Transcripts For CSPAN The Communicators How Netflix Got Star

We went next door and bought a gift in below. We mailed it. The next day, when he picked me up, he had an unbroken cd in an envelope that had gotten to his house. I think that was the moment. To where were you carpooling . He was the founder of a company. It was a big, geeky Software Company. It acquired the Software Company i was working out. I went to work for him. We spent about nine months working together. We lived in the same town. We spent those nine months carpooling together. Then lightning struck. The company was going to be acquired. We were going to be out of a job. I decided this was perfect. I would start my next company. He wanted to keep a hand in this entrepreneurial thing. E agreed that i would start he would be the biggest financial backer. All we needed was an idea. That led to these crazy car rides. We brainstormed everything we could think of. Where did the title come from . It is a quote for my wife. And also from thousands of other people i told the idea. Idea. Ve a great everyone says, that will never work. Book is aboutthis the product process of taking an idea that many think will never work and somehow turning it into and to that has changed the way we watch television. Before we get into reasons it would never work, there is some allure about the lore about the founding of the company. People like the epiphany moment. They like to hear the moment it all became clear. Newton under the apple tree or archimedes in the bathtub. The reality as it does not happen like that. Said that it all originated with a late fee on a movie. Somebody else had lots of experience with algorithms, building websites. We had tons of people who contributed little bits. The ideaone asks where came from, they want the quick sound bite. In many ways, that is what the book is about. That untold story. About 1996. Ng what was the reason this was never going to work . Lots of reason. The first one was the obvious one. If i was going to do dvd rentals by mail, we get it a few days later and fit for a number of days of ballot back. People said that is crazy. Why would anyone wait two days for a movie when you can go to one of the 9000 Blockbuster Store . Perhaps the reason that really gotten away when it came to raising on a was everyone believe this is a digital format. It was a matter of minutes before everyone was streaming or downloading. We knew this was true. Eventually people would be downloading and streaming movies, we did not it would happen that quickly. Youchallenge was, how do build a company that is so appropriate . It took almost 10 years before netflix transitioned into streaming. Days of thest few company being online, what was that like . That will never work in some ways is a camp ndm of all the screwup. Missteps. All the times we are most went out of business. We had a disaster day one. We had spent six months building an ecommerce website. We were so excited. This was the moment we were going to go live. He set up a computer in our conference room. A bell would ring every time an order came in. It didnt take long before we got the first ring. We started opening idols of champagne. Then a few minutes later, three more orders. Then two more orders. In all the excitement, we lost track of things before someone noticed it has been a while the valve around. Bell rung. In the first 15 minutes of being online, we crashed all of our servers. What did you do . Instead of me remembering that day foisting my sick death ish champagne, my memory being at frys electronics, a superstore, pushing the shopping cart while i piled in all of the components we could use to limp along that website. About how many orders we would get. 107nded that first day with orders, which astounded me. That was my whole first month forecast. Looking back, that seems pretty trite. Spent quite amount of time for acting the mailer that netflix used. We took 10 years before we got to streaming. Which means we were mailing dvds to people. To the post office and do it with a first pass class stamp. Envelopethe simple that could also be a return envelope was a real work of art. We spent hundreds of hours perfecting it. I could not get my mind off the. I dreamed about little red envelope. I used to come back to the office after dinner. Walking into get something and passing a stack of envelopes. This idea struck me. Before i even knew what i was doing, i ran out to my car and got the restaurant bag. This was a collection of all the tools and toys and staples and would use to keep kids amused in a restaurant. I pull this out and got paper and tape and markers and reconstructed the envelope in two or three hours that night. I handed it off to our Warehouse Manager and they give this one a try. When netflix first went online, you were mailing these by hand. People were packing them by hand. Absolutely. At the beginning, it was pretty scrappy. You have no money. We had a tiny little office, a smelly green carpet, the warehouse being stored in an old safe. Not because we were scared of them being stolen, it was an old bank and we had to use every single square foot we had. We didnt even have furniture. People were bringing in its chairs. I remember one time, my life came in after dinner and she was coming to get me and she looked and said are those our that chairs . We were doing everything we had to. Pack d. V. D. s by hand was the least of it. Who funded netflix to begin with . Reed hastings turned out to have been an unbelievable partner. Perhaps the most important thing is he was the first person who believed in this idea. He was the first person who did not say that will never work. He wrote a check for 1. 