That Will Never Work

Netflix is often told as a story about a rental store's overdue fees, but Marc Randolph, one of its co-founders, says that account is tidier than what happened. He describes a long run of rejected notions, from custom baseball bats to a shampoo delivery service, that he floated to Reed Hastings during their daily drive to work. Out of that shifting list, the two men chose one venture, with Hastings backing it financially and Randolph running the company as CEO. For years the business looked more likely to fail than to thrive, lurching through repeated crises and near-bankruptcies before it became a billion-dollar company.

Randolph tells the story from inside the early years, when video rental chains dominated the market and DVD technology was still emerging. He recalls making his own mother an early investor, working out of a conference room at a motel, and helping shape the culture that Netflix became known for. The book is written as a personal account, with a focus on the everyday work and risk-taking behind the company's growth. Today the service has more than 125 million subscribers, but Randolph shows how uncertain its path was at the start.

The book suits readers interested in startup founding, entrepreneurship and the business history of the streaming era, as well as anyone curious about how a memoir-style account of a business launch can reveal the decisions behind a major company.