THAT WILL NEVER WORK: THE BIRTH OF NETFLIX BY THE FIRST CEO AND CO-FOUNDER MARC RANDOLPH
If you've ever been told your idea is too odd, too ambitious, or simply won't fly, this book will feel personally addressed to you. Marc Randolph, co-founder and first CEO of Netflix, tells the origin story of a company that now commands over 207 million subscribers worldwide, back when almost nobody thought it had a chance. The result is something closer to Phil Knight's Shoe Dog than your typical business memoir: candid, often funny, and surprisingly honest about the chaos involved. Randolph doesn't dress things up. The early years were riddled with setbacks, sceptics, and decisions that could have gone badly wrong at any moment. Short on believers, long on stubbornness, the fledgling company lurched forward through sheer persistence. What makes this account genuinely interesting is how it handles the bigger questions that sit beneath the business narrative. How do you actually begin something from nothing? How do you push through failure without losing the plot entirely? When is letting go the right move? These aren't answered with motivational platitudes but through specific, lived experience. The writing itself moves quickly, packed with observations that occasionally cut against conventional wisdom. It's the kind of book you read faster than you intend to. Whether you're curious about Silicon Valley's inner workings or simply drawn to a good underdog story, this memoir offers a grounded, absorbing account of one of modern entertainment's most unlikely beginnings.
- Author: Marc Randolph
- Publisher: Endeavour
- Genre: Industry-Specific Business
- ISBN: 978-1913068219
- Pages: 320 pages