Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Netflix cofounder Marc Randolph revealed he pays for his subscription.
Netflix wasn’t always an entertainment behemoth. In 2000, it was an unprofitable startup offering DVD rentals via postal mail, challenging Blockbuster, whose ubiquitous stores were then a fixture of American life. Marc Randolph, who cofounded Netflix with Reed Hastings in 1997, this week recalled some key moments in the company’s history, in light of the company launching its website 25 years ago today. One of them: In 2000, the two tried to sell their startup to Blockbuster for $50 million.
In his TikTok shared yesterday, Marc also revealed that he made his employees pay for their subscription at one point.
The year is 2006 and an avid film enthusiast checks his mailbox. Not the electronic one, but the red box outside the porch or on the ground floor of the apartment building. A DVD by mail seems like their favorite movie just arrived right in time for a long weekend. But they pause and rethink the last four times they weren’t able to enjoy it on time. Finally, the fifth parcel lands right on time and they can enjoy their characters come live on their shy LCD screens. But there’s one thing missing. The classic Tudum sound.
Fast forward to 2007, the streaming services took a jolt as masterminds like Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph got to work. Giving birth to the OTT giant Netflix as we know it today, the humble beginnings of DVD-by-mail turned into a click away on screens. In a surprising revelation, the millionaire co-founder and CEO Randolph still paid for his subscription.
One might wonder how Netflix creators might get to enjoy the special perks and benefits of being the founders of the streaming platform itself. Not just the wealth that accompanies it but also the premium advantage of not having to pay for the service. After all, they literally founded it. But that is not the reality. Randolph, who has $130 million in the bank, revealed how he always paid for his subscription. Adding to that fact, he recently shared on TikTok, “I still pay for my subscription 25 years later.”
Looking back more than two decades later, Randolph writes:
“I think the more important lesson—a lesson that Blockbuster learned too late—is simply this: ‘If you are unwilling to disrupt yourself, there will always be someone willing to disrupt your business for you.’”
At Facebook, a similar refrain appeared in the “red book” of company values employees received around the time it reached a billion users in 2012: “If we don’t create the thing that kills Facebook, someone else will.”
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