When a Strong Product Is No Longer Enough
You may have a product that customers still like, a recognisable brand, and a team that knows its work well. Yet that does not automatically protect your business when demand changes, competitors move faster, or your original market becomes crowded.
GoPro’s proposed acquisition shows how a respected company can reach a difficult point after years of trying to adapt. The action-camera pioneer is being acquired by Starman Optical through a merger valued at $285 million. The deal is expected to remove GoPro’s outstanding $92 million debt, while existing shareholders would retain about 10% of the combined company.
For you as an SME owner, the important lesson is not the transaction itself. It is how a business can use its existing expertise, intellectual property, customer relationships, and operational data to find a more durable direction before its original market stops supporting growth.
TL;DR
GoPro is combining with Starman Optical to preserve its business, clear debt, and pursue consumer, commercial, and defence-related imaging opportunities.
Your SME can apply the same thinking by identifying valuable capabilities inside your business, reducing dependence on one product or customer group, and using automation to spot problems early.
What This Means
GoPro became a public company in 2014 after selling millions of action cameras each year, according to TechCrunch. Over the following decade, it explored drones and 360-degree cameras before refocusing on high-performance action cameras for professionals, prosumers, and athletes.
Those experiments did not produce a lasting new growth path. The company also went through multiple rounds of layoffs as it narrowed its operations. In June, GoPro warned shareholders that it could run out of business without new funding, followed by a $20 million investment from founder and CEO Nick Woodman the following month.
The proposed merger gives GoPro access to a new corporate structure and a different strategic direction. Starman Optical says it focuses on optical transceivers and photonics technology through its Starman New Photonics business. It also says the combined company will use GoPro’s imaging expertise alongside Starman’s manufacturing capabilities.
In plain language, GoPro is not simply selling cameras anymore. It is attempting to turn its knowledge of optics, imaging, and product development into a wider business serving consumer, commercial, and defence markets.
Key insight: Your most valuable business asset may not be the product customers buy today. It may be the capability, process, data, or specialist knowledge behind that product.
How This Applies to Malaysian SMEs
1. Separate your core capability from your current product. Imagine you operate a company producing custom packaging. Your current product may be printed boxes, but your deeper capability could be rapid design, short-run production, colour consistency, or reliable delivery for product launches. If demand for one packaging format declines, those capabilities can support labels, inserts, retail displays, or e-commerce fulfilment materials.
The same applies to a workshop, distributor, agency, food manufacturer, or service provider. A renovation contractor may think its business is about construction work, but its strongest capability could be project coordination and supplier management. A trading company may focus on a particular product category, while its true strength is sourcing, compliance, and regional distribution. Write down what your team does unusually well before deciding what to sell next.
2. Reduce dependence on one market. GoPro plans to continue supporting consumer products while exploring commercial and defence markets, according to the reported merger statement. You do not need a dramatic pivot, but you should ask whether your business depends too heavily on one customer type, location, sales channel, or seasonal period.
A Malaysian food supplier serving restaurants could also develop relationships with caterers, offices, hotels, or institutional buyers. A software reseller could support professional services firms as well as retailers. A marketing agency focused on social media could add campaign reporting, content production, or customer follow-up workflows. The goal is not to chase every opportunity. It is to build a second useful route to market using capabilities you already possess.
3. Treat financial warnings as operating signals. GoPro’s warning that it might go out of business without new funding was a serious sign of pressure, as reported by TechCrunch. For an SME, the warning signs may appear in less obvious ways: invoices taking longer to collect, stock sitting too long, repeated urgent orders, sales staff relying on spreadsheets, or one person approving every decision.
Automation can help you see these signals earlier. A simple dashboard can show overdue invoices, open quotations, low-stock items, unanswered enquiries, and jobs approaching their deadlines. You do not need a complex system to begin. The important point is to replace guesswork with a regular view of what is happening across the business.
4. Keep your existing customers informed during change. GoPro said it would fully support its existing consumer products while investing in a broader product roadmap, according to the source article. That principle matters for SMEs. When you introduce a new service, change suppliers, adopt software, or enter a new market, existing customers should not feel abandoned.
Use automated email or WhatsApp notifications to share service updates, renewal reminders, delivery status, training information, and frequently asked questions. This helps your team maintain trust while you build the next stage of the business.
A Simple Capability Review
| Area to review | Questions to ask | Useful action |
|---|---|---|
| Customer knowledge | Which problems do customers repeatedly ask you to solve? | Group enquiries by problem, not only by product. |
| Operations | Which process does your team perform consistently well? | Document it and make it repeatable. |
| Data | What information is currently trapped in chats or spreadsheets? | Centralise customer, sales, stock, and job records. |
| Market exposure | Are you too dependent on one segment or channel? | Test one adjacent customer group. |
| Early warnings | What problem would become serious if ignored for one month? | Track it weekly with an owner and deadline. |
Practical Takeaways
- List the skills, relationships, processes, and knowledge behind your current products.
- Identify one adjacent market that has a similar customer problem.
- Review your top sources of sales, enquiries, delays, and repeat work.
- Automate reminders for quotations, payments, follow-ups, renewals, and service updates.
- Create a weekly dashboard with sales opportunities, overdue tasks, stock issues, and customer complaints.
- Protect existing customers while testing new products or markets.
- Do not expand simply because an idea sounds exciting; test whether your current team can deliver it reliably.
- Set a clear review date for every new initiative and decide what evidence would justify continuing.
The Bigger Picture
The GoPro merger reflects a wider pattern: companies with valuable technology may need to reposition themselves when their original category becomes difficult. The reported plan combines imaging expertise with optical and photonics capabilities, including a manufacturing platform being developed in New Jersey, according to TechCrunch.
For Malaysian SMEs, this does not mean every business should pursue advanced technology or enter unfamiliar industries. It means you should understand what can travel with your business when conditions change. A reliable sales process, strong customer database, trained staff, consistent quality control, and clear operational records can support several directions.
Businesses that document how work gets done are better prepared to delegate, automate, train new employees, and serve different customer groups. Businesses that keep knowledge inside one owner’s head may struggle even when demand remains healthy.
Your next growth opportunity may therefore begin with a review of what you already know, not with an entirely new idea. Ask which customer problems you solve best, which parts of your operation others trust, and which information would help you make decisions sooner. Then build small, measurable experiments around those strengths.
GoPro’s proposed rescue is still a corporate transaction with uncertainties, and the reporting notes that Starman Optical has limited operating history to assess. That uncertainty is also a useful reminder for you: a new direction is only valuable when it is supported by evidence, disciplined execution, and close attention to the customers you already serve.
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