a professional. He appeared calm and composed — in contrast to his father. I rushed to take off my gloves, pull out my telephone, and take a video of his journey. However what I captured was blurry, and it missed a lot of the motion.
“There needs to be a greater method,” I assumed. And as I not too long ago found, there is a greater method — and it might probably lead you to returns of 661%.
The Seek for Adrenaline
My ski journey with my son didn’t fairly attain the extent of an excessive sport.
However we’re among the many greater than 200 million folks worldwide who take pleasure in leisure snowboarding, snowboarding, mountain biking, and skateboarding.
Adventurers like us are continually climbing up or snowboarding down mountains, looking for our subsequent adrenaline-filled second.
For the previous twenty years, many people have been utilizing particular cameras to seize these moments…
Together with one made by an organization that went from tiny startup to billion-dollar success story…
A Digital camera for Excessive Sports activities
In 2002, Nick Woodman took a browsing journey to Australia.
He was excited to seize intense, high-quality pictures. However he couldn’t get shut sufficient to the motion. That’s when he had an thought for a brand new sort of digicam — one that might get near the motion with out being cumbersome, fragile, or costly.
Right here’s what Woodman quickly created:
He known as it GoPro, and it caught on instantly. The corporate’s revenues soared, from zero, to $234 million in 2011, to $986 million in 2013.
By 2014, GoPro had gone from being a tiny startup to a publicly-traded firm (Nasdaq: GPRO), with a market cap of $2.5 billion.
The corporate’s early traders — venture-capital funds like Riverwood Capital, Sageview Capital, and Steamboat Ventures — crushed it, with a few of their returns hitting 661%.
In 2024, GoPros’ income topped $800 million, as customers spent greater than $6 billion on motion/point-of-view (POV) cameras.
However now an rising startup is taking the concept behind GoPro — and aiming to ship one thing higher.
Introducing Hightag: A Film Set for Athletes
Hightag is a sports-tech startup. It’s constructed an automatic system for capturing and delivering action-sports pictures and movies.
Its system is in contrast to something available on the market, together with GoPro, smartphones, or drones.
With these choices, customers (or the person’s mates) should be the filmmaker. They should maintain or place the digicam, seize the motion, and hope they get nice footage.
Hightag does issues in another way:
It companions with ski resorts, mountain-bike parks, and different sports activities locations to put in Hightag’s sensible cameras all through their services.
The cameras then movie video clips robotically when one in all Hightag’s customers rides by — and immediately ship the footage to the person’s account within the Hightag app. (To make this “magic” occur, customers merely begin a recording session within the app. This streams their location knowledge to Hightag’s community. Cameras use the info to extract clips on the proper moments and ship them to the suitable person.)
This technique eliminates all of the hassles. Customers merely subscribe, present up, and have enjoyable.
It’s like organising a film set for athletes. As the corporate describes it, “POV cameras seize what athletes see. Hightag captures how athletes see themselves.”
A $600 Million+ Alternative
Hightag’s system has substantial potential.
Globally, there are greater than 6,000 ski resorts. And the corporate tasks to earn $100,000 per yr from every one it attracts as a buyer. That’s $600 million in potential annual income.
In the meantime, athletes like us can pay for memberships to make use of Hightag’s platform. From these memberships, the corporate tasks to usher in one other $1.2 million a yr per resort.
With a possibility of this scale, Hightag might quickly discover itself on an identical path as GoPro. And if it succeeds, its early traders might probably earn related returns.
The corporate is at present elevating capital from traders such as you. Its valuation is about $9 million, and the minimal funding is $100.
Must you contemplate investing? Let’s take a look at some execs and cons.
The Professionals and Cons
First, let’s take a look at the “execs”:
Sturdy Present Buyers: Hightag is already backed by notable monetary and strategic traders together with Winrock Worldwide, The Enterprise Middle, and the large sports-retailer REI.
Completed Staff: CEO Alex de le Fuente took a previous firm from startup to unicorn (i.e., firm price a minimum of $1 billion) in two years, whereas CTO Jonathan de la Fuente has tech expertise at NASA, Bosch, and Aptiv.
Room to Scale: Hightag’s system was designed for leisure athletes. However upcoming options like teaching instruments and a social-engagement choice might broaden this firm’s attain.
As for “cons,” Hightag is a {hardware} enterprise, so it’s capital intensive. If it has bother elevating satisfactory funds, its enterprise might undergo. Moreover, if it will probably’t persuade sufficient customers to strive its system, its progress might stall.
These cons assist clarify why I’m not suggesting that you simply rush out and spend money on it. Like several early-stage funding, this one requires substantial analysis!
However should you assume Hightag might develop into the subsequent GoPro — and probably ship returns of 661% — you may study extra on its funding web page right here »
Completely satisfied investing.
Please notice: Crowdability has no relationship with any of the startups or funding platforms we write about. We’re an unbiased supplier of schooling and analysis on startups and different investments.
Finest Regards,
Editor
Crowdability.com
