Netflix cofounder Marc Randolph on why he left, becoming a mentor and his love of chaos:
Netflix has 151 million subscribers worldwide, but most of them have never heard of Marc Randolph, its first CEO and cofounder. Randolph stepped down as CEO in 1999—replaced by cofounder Reed Hastings—to turn to product development and departed the company in 2003, a year after its IPO. But Randolph is fine with that and with his decision to leave before Netflix became the streaming giant that it is today.
They decided to turn down the acquisition offer and double down on rentals, closing the sales business, as Amazon would beat them anyway when it entered the DVD market.The choice paid off in spades. Netflix’s market cap stands at $129 billion. Hastings, who owns approximately 2.5% of the company, is worth $3.3 billion. As for Randolph, his stock at the time of the IPO would be worth roughly $250 million today, and he has likely sold most of it.
“As you get older, if you’re lucky, you realize two things: what you like, but also what you’re good at,” Randolph, 61, says. “The answer to both of them [for me] is early-stage companies. I like the chaos. I like the fact that you’re working on hundreds of things at once.” He typically mentors two to three founders at a time in order to know them deeply on a personal and professional level. “They’re going to call you at two in the morning all panicky about something,” Randolph says. “If you don’t like them, or you’re not too willing to talk on the phone, and when they have a crisis, you want to plunge in and help them because you’re friends with them.”
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