9 million. He wrote me a check. He handed it to me and i remember going oh my gosh this is the biggest check i have ever held in my hands. I took it down to our local Wells Fargo Branch and i remember standing in line with this check wondering whats going to happen . Is the person behind the counter when to have a buzzer and the anager of the bank will come out and bring me back and serve me champagne . It was an anticlimax because i handed her the check and she just said you want cash back . Reid was 1. 9 million of it. I also had to go out and ask other people. I had to ask my mother. I had to ask friends. Theres a reason these are called the friends and family around. Whats the role of a venture apitalist . Is there a negative side to that . Venture capital is the funding mechanism used in Silicon Valley. These are people who are willing to invest money into a business. They are not alone in the money they are investing it and doing it under very long. The reality is, when people say that will never work, most of the time they are right. A Venture Capitalist is willing to take a chance that nine out of 10 investments they make are going to fail. On the off chance that one of them succeeds. You mentioned, is there a dark side . In some ways, its not a dark side but you have to know what youre getting into. When a Venture Capitalist gives you the money, Venture Capital is essential in starting and growing netflix, they are not doing it because they really like the idea and want to see you succeed. Although they do. They are doing it because they expect their money back times 10. Once you are in that game, you are all in it for the long game. You cant go to them and say i think i have had enough. Your commitment is that you are going to do Everything Possible to make sure their investment pays off. In your book, that will never work, you write that tech is a true meritocracy. One of the most wonderful things about technology is that he foundation is coding. Its computer code and computer code is remarkably transparent. There is a principal among coders called peerreviewed. After you have written something, you ask one of your peers to sit down and review it with you. It doesnt make a difference what you look like or how you dress for what time of day you got to the office or when you leave or what you smell like. Its all there in the quality of your code. Permeated hos has Silicon Valley. We are the beneficiaries of it in that, i was not know a line of code if you wrapped it around my neck but we all get a chance to recognize we can be casual. We will ultimately be judged on the quality of our work which is a tremendously refreshing thing. Marc randolph, april 1997, netflix went online. At what point did you feel financially secure . [laughter] one of the essential ingredients of being an entrepreneur is you never feel secure financially or otherwise. Certainly in terms of the otherwise peace, it is inherent in a startup that you struggle and claw and climb your way to the top of the first hill and you collapse and a heap when you have finally made it only to catch your breath and look up and see a bigger hill in front of you. When they started netflix, our goal was to be as big as a single blockbuster. 750,000 per year and we hit that in the first two or three months. Then you look up and say theres 9000 blockbusters. Once we pass blockbuster, there is hbo and comcast and amazon. It is never ending. Part of that is recognizing, you can never sit back and say we re done. Economically, i have never been someone who is motivated by how much money i have. That is not the point of this. Its the fun of coming into a room full of smart people in solving interesting problems. That i can never get enough of. At one point, blockbuster wanted to buy netflix. Is that correct . That is true. One of the most critical things that i advised early stage entrepreneurs or anyone with a business is you cant run out of money because then its game over. We had a point and 2000 and the company was about 2 1 2 years old and the good news was, we were on track to do 5 million in revenue. The bad news is, we were on track to lose 50 million getting there. You dont need to be a financial analyst to understand thats not sustainable. We decided to do this thing that all entrepreneurs do which is pursue strategic alternatives. Which is code for we have to sell this sucker. Our obvious alternative was blockbuster. But we were 5 million in sales. They were 6 billion in sales. We were 300 employees and they were 60,000 employees. We tried getting a meeting and nothing. As luck would have it, they inally called us for a meeting and we went on a corporate retreat in the mountains. We flew from Santa Barbara to dallas for the meeting because of that retreat and the casualness, i was in shorts and they ushered us into a huge room. Blockbuster could have bought netflix for 50 million. They laughed at us. In some ways, it was a disappointment because i was hoping this could be the thing that saved us. The instant influx of money or even better, making our problems someone elses problem. But in many ways, this was the moment when we finally said to ourselves, the only way out is through. Were going to have to solve this problem on our own. You say that the Corporate Culture of netflixs freedom and responsibility. Where did that come from . Is that a common Corporate Culture in Silicon Valley . Is common for earlystage companies. Thats for obvious reasons. As i mentioned before, in an early stage company, you have no resources. You have seven people doing the job of a hundred people. Veryone is stretched thin. There is no time for command and