Name: Dhrumil Patel's review of That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph
Item: That Will Never Work
Rating: 5
Author: Dhrumil Patel

Marc Randolph

In the tradition of Phil Knight's Shoe Dog comes the incredible untold story of how Netflix went from concept to company-all revealed by co-founder and first CEO Marc Randolph. Once upon a time, brick-and-mortar video stores were king. Late fees were ubiquitous, video-streaming unheard of, and widespread DVD adoption seemed about as imminent as flying cars. Indeed, these were the widely accepted laws of the land in 1997, when Marc Randolph had an idea. It was a simple thought-leveraging the internet to rent movies-and was just one of many more and far worse proposals, like personalized baseball bats and a shampoo delivery service, that Randolph would pitch to his business partner, Reed Hastings, on their commute to work each morning. But Hastings was intrigued, and the pair-with Hastings as the primary investor and Randolph as the CEO-founded a company. Now with over 150 million subscribers, 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. What emerges, however, isn't just the inside story of one of the world's most iconic companies. Full of counter-intuitive concepts and written in binge-worthy prose, it answers some of our most fundamental questions about taking that leap of faith in business or in life: How do you begin? How do you weather disappointment and failure? How do you deal with success? What even is success? From idea generation to team building to knowing when it's time to let go, That Will Never Work is not only the ultimate follow-your-dreams parable, but also one of the most dramatic and insightful entrepreneurial stories of our time.

The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

That Will Never Work

Dhrumil Patel

Most times, deciding what not to do is harder than deciding what to do.

Trust your gut, but also test it. Before you do anything concrete, the data has to agree.

Focus. It's an entrepreneur's secret weapon. Again and again in the Netflix story dropping DVD sales, dropping à la carte rentals, and eventually dropping many members of the original Netflix team – we had to be willing to abandon parts of the past in service of the future. Sometimes, focus this intense looks like ruthlessness and it is, a little bit. But iť's more than that. It's something akin to courage.

When your dream becomes a reality, it doesn't just belong to you. It belongs to the people who helped you — your family, your friends, your co-workers. It belongs to the world.

You simply can't know how things are going to behave until you've actually tried them. Go ahead and write up a plan, but don't put too much faith in it. The only real way to find something out is to do it.

Steve Kahn once advised me that when it came time for us to choose our beta name, I should choose something so bad it wouldn't be possible to use it for real.

People want to be treated like adults. They want to have a mision they believe in, a problem to solve, and space to solve it. They wanto be surrounded by other adults whose abilities they respect.

Culture isn't what you say. It's what you do.

Culture is a reflection of who you are and what you do — it doesn't come from carefully worded mission statements and committee meetings.

Thať's one of the great pleasures of being at the helm of a startup in the planning stages. The company is small enough that everyone in it has to wear multiple hats, but big enough that you never have to wear one that doesn't fit properly.

Most business plans — with their exhaustive go-to-market strategies, detailed projections of revenue and expenses, and optimistic forecasts of market share — are a complete waste of time. They become obsolete the minute the business starts and you realize how wildly off the mark you were with all your expectations. The truth is that no business plan survives a collision with a real customer. So the trick is to take your idea and set it on a collision course with reality as soon as possible.

When you start a company, what you're really doing is getting other people to latch on to an idea. You have to convince your future employees, investors, business partners, and board members that your idea is worth spending money, reputation, and time on.

Epiphanies are rare. And when they appear in origin stories, they're oftfen oversimplified or just plain false. We like these tales because they align with a romantic idea about inspiration and genius.

In the tradition of Phil Knight's Shoe Dog comes the incredible untold story of how Netflix went from concept to company - all revealed by co-founder and first CEO Marc Randolph. "Engaging and insightful." --Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix "As the founding CEO, Marc Randolph's leadership defined the culture of Netflix and laid the groundwork for successive, global revolutions in how we make and consume entertainment." --Gina Keating, author of Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs "Charming, fascinating and very funny. If you've ever wondered how to turn an idea into a global household name - or what happens when you try - Marc Randolph will demystify the world of Silicon Valley start-ups, and make you laugh a lot along the way." --Decca Aitkenhead, The Sunday Times "A charming first-person account of the early days of one of the most successful tech start-ups ever. An engaging read that will engross any would-be entrepreneur." --The Washington Post Once upon a time, brick-and-mortar video stores were king. Late fees were ubiquitous, video-streaming unheard of, and widespread DVD adoption seemed about as imminent as flying cars. These were the widely accepted laws of the land in 1997 when Marc Randolph had an idea. It was a simple thought - leveraging the internet to rent movies - and was just one of many more proposals, like personalised baseball bats and a shampoo delivery service, that Randolph would pitch to his business partner, Reed Hastings, on their commute to work each morning. But Hastings was intrigued, and the pair - with Hastings as the primary investor and Randolph as the CEO - founded a company. Now with over 150 million subscribers, 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 they 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. What emerges, however, isn't just the inside story of one of the world's most iconic companies. Full of counter-intuitive concepts and written in binge-worthy prose, it answers some of our most fundamental questions about taking that leap of faith in business or in life: How do you begin? How do you weather disappointment and failure? How do you deal with success? What even is success? From idea generation to team building to knowing when it's time to let go, That Will Never Work is not only the ultimate follow-your-dreams parable but also one of the most dramatic and insightful entrepreneurial stories of our time. "Marc wastes no time cutting through the noise and identifying the truth. Every moment I have spent with Marc, whether it was as he formulated and launched Netflix or since then, has been truly rewarding. Marc understands what is important whether it is your product, your marketing, or your business plan. A remarkable and one of a kind visionary." --Mitch Lowe, founder of RedBox and CEO of MoviePass "An entertaining chronicle of creativity, luck, and unflagging perseverance." --Kirkus

