That Will Never Work

August 15, 2019
The rocky road from startup to colossal success. Randolph, co-founder of Netflix, makes an engaging book debut with a candid memoir recounting the history of the company as it evolved "from dream to concept to shared reality." After co-founding the magazine MacUser and working in direct marketing for a software giant, Randolph, eager to work for himself, had been coming up with new business concepts (e.g., personalized dog food) when he hit on the idea of renting videotapes. When his friend Reed Hastings, looking to fund a new company, expressed mild interest, Randolph gathered a dozen "brilliant, creative people" to see if the idea made sense financially. Videotapes, it turned out, were prohibitively expensive to mail, but the upcoming new technology of DVDs seemed viable. Inventing a name for the new company (NowShowing and CinemaCenter were possibilities) was the least of their problems: Only by contracting with Toshiba and Sony to offer free rentals with the purchase of a DVD player did they entice customers, but even then, sales of DVDs were stronger than rentals. For a few years, the company was "almost always on the razor's edge between total success and total failure." When individual rentals failed to put the company on secure footing, Randolph and his team came up with the idea of a monthly subscription service with no late fees, a move that proved popular. Yet even with 200,000 subscribers, Netflix still lost money and was forced to trim its staff; the layoffs, writes the author, were painful. Besides internal changes, the company looked for alliances with more successful enterprises, but a deal with Amazon (it would sell DVDs and steer customers to Netflix for rentals) collapsed and a hopeful bid for Blockbuster to buy Netflix fizzled. Elevating Hastings to CEO helped to lure investors, and after "years of work, thousands of hours of brainstorms, dire finances, and an impatient CEO," Netflix went public in 2002. Now with 150 million subscribers, Netflix has morphed into a media behemoth. An entertaining chronicle of creativity, luck, and unflagging perseverance.

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August 30, 2019

First comes the idea. Then comes the hard work. Randolph, in his first book, gives the genesis story of Netflix. What makes this story particularly appealing is that it bridges the brick and mortar enterprise with ecommerce. Similar to Howard Jonas's On a Roll and Phil Knight's Shoe Dog, Randolph's work delves into the workings of a business, from startup to maturity. The author is particularly adept at describing how the "next big thing" gets started in the milieu of Silicon Valley, sprinkling throughout the text object lessons on leadership, talent, excellence, and working through problems. Of note are details of how Netflix grew organically. Randolph, understanding that his forte was in developing a startup, left Netflix after it had gone public, but before the advent of streaming. While Randolph intersperses into the narrative plenty of advice, his closing remarks are apropos: if you have the idea, start the business; focus on the problem rather than the solution. VERDICT A worthwhile personal account and career guide for budding entrepreneurs.--Steven Silkunas, Fernandina Beach, FL

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