control. There is no time for me to say you should job heres how to do it. Then check in with me. Let me now how it is going. Aural you can say is you see that hill over there, i will meet you at the top in a week. They have to figure it out on their own. The have to have the freedom to decide the best way to solve the problem and responsibility to see that it is solved. Its a fairly easy thing to do when you have seven employees because you can handpick people with the responsibility to handle that. Its harder when you have 70 and even harder when you have 700. What is truly remarkable about netflix is they still have managed to preserve the culture with 7000 employees. That is the remarkable thing about netflix and something that is very rare. Something that has continued in a different form is the subscription model to netflix. Creblingt correct . That is not something you hit upon the beginning. Ironically, i kick myself for missing that. I am one of those persons who was a 40 year overnight success. Netflix was my sixth startup. Two of my startups were in the publishing business. I had spent many years mastering magazine circulation and subscription. The idea that we could apply subscriptions to video rental by mail was so far out there, the idea for video rental by mail in general was so far out there that it took us a while to get there. It took us 2. 5 years of failed experiments before we finally stumbled on a crazy combination of things which was a Subscription Service and also the no due dates and no late fees and then making a list of what you want to see so we can ship them automatically. F you had asked me on april 15 the company years earlier what with the Business Model look like . I never could have told you it was going to bes instructions. Who knew . What do you think of the name netflix . Its growing on me. [laughter] one of my early investors gave me great advice. At the beginning, when you just start, you dont have a formal name. You still have to write checks, get a lease. You have to have a company name. You have what a called a beta name, which is a name that youre going to use when youre figuring it out. His advice was, pick a beta name which is so bad that when you run into problems finding your real name, you will be 20 to use t. Our beta name was kibble like the dog food. Thats because one of my favorite sayings was its not a success unless dogs eat the dog food. You could have the best advertising in the world of the dogs dont need it nothing happens. I want that to be the culture of netflix. I had to work for customers. As he predicted, we got close to april and had to come up with a real name, all of the good ones were taken. They were trademarked or the domain name was used or it meant something seen in a foreign language. In some ways, netflix was the last name standing. Its ok. It was a little porny with that x in the flix there. It seems to be ok now. These are some of the names you are considering for this company. Escribe reed hastings. Reed is a genius. What can i say . I will modestly say i am a pretty good earlystage entrepreneur. I am probably in the top 1 . Reed hastings is in the top 1 10 of 1 . Not only that, he is phenomenal earlystage or late stage. He has the whole package. What was fantastic about working with reed is how will the two of us Work Together . In many ways, we brought a combination of skill sets and attitudes. I came from the world of marketing where my entire expertise with empathy, understanding how things we said or did were priced or offered would be received by customers. He brought an understanding of how we could deliver those things in new and different ways and ultimately do it at scale. The two of us also brought a culture which we shared of this radical honesty. We could argue like cats and dogs then as soon as we stumbled on the right thing, we would immediately forget whose idea it might have been. We would immediately for an behind what was obviously the right idea. He was a great partner and in many ways, one of the smartest things i ever did was make room for him to come in fulltime. And 1998 he said to you im losing faith in you. Yes it was difficult. We had just made the pitch for a series. It had not gone so well. One night, reed poked his head into my office. He delivered the news, the words that no one likes to hear which is we have to talk. He was losing confidence. He was starting to see problems that at a small stage were just smoke but ultimately would be fire. He made a fairly dramatic proposal. He suggested that he should come into the company fulltime because at the time, he was the largest investor and the chairman but not a fulltime person. He would join the company fulltime and we would run the company together. Him as ceo and me as president. It was a real moment of reckoning reckoning for me because on one hand, i had a dream of starting and running a Successful Ecommerce company. Now, i had to ask myself which parts of that dream were the important ones . Was it running it or the successful part . I eventually realized that the thing i really owed was making this dream come true not for me but for everyone else. For my employees, my investors, for our customers. I recognize that probably almost an arguably having him joined the company and is running it together would be the more successful way to do it. Looking back, history would say that was a good decision. You go on to write that his emergence as the face of the Company Saved our acids. [laughter] lets move forward to 2002 another quote from the book i will never have to work again. Its funny i am back in new ork today. Last night i got in late and i went for a walk because i has