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Marc Randolph launched the streaming service that would revolutionize TV and film, upend Hollywood and draw more than million subscribers. It was a fluke that the Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph changed the history of television.
In , the Santa Cruz businessman was spending his carpool rides to work brainstorming internet startup ideas with a colleague. They discussed personalised surfboards, customised dog food, shampoo by mail. Could they make it easier to rent movies? Randolph soon after launched Netflix, an initially unsuccessful movie-rentals-by-mail service that went on to upend Hollywood and draw more than million subscribers. In his new book, That Will Never Work, the year-old offers a glimpse into the tumultuous early days of Netflix, which began as an obscure Silicon Valley startup, resisted pressure to sell to its online retail competitor Amazon, defeated Blockbuster and eventually evolved into cultural force that fundamentally changed the way we consume and create media.
The company introduced streaming content in , just two years after the article was published. We want to be ready when video-on-demand happens. Skip Navigation. Key Points. The story has been discredited by the company's co-founder, Marc Randolph. Hastings joined the Marine Corps while still in school, but later petitioned to join the Peace Corps instead because "[I] found myself questioning how we packed our backpacks and how we made our beds" and "questioning wasn't particularly encouraged," per The Times.
Hastings later earned a graduate degree from Stanford. Hastings described its flagship product to Inc. Magazine as a "debugging tool for engineers.
I didn't listen to the skeptics. The company was very successful, and doubled its revenue every year before going public in , Hastings told Inc. The sale "gave me the means to start Netflix," Hastings told Inc. I had misplaced the cassette. It was all my fault. I didn't want to tell my wife about it. And I said to myself, 'I'm going to compromise the integrity of my marriage over a late fee?
The idea laid the groundwork for Netflix, which Hastings cofounded with serial entrepreneur Marc Randolph in , per Bloomberg. Hastings hasn't always been the company's CEO, however.
Randolph held the top spot before leaving the company in , Business Insider previously reported. The company received , subscribers in its first year alone, Inc. Users maintained a queue of DVDs they'd like to see on Netflix.
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