2019 . Business & Economics, Entrepreneurship, Skills, Workplace Culture . Marc Randolph
8.7 52 total
4.2/59,446 total
4.2/5.0In the tradition of Phil Knight's Shoe Dog comes the incredible untold story of how Netflix went from concept to company-all revealed by co-founder and first CEO Marc Randolph. Once upon a time, brick-and-mortar video stores were king. Late fees were ubiquitous, video-streaming unheard was of, and widespread DVD adoption seemed about as imminent as flying cars. Indeed, these were the widely accepted laws of the land in 1997, when Marc Randolph had an idea. It was a simple thought-leveraging the internet to rent movies-and was just one of many more and far worse proposals, like personalized baseball bats and a shampoo delivery service, that Randolph would pitch to his business partner, Reed Hastings, on their commute to work each morning. But Hastings was intrigued, and the pair-with Hastings as the primary investor and Randolph as the CEO-founded a company. Now with over 150 million subscribers, Netflix's triumph feels inevitable, but the twenty first century's most disruptive start up began with few believers and calamity at every turn. From having to pitch his own mother on being an early investor, to the motel conference room that served as a first office, to server crashes on launch day, to the now-infamous meeting when Netflix brass pitched Blockbuster to acquire them, Marc Randolph's transformational journey exemplifies how anyone with grit, gut instincts and determination can change the world-even with an idea that many think will never work. What emerges,though, isn't just the inside story of one of the world's most iconic companies. Full of counter-intuitive concepts and written in binge-worthy prose, it answers some of our most fundamental questions about taking that leap of faith in business or in life: How do you begin? How do you weather disappointment and failure? How do you deal with success? What even is success? From idea generation to team building to knowing when it's time to let go, That Will Never Work is not only the ultimate follow-your-dreams parable, but also one of the most dramatic and insightful entrepreneurial stories of our time.
2019
English
Little, Brown
336
0316530204 (ISBN13: 9780316530200)
2 months ago
8I got this book for my brother in-law and naturally ended up borrowing it. At the beginning I wasn’t sure what to think. Marc starts off by telling us that he’s distantly related to Sigmund Freud. Like ok we get it, the guy who prescribed cocaine as medicine and coined the term “penis envy” is your great-great uncle 7 times removed. Then when we went to visit Bezos he describes him as having this crazy laugh, and I just can’t picture it. The guy who sent racy texts to his mistress calling her “alive girl” just seems like a robot to me. Tangents aside, this book was really interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the birth of Netflix and how they went on to take down blockbuster
3 likes 
1 comment 10 months ago
8A story from Netflix founder describing the early days of Netflix and how it got off the ground. Wrapped up in a plot, there’s a lot of good business lessons and approaches in here of how a company evolves from a small lean start up to the big Netflix machine it is now.
Like Comment 10 months ago
8An insight into the first CEO of Netflix - quite defensive in places (he was ousted) and more so boastful, but enjoyable and helpful
Like Comment 10 months ago
8This book sold me towards the end (I was originally leaning towards a 6). That Will Never Work isn’t relatable or reproducible, but understanding how people like Randolph think and hearing a nuts story makes the book great. I came into the book looking for technical advice but left with perspective. Very happy I read this
2 likes Comment 1 year ago
7@MortenVSchroeder usually I follow your lead with start up books buy this one I didnt get any inspiration. Its a long book about one of the most amazing companies of all times but in the end I was thinking it's good Reed Hastings was involved otherwise we wouldn't have netflix. He talked about number of computer screens on a trading floor more ambitiously.
1 like 1 comment 1 year ago
9A fantastic book on the founding of Netflix. Such an honest portrayal of a startup. Marc seems like a great guy. Worth a read, excited for the book from Reed’s perspective.
3 likes Comment 1 year ago
9A great book about the early days of Netflix. Busts a lot of myths about “aha moments” and “perfect start-up starts”. Also quite refreshing to find the founder’s candidness in acknowledging others’ role in the company’s success. All in all, some solid lessons in there for anyone wanting to do something of their own. Thanks @MortenVSchroeder for the reco! Onto next!
2 likes Comment 1 year ago
Almost half way through! Funny how one of the biggest companies in the world today had their servers crashing 10s of times within a day of launch 🤣 No matter you big you get, you always start small :P
3 likes 4 comments 1 year ago
9Really really awesome book and I’m struggling whether to give it a 9 or a 10. What makes it truly amazing is that it’s both a memoir of founding one of today’s most influential media companies, but at the same time also an incredibly helpful guide for how to run a successful startup! Netflix as originally thought-out was actually not a very good idea and that’s also clear from their results, but through persistency, testing and ‘pivoting’ they eventually cracked the nut! Yet, when it then became successful the .com bubble almost put a stop to their success and again through amazing leadership they survived! I genuinely feel that not only did I learn about an incredible story but I also took away some valuable lessons! I’d recommend any entrepreneur to read it 👏 So why not a 10? It took a little while to get really good and I wish it had more about Netflix in their later years as a digital company! @JoenMøller AWESOME rec!!
4 likes 3 comments 1 year ago
Netflix founders sitting in the boardroom of Blockbuster in early 2000’s telling them they want $50M to be acquired and then Blockbuster CEO laughing at them is pretty amazing to think about 😬
4 likes 1 comment 1 year ago
Really interesting how much it sounds like things are sort of going to shit in the beginning! So many mistakes and and so many numbers that just DO NOT add up. $300 customer acquisition costs 🤯
Like Comment 1 year ago
Netflix founder attends Vegas DVD conference and somehow convinced Toshiba to include a promotional Netflix flyer in every DVD player to help users rent DVDs from Netflix. In the founders own words: “if Toshiba had not done that there is absolutely no way Netflix would have existed today”. It’s kind of crazy to think today
2 likes Comment 1 year ago
“Whenever I paused working, anxiety about my finances set in! The only cure it seems was work: I was not concerned about Netflix’ future when I was deeply involved in securing it”... I can relate to this statement 😬
1 like Comment 1 year ago
9Great book about the founding and first years of Netflix. Quite enjoyed the candid storytelling. @MortenVSchroeder could be something for you.
3 likes 4 comments 1 year ago
Just started this one! Interesting how Netflix actually started as a DVD mail service 😁
2 likes Comment 