spent the day on a plane. I walked down to the site of what used to be rays pizza, one of the 17,000 of them in new york. I remember taking my son there the day of our ipo. This has been the moment that we had been dreaming of for years. The moment where all of a sudden, it pays off, for my employees, our investors, for my mom. I remember being in the cap with my than 10yearold son taking to myself life might be different now. If i want to, i dont need to work again. In other ways, my life is not going to change. m going to go back to the office and im going to email again. I dont feel like i need to go out and get a fancy steak dinner or do something stereotypical. Im doing exactly what i want. Im taking my california sun and son and baptizing him into being a real new yorker by getting him a slice of pizza. That was really the moment for me. I take it your mother got her 25,000 back . [laughter] in spades. There is a certain pleasure in that. She jokingly when she wrote me hat check, i could tell she did not believe she would ever see a penny of that. She joked and said once this happens im going to buy that apartment in new york i been thinking about. Lo and behold, she got that apartment in new york. It is one of the wonderful things about startups. I have been involved recently in a startup that i have been involved with since day one. I convinced someone to design the logo. We couldnt afford to pay them so i give them some shares. I was so excited seven years later to call them up and say you know the shares . They are worth more than 1 million now. Marc randolph, i want to ask about Software Company<\/a>. It acquired the Software Company<\/a> i was working out. I went to work for him. We spent about nine months working together. We lived in the same town. We spent those nine months carpooling together. Then lightning struck. The company was going to be acquired. We were going to be out of a job. I decided this was perfect. I would start my next company. He wanted to keep a hand in this entrepreneurial thing. E agreed that i would start he would be the biggest financial backer. All we needed was an idea. That led to these crazy car rides. We brainstormed everything we could think of. Where did the title come from . It is a quote for my wife. And also from thousands of other people i told the idea. Idea. Ve a great everyone says, that will never work. Book is aboutthis the product process of taking an idea that many think will never work and somehow turning it into and to that has changed the way we watch television. Before we get into reasons it would never work, there is some allure about the lore about the founding of the company. People like the epiphany moment. They like to hear the moment it all became clear. Newton under the apple tree or archimedes in the bathtub. The reality as it does not happen like that. Said that it all originated with a late fee on a movie. Somebody else had lots of experience with algorithms, building websites. We had tons of people who contributed little bits. The ideaone asks where came from, they want the quick sound bite. In many ways, that is what the book is about. That untold story. About 1996. Ng what was the reason this was never going to work . Lots of reason. The first one was the obvious one. If i was going to do dvd rentals by mail, we get it a few days later and fit for a number of days of ballot back. People said that is crazy. Why would anyone wait two days for a movie when you can go to one of the 9000 Blockbuster Store<\/a> . Perhaps the reason that really gotten away when it came to raising on a was everyone believe this is a digital format. It was a matter of minutes before everyone was streaming or downloading. We knew this was true. Eventually people would be downloading and streaming movies, we did not it would happen that quickly. Youchallenge was, how do build a company that is so appropriate . It took almost 10 years before netflix transitioned into streaming. Days of thest few company being online, what was that like . That will never work in some ways is a camp ndm of all the screwup. Missteps. All the times we are most went out of business. We had a disaster day one. We had spent six months building an ecommerce website. We were so excited. This was the moment we were going to go live. He set up a computer in our conference room. A bell would ring every time an order came in. It didnt take long before we got the first ring. We started opening idols of champagne. Then a few minutes later, three more orders. Then two more orders. In all the excitement, we lost track of things before someone noticed it has been a while the valve around. Bell rung. In the first 15 minutes of being online, we crashed all of our servers. What did you do . Instead of me remembering that day foisting my sick death ish champagne, my memory being at frys electronics, a superstore, pushing the shopping cart while i piled in all of the components we could use to limp along that website. About how many orders we would get. 107nded that first day with orders, which astounded me. That was my whole first month forecast. Looking back, that seems pretty trite. Spent quite amount of time for acting the mailer that netflix used. We took 10 years before we got to streaming. Which means we were mailing dvds to people. To the post office and do it with a first pass class stamp. Envelopethe simple that could also be a return envelope was a real work of art. We spent hundreds of hours perfecting it. I could not get my mind off the. I dreamed about little red envelope. I used to come back to the office after dinner. Walking into get something and passing a stack of envelopes. This idea struck me. Before