Netflix Co-Founder Helps Direct Startups Amid Tech Turmoil
The Washington Post, Michael Liedtke | AP June 27, 2022 at 8:10 a.m. EDT
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Longtime Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings is renowned for building a video streaming service that has transformed entertainment, but it probably wouldn’t have happened if not for his friendship with serial entrepreneur Marc Randolph.
While brainstorming with Hastings in 1997, Randolph conceived the DVD-by-mail service that launched Netflix. He then directed Netflix as its first CEO before handing off the reigns to Hastings in 1999.
Rather than retire and live on his Netflix fortune when he left the company in 2003, Randolph decided to counsel early-stage startups and their founders. He also worked as part-time executive at data analytics startup Looker, which Google bought for $2.6 billion in 2019. He also wrote a memoir/advice guide, “That Will Never Work,” and hosts a weekly podcast.
Randolph, 64, recently shared his insights with the Associated Press at a cafe near the Santa Cruz, California, post office where he mailed the first test disc for Netflix’s DVD service in 1997.
Q: What have you learned counseling startups?
A: You expect you are going to be helping with a go-to-market strategy and the technology, but a huge piece of it is marriage counseling. For a lot of the problems you face as a CEO, there is no one else to talk to about it. So if they are struggling with something, they can’t always go to their team and talk. A lot of times they can’t really go to the board either, because they don’t want them to know they are struggling or the board doesn’t really understand the nuances of the problem. And they can’t go to their friends because their friends don’t know the details. There really is no one else that is impartial and understanding and knows enough context. So that ends up being the most gratifying and useful thing. I don’t build companies; I build CEOS and founders.