That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph

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.

Our Discussion 💬

Dad’s first comment on this book was that it is easy to read because of the conversational style. Randolph writes like he’s telling you his story over a cup of coffee. His book is more of personal memoir than journalistic nonfiction. At times, I was reminded me of a guy giving a TED talk about the origins of his company and what he learnt from it.

Dad also works in the retail business. While his market differs from Netflix’s, he appreciated a lot of the parallels, particularly to do with problem solving and risk taking. The very core of the idea alone – betting on DVDs – was a risk. Another risk that stood out was the decision to focus on renting rather than selling, when selling made up the majority of their early business. But that turned out to be the right decision: they foresaw Amazon emerging as a serious competitor. Randolph sprinkles in business/start up advice throughout. One chapter I particularly enjoyed detailed the day of the launch. I could feel the tension!

That’s how Netflix had felt, all that spring – a blue haze buzzing around all of our heads. But starting on April 14, Netflix wasn’t just potential energy anymore. It was a live current, positive meeting negative. It was a lightning strike. And now we had to figure out how to manage it.

That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph, 39%

The business of Netflix ended up looking vastly different from how Randolph had initially imagined it, even though the original principal (DVDs via mail order) remained the same. And of course hindsight makes the story extra juicy – certainly no one at Netflix in 1998 imagined what it would become today. One investor they approached in the early stages wasn’t interested because he foresaw movies being downloaded over the internet. There are a few moments like that, which are particularly interesting to reflect on in light of how things have changed or stayed the same in 20 years.

This book lacks images. I would have loved to see some screenshots of their first website. Thankfully, the Wayback Machine exists! After finishing the book, Dad and I took a look. It’s neat to see the features described in the book, such as categories, ‘virtually all DVD titles!’, and the coupon for DVD player owners.

The only part of the book we were unsure about was the ending. I was surprised when I flipped the page and saw ‘Epilogue’. Randolph hadn’t yet addressed his departure from the company. Thankfully, the epilogue does go into that. But it felt a bit different from the rest of the book. It was unclear to us whether he left the company because he was truly bored or because he was pushed out. It was a little more opaque and rushed than other parts of the book, where we felt he was speaking frankly.

Final Thoughts 💭

Dad and I both give this book ★★★. It’s a solid entrepreneurial story about taking chances and evaluating risk. If you enjoy that sort of read, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Have you read this book or other large company origin stories? What’s your favourite Netflix original? 😉