i even knew what i was doing, i ran out to my car and got the restaurant bag. This was a collection of all the tools and toys and staples and would use to keep kids amused in a restaurant. I pull this out and got paper and tape and markers and reconstructed the envelope in two or three hours that night. I handed it off to our Warehouse Manager<\/a> and they give this one a try. When netflix first went online, you were mailing these by hand. People were packing them by hand. Absolutely. At the beginning, it was pretty scrappy. You have no money. We had a tiny little office, a smelly green carpet, the warehouse being stored in an old safe. Not because we were scared of them being stolen, it was an old bank and we had to use every single square foot we had. We didnt even have furniture. People were bringing in its chairs. I remember one time, my life came in after dinner and she was coming to get me and she looked and said are those our that chairs . We were doing everything we had to. Pack d. V. D. s by hand was the least of it. Who funded netflix to begin with . Reed hastings turned out to have been an unbelievable partner. Perhaps the most important thing is he was the first person who believed in this idea. He was the first person who did not say that will never work. He wrote a check for 1. 9 million. He wrote me a check. He handed it to me and i remember going oh my gosh this is the biggest check i have ever held in my hands. I took it down to our local Wells Fargo Branch<\/a> and i remember standing in line with this check wondering whats going to happen . Is the person behind the counter when to have a buzzer and the anager of the bank will come out and bring me back and serve me champagne . It was an anticlimax because i handed her the check and she just said you want cash back . Reid was 1. 9 million of it. I also had to go out and ask other people. I had to ask my mother. I had to ask friends. Theres a reason these are called the friends and family around. Whats the role of a venture apitalist . Is there a negative side to that . Venture capital is the funding mechanism used in Silicon Valley<\/a>. These are people who are willing to invest money into a business. They are not alone in the money they are investing it and doing it under very long. The reality is, when people say that will never work, most of the time they are right. A Venture Capital<\/a>ist is willing to take a chance that nine out of 10 investments they make are going to fail. On the off chance that one of them succeeds. You mentioned, is there a dark side . In some ways, its not a dark side but you have to know what youre getting into. When a Venture Capital<\/a>ist gives you the money, Venture Capital<\/a> is essential in starting and growing netflix, they are not doing it because they really like the idea and want to see you succeed. Although they do. They are doing it because they expect their money back times 10. Once you are in that game, you are all in it for the long game. You cant go to them and say i think i have had enough. Your commitment is that you are going to do Everything Possible<\/a> to make sure their investment pays off. In your book, that will never work, you write that tech is a true meritocracy. One of the most wonderful things about technology is that he foundation is coding. Its computer code and computer code is remarkably transparent. There is a principal among coders called peerreviewed. After you have written something, you ask one of your peers to sit down and review it with you. It doesnt make a difference what you look like or how you dress for what time of day you got to the office or when you leave or what you smell like. Its all there in the quality of your code. Permeated hos has Silicon Valley<\/a>. We are the beneficiaries of it in that, i was not know a line of code if you wrapped it around my neck but we all get a chance to recognize we can be casual. We will ultimately be judged on the quality of our work which is a tremendously refreshing thing. Marc randolph, april 1997, netflix went online. At what point did you feel financially secure . [laughter] one of the essential ingredients of being an entrepreneur is you never feel secure financially or otherwise. Certainly in terms of the otherwise peace, it is inherent in a startup that you struggle and claw and climb your way to the top of the first hill and you collapse and a heap when you have finally made it only to catch your breath and look up and see a bigger hill in front of you. When they started netflix, our goal was to be as big as a single blockbuster. 750,000 per year and we hit that in the first two or three months. Then you look up and say theres 9000 blockbusters. Once we pass blockbuster, there is hbo and comcast and amazon. It is never ending. Part of that is recognizing, you can never sit back and say we re done. Economically, i have never been someone who is motivated by how much money i have. That is not the point of this. Its the fun of coming into a room full of smart people in solving interesting problems. That i can never get enough of. At one point, blockbuster wanted to buy netflix. Is that correct . That is true. One of the most critical things that i advised early stage entrepreneurs or anyone with a business is you cant run out of money because then its game over. We had a point and 2000 and the company was about 2 1 2 years old and the good news was, we were on track to do 5 million in revenue. The bad news is, we were on track to lose 50 million getting there. You dont need to be a financial analyst to understand thats not sustainable. We decided to do this thing that all entrepreneurs do which is pursue strategic alternatives. Which