The Birth of Netflix by the first CEO and co-founder Marc Randolph

Piet Terheyden

'Engaging and insightful.' Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix 'Charming, fascinating and very funny. Marc Randolph demystifies the world of Silicon Valley start-ups, and makes you laugh a lot along the way.' Decca Aitkenhead, The Sunday Times 'A charming first-person account of the early days of one of the most successful tech start-ups ever.' The Washington Post Once upon a time, brick-and-mortar video stores were king. Late fees were ubiquitous, video-streaming unheard of, and DVD adoption seemed as imminent as flying cars. These were the widely accepted laws of the land in 1997 when Marc Randolph had an idea. It was a simple thought - leveraging the internet to rent movies - and was just one of many more proposals, like personalised baseball bats, that Randolph would pitch to his business partner, Reed Hastings. But Hastings was intrigued, and the pair - with Hastings as the primary investor and Randolph as the CEO - founded a company. Now with over 150 million subscribers, Netflix's triumph feels inevitable but the twenty-first century's most disruptive start-up began with few believers and calamity at every turn. Marc Randolph's transformational journey exemplifies how anyone with grit and determination can change the world - even with an idea that many think will never work. What emerges, however, isn't just the inside story of one of the world's most iconic companies. Full of counter-intuitive concepts and written in binge-worthy prose, it answers some of our most fundamental questions about taking that leap of faith in life: How do you begin? How do you weather disappointment and failure? What is success? From idea generation to team building to knowing when to let go, That Will Never Work is one of the most dramatic and insightful entrepreneurial stories of our time.

The Birth of Netflix by the First CEO and Co-Founder Marc Randolph

henrique

“When an opportunity comes knocking, you don’t necessarily have to open the door. But you owe it to yourself to at least look through the keyhole.”
I have a lot of respect to Marc Randolph for narrating the audible edition of this book so amazingly, and for writing it in the first place! His story is truly inspiring to anyone who’s ever had a dream, and I went into it having no idea that this is how Netflix had started, such humble origins recounted so humbly by the founder. A very enjoyable story, dare I say bingeworthy? ;)

Felipe Saldarriaga 

i read this book along with my girlfriend and we loved the story behind netflix foundation, but also we hate the over-extended chapters with nosense descriptions in order to increase pages 😅

Jonathan Filbert

Such an inspirational book from Marc. The thing that makes me love this book besides on getting an inside look of how Netflix was built, is Marc’s way of storytelling. His manner in explaining events without technical jargons and clear yet concise way have really lifted the book to be such an enjoyable read for me.

Christian Beck

With business biographies it’s challenging to separate the story from the storytelling. This is a case where the story itself wasn’t done justice by the storytelling.

Admittedly, I listened to Randolph himself narrate the audiobook and his delivery might’ve biased my opinion; he gave the reading too much flair for my taste. But overall I found the story itself overly colorful, with inconsequential details that made this feel more like a personal memoir than a business biography. And often the details felt manufactured because the story itself was lacking. Truthfully if the book were subtitled “My Story of Netflix,” it would have been more appropriate.

All that said I certainly don’t think it was a bad book whatsoever. It was fun being transported back in time. It’s hard to imagine the Netflix we know today started as away to buy DVDs online. The company has evolved with technology remarkably well.

It’s just that the storytelling just wasn’t for me. And while I certainly don’t fault this book for not distilling any overarching business principles like many other l reviewers have complained, I would have appreciated more emphasis on Netflix and less on his personal life. Sometimes the personal side has relevance to the story but in this case I don’t think it added anything. 

The story of Netflix is interesting. But the drama (at least in this telling) is fairly tame. It was well funded from the start and continued to be through the dot-com bust. There’s a few happy accidents and some brief tales of dogged determination mixed in. But by and large it simply lacked a strong narrative. There were no strong characters, underdog stories, near failures, or strong adversaries. Even ones you’d expect like Amazon or Blockbuster are hardly mentioned.

Instead this book read exactly how he prefaced it: Marc Randolph’s recollection of Netflix’s beginning. I had hoped for something more but his perspective alone wasn’t enough to make this a must-read.

Sebastian Stockmarr

Super interesting and crazy journey. Also a little heartless in terms of what he chose to spend 5+ years of his life on. But he wanted to get rich and got it, so great for him.

Dhrumil Patel &
That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph

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Dhrumil Patel &That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph

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Dhrumil Patel &
That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph