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A review by spaces_and_solaces
That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph
3.0
We’ve all heard the Netflix founding story, right? The guy who gets fed up with being charged extra for video rental services and has a brilliant idea about DVD’s – by- mail & launches a company “Netflix” that revolutionizes the entertainment world.
Except that’s not the whole story or even the story.
The actual story is so much more complicated and starts with a customized dog food business idea.
Marc Randolph, eager to work for himself keeps coming up new business concepts while carpooling to work with Reed Hastings. When Hastings shows a mild interest in funding his new company, ($2Million!!!!) a DVD-by-mail service, Marc gathers brilliant people to work on the idea. What follows is a tale of perseverance & luck.
Netflix plays a huge part in shaping the current cultural narrative, & so I was eager to read how it all started. Tbh, as memoirs go it is a good one with entertaining chapters and little real insight into how Netflix become the behemoth media house it is today. This is more of a startup success story & a story about nurturing a kind of culture within the company.
There is not much about Netflix as we know of it today, a streaming giant. Probably because the author, co-founder of Netflix, left in 2003 and since then or maybe even before that, it’s actually been Hastings who is driving the company forward.
What was interesting & implicit in the writing was the power struggle between Hastings & Randolph. So, I wonder how much of this narrative is authentic.
That being said, it was an engaging, well told story. If you’ve ever wanted to create something or do something by yourself, reading this book may certainly help!
Except that’s not the whole story or even the story.
The actual story is so much more complicated and starts with a customized dog food business idea.
Marc Randolph, eager to work for himself keeps coming up new business concepts while carpooling to work with Reed Hastings. When Hastings shows a mild interest in funding his new company, ($2Million!!!!) a DVD-by-mail service, Marc gathers brilliant people to work on the idea. What follows is a tale of perseverance & luck.
Netflix plays a huge part in shaping the current cultural narrative, & so I was eager to read how it all started. Tbh, as memoirs go it is a good one with entertaining chapters and little real insight into how Netflix become the behemoth media house it is today. This is more of a startup success story & a story about nurturing a kind of culture within the company.
There is not much about Netflix as we know of it today, a streaming giant. Probably because the author, co-founder of Netflix, left in 2003 and since then or maybe even before that, it’s actually been Hastings who is driving the company forward.
What was interesting & implicit in the writing was the power struggle between Hastings & Randolph. So, I wonder how much of this narrative is authentic.
That being said, it was an engaging, well told story. If you’ve ever wanted to create something or do something by yourself, reading this book may certainly help!