is code for we have to sell this sucker. Our obvious alternative was blockbuster. But we were 5 million in sales. They were 6 billion in sales. We were 300 employees and they were 60,000 employees. We tried getting a meeting and nothing. As luck would have it, they inally called us for a meeting and we went on a corporate retreat in the mountains. We flew from Santa Barbara<\/a> to dallas for the meeting because of that retreat and the casualness, i was in shorts and they ushered us into a huge room. Blockbuster could have bought netflix for 50 million. They laughed at us. In some ways, it was a disappointment because i was hoping this could be the thing that saved us. The instant influx of money or even better, making our problems someone elses problem. But in many ways, this was the moment when we finally said to ourselves, the only way out is through. Were going to have to solve this problem on our own. You say that the Corporate Culture<\/a> of netflixs freedom and responsibility. Where did that come from . Is that a common Corporate Culture<\/a> in Silicon Valley<\/a> . Is common for earlystage companies. Thats for obvious reasons. As i mentioned before, in an early stage company, you have no resources. You have seven people doing the job of a hundred people. Veryone is stretched thin. There is no time for command and control. There is no time for me to say you should job heres how to do it. Then check in with me. Let me now how it is going. Aural you can say is you see that hill over there, i will meet you at the top in a week. They have to figure it out on their own. The have to have the freedom to decide the best way to solve the problem and responsibility to see that it is solved. Its a fairly easy thing to do when you have seven employees because you can handpick people with the responsibility to handle that. Its harder when you have 70 and even harder when you have 700. What is truly remarkable about netflix is they still have managed to preserve the culture with 7000 employees. That is the remarkable thing about netflix and something that is very rare. Something that has continued in a different form is the subscription model to netflix. Creblingt correct . That is not something you hit upon the beginning. Ironically, i kick myself for missing that. I am one of those persons who was a 40 year overnight success. Netflix was my sixth startup. Two of my startups were in the publishing business. I had spent many years mastering magazine circulation and subscription. The idea that we could apply subscriptions to video rental by mail was so far out there, the idea for video rental by mail in general was so far out there that it took us a while to get there. It took us 2. 5 years of failed experiments before we finally stumbled on a crazy combination of things which was a Subscription Service<\/a> and also the no due dates and no late fees and then making a list of what you want to see so we can ship them automatically. F you had asked me on april 15 the company years earlier what with the Business Model<\/a> look like . I never could have told you it was going to bes instructions. Who knew . What do you think of the name netflix . Its growing on me. [laughter] one of my early investors gave me great advice. At the beginning, when you just start, you dont have a formal name. You still have to write checks, get a lease. You have to have a company name. You have what a called a beta name, which is a name that youre going to use when youre figuring it out. His advice was, pick a beta name which is so bad that when you run into problems finding your real name, you will be 20 to use t. Our beta name was kibble like the dog food. Thats because one of my favorite sayings was its not a success unless dogs eat the dog food. You could have the best advertising in the world of the dogs dont need it nothing happens. I want that to be the culture of netflix. I had to work for customers. As he predicted, we got close to april and had to come up with a real name, all of the good ones were taken. They were trademarked or the domain name was used or it meant something seen in a foreign language. In some ways, netflix was the last name standing. Its ok. It was a little porny with that x in the flix there. It seems to be ok now. These are some of the names you are considering for this company. Escribe reed hastings. Reed is a genius. What can i say . I will modestly say i am a pretty good earlystage entrepreneur. I am probably in the top 1 . Reed hastings is in the top 1 10 of 1 . Not only that, he is phenomenal earlystage or late stage. He has the whole package. What was fantastic about working with reed is how will the two of us Work Together<\/a> . In many ways, we brought a combination of skill sets and attitudes. I came from the world of marketing where my entire expertise with empathy, understanding how things we said or did were priced or offered would be received by customers. He brought an understanding of how we could deliver those things in new and different ways and ultimately do it at scale. The two of us also brought a culture which we shared of this radical honesty. We could argue like cats and dogs then as soon as we stumbled on the right thing, we would immediately forget whose idea it might have been. We would immediately for an behind what was obviously the right idea. He was a great partner and in many ways, one of the smartest things i ever did was make room for him to come in fulltime. And 1998 he said to you im losing faith in you. Yes it was difficult. We had just made the pitch for a series. It had not gone so well. One night, reed poked his head into my office. He delivered the news, the words that no one likes