That Will Never Work

In the tradition of Phil Knight's Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike comes the incredible untold story of how Netflix went from concept to company, as told by co-founder and first CEO Marc Randolph. In 1997, brick-and-mortar video stores were king. Late fees were ubiquitous, streaming movies seemed like fantasy, and widespread DVD adoption was an even more distant reality than flying cars. These were the widely accepted laws of the land in 1997, when Marc Randolph had an idea that would turn on their head. It was a simple thought—using the internet to rent movies—and was just one of many terrible proposals that Randolph would pitch to his business partner Reed Hastings on their commute to work each morning.