to hear which is we have to talk. He was losing confidence. He was starting to see problems that at a small stage were just smoke but ultimately would be fire. He made a fairly dramatic proposal. He suggested that he should come into the company fulltime because at the time, he was the largest investor and the chairman but not a fulltime person. He would join the company fulltime and we would run the company together. Him as ceo and me as president. It was a real moment of reckoning reckoning for me because on one hand, i had a dream of starting and running a Successful Ecommerce<\/a> company. Now, i had to ask myself which parts of that dream were the important ones . Was it running it or the successful part . I eventually realized that the thing i really owed was making this dream come true not for me but for everyone else. For my employees, my investors, for our customers. I recognize that probably almost an arguably having him joined the company and is running it together would be the more successful way to do it. Looking back, history would say that was a good decision. You go on to write that his emergence as the face of the Company Saved<\/a> our acids. [laughter] lets move forward to 2002 another quote from the book i will never have to work again. Its funny i am back in new ork today. Last night i got in late and i went for a walk because i has spent the day on a plane. I walked down to the site of what used to be rays pizza, one of the 17,000 of them in new york. I remember taking my son there the day of our ipo. This has been the moment that we had been dreaming of for years. The moment where all of a sudden, it pays off, for my employees, our investors, for my mom. I remember being in the cap with my than 10yearold son taking to myself life might be different now. If i want to, i dont need to work again. In other ways, my life is not going to change. m going to go back to the office and im going to email again. I dont feel like i need to go out and get a fancy steak dinner or do something stereotypical. Im doing exactly what i want. Im taking my california sun and son and baptizing him into being a real new yorker by getting him a slice of pizza. That was really the moment for me. I take it your mother got her 25,000 back . [laughter] in spades. There is a certain pleasure in that. She jokingly when she wrote me hat check, i could tell she did not believe she would ever see a penny of that. She joked and said once this happens im going to buy that apartment in new york i been thinking about. Lo and behold, she got that apartment in new york. It is one of the wonderful things about startups. I have been involved recently in a startup that i have been involved with since day one. I convinced someone to design the logo. We couldnt afford to pay them so i give them some shares. I was so excited seven years later to call them up and say you know the shares . They are worth more than 1 million now. Marc randolph, i want to ask about Public Policy<\/a> issues happening now. We are talking about antitrust, anticompetitive investigations, rivacy issues. What is your quick take on those . I dont have a firm opinion on what is happening because i am too deeply in the middle of it. More importantly, i am seeing it from a consumers perspective. From what is happening in streaming, i am delighted by the innovations we have seen and how content is delivered. I dont just watch netflix, i watch content from all of the services and i love the fact that this is become a new ubiquitous way to watch things. I also look at netflix and i have to trust that they will be responsible. I know, because of the culture and the things that were there from the very beginning that netflix is going to thrive and is going to be a responsible steward and i am excited about the future. That will never work is the name of the book. Marc randolph is the cofounder and first ceo of netflix and he has been our guest. Thank you for your time. It has been a pleasure being with you. Thank you. Television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago but our mission continues, to provide an unfiltered view of government. Already this year, we have brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspans programming on television, online and on our free radio app. Be part of the conversation through cspans daily washington journal program. Cspan created by private industry, americas Cable Television<\/a> company and brought to you today by your television rovider. No one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald. And that is because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. Like did we fake the moon landing . [laughter] what really happened in roswell and where are biggie and tupac. This years white house corners dinner is postponed due to the coronavirus. Watch past speeches for reagan, sh, clinton, george w. Bush, obama. On cspan and cspan. Org and listen on the free cspan radario app. Several u. S. Governors gave updates on their states responses to the coronavirus outbreak. We hear first from tennessees bill lee on guidelines for opening some businesses for the state and then new yorks andrew cuomo talks about state revenue shortfalls and vi virginias Ralph Northram<\/a> lace out plans to open parts of the commonwealth. Here is tennessee governor bill lee","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia801901.us.archive.org\/27\/items\/CSPAN_20200425_025100_The_Communicators_How_Netflix_Got_Started\/CSPAN_20200425_025100_The_Communicators_How_Netflix_Got_Started.thumbs\/CSPAN_20200425_025100_The_Communicators_How_Netflix_Got_Started_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240716T12:35:10+00:00"}