That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

Some history on Netflix from one person’s view, but it is extensively an autobiography and a rationalization of decisions by an early founder who made an impact in the early days but bowed out with cash and left it to others to zoom to dominate world class. Like many entrepreneur treatises it is full of advice and ego, enclosed in an envelope of tailored humility. I’ve started a couple companies and appreciate all the twists and turns, but timing and luck play the largest role in most endeavors.

After an early success I once pontificated for six months, then after a couple failures humility returned. Been there, done that, and am embarrassed that I once “knew it all”.

Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog captured my interest enough to read it twice, I had to struggle through this Netflix one. The author is probably a good guy, and he made significant things happen. But, he would not do well in a career as an author.

Good book, starts kind of slow, and spans both good and tenuous times those in the tech industry know well. There are some superb quotes, findings, and tips - just maybe not those that Marc Randolph thinks are important.
This isn’t a Michael Lewis or even John Carreyrou book.
He sprinkles humility and family throughout the book, which is great, and isn’t a spendthrift - also fine. I guess in today’s world, he’d be driving a Prius or Civic and not a Tesla, also okay.
But I found it interesting that highlights from other users/readers are plentiful in the beginning - weirdly so - then completely stop 1/3 of the way through.
Is it because readers think that he’s an arrogant douche? Might be.
I really don’t look forward to ever meeting him. He’s a startup guy. He’s a product and innovation guy. I know people like him, and get along well. But completely ignoring 9/11 and everything that did to the New York area - and other reasons that Silicon Valley had its metaphorical face rearranged from 2001-2004 - kind of sickens me.
Great, Netflix. But grow up a bit, dude.

Most Fun Business Book all year!

I tore through this book- I could not put it down. As a long-time NFLX investor, I've always been fascinated by this ever-evolving company, it's unique culture and strong leadership.

I was always a Reed Hastings fan- now I am a Marc Randolph fan!

His candid, fast-paced, and genuine telling of the early days of NFLX is compelling. Although it is full of business lessons, it is never preachy or arrogant like most books of this type.

Marc Randolph, with humility and grace, tells us the quirks, stumbles, and victories along the way of the early days at NFLX. What a gift this book is to us readers- it is a little bit of magic to be transported, and along with him and his small team in the early days.

This book is a must read for investors, business people, and anyone trying to do something hard that is unconventional.

Marc was the founder and first CEO of Netflix. This book shares the journey of the true founding and the early years of this iconic company. It feels like you're reading a fast-paced fiction movie - even though it is not a work of fiction, it is a page-turner. There is not a hint of drab or dry business writing in this book - which makes it such a fun, easy, and quick read. What I personally loved about the book was the real, not-at-all-sexy, story of how Netflix was actually born. It wasn't as serendipitous or easy as Silicon Valley lore has made it out to be. It was about two guys trying to find a chewy problem to solve and making mistakes along the way. It is a rare insight into the early days of Netflix, which is still so applicable to all start-ups and founders right now. They are all going through a version of what is described in the book
- but the biggest take-away here are the life lessons to remember. Marc has a very no BS approach to delivering those. He is (thankfully) not of the class of people who will tell you to quit your job and pursue your idea. He instead asks you to get started. Simple. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Just get started. Validated your idea with what you have, as best as you can, and then logical steps, one after another, to work towards it. It sounds like simple advice, but the way he puts it into focus, makes it stick.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Do read it - I know I'll be gifting this book this Christmas to all my colleagues and friends.

That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph is a great book about a particular company that illustrates how an idea develops. Note that I didn’t say a “great idea.” Most ideas don’t start out great.

Most business creation stories feature a great flash of insight. The insight becomes a great company through a series of flawlessly planned and executed steps. But life is not like that. Most ideas don’t start out great. They don’t happen all at once. They evolve. And companies don’t become great because of great strategies elegantly executed. They aren’t great right of the gate. Instead, they become great by meeting challenges.

Netflix is like most companies, except you can add a lot of testing to the mix. Marc Randolph calls this book, “a memoir, not a documentary.” He tells you the story of the early days of the idea and the company that became Netflix the way he might do it over a glass of wine on the deck on a late summer afternoon.

If you were listening to Marc, you might take a sip of wine and ask him to explain a term or two you don’t understand. He’d give you a quick, but helpful answer. He does that in the book. You’ll find explanations of terms like “dilution” and “collaborative filtering.”

He gets the emotional parts right. Many stories of great companies leave out the parts about being scared to death or being uncomfortable. Take another sip of wine, while Marc lays them out, including how hard it was to ask his mother for start-up money. 

That Will Never Work reminded me of Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog. Both show the messiness of getting from start up to success. Both illustrate the role of luck. Marc would probably take a deep breath and a sip of wine before telling you about the times Netflix came close to being another failed company.

There were some big plusses for me. I loved the fact that Marc tells about how he maintained a strong relationship with his family. There are a lot of Silicon Valley “successes” where I think, “I’d love his bank account, but I wouldn’t want his life.” Marc Randolph does the rest of us a service. He shows us an example of success without shredding personal relationships. 

I loved the humility. Not big-time-big-deal-big-business-success humility, digging a big toe in the dirt for effect. This is real humility. It’s humility that recognizes the contributions of other people and the role of luck and how many times he screwed up. It’s real life humility.

So, what’s not to like?

You won’t like this book if you’re looking for a simple formula you can copy. You won’t like it if you want to know “The Secret” of Netflix success. This is more like the advice I give my grandsons. Work hard. Treat people right. Keep getting up after you stumble. 

In a Nutshell 

That Will Never Work is for you if you want to look at the reality of start-ups and innovation. There are no bulleted lists of key points, but there’s a lot of wisdom packed in the stories. 

As a serial startup guy, there wasn’t necessarily a ton of new or groundbreaking facts in this book. However, it’s a great story and definitely gets the entrepreneurial juices flowing!

Enjoyed the way ideas, ideals, problems and progress were shared as well as the space given to the team, the people that made the culture and the company.

I enjoyed the first half a lot more (maybe related to it more too) and was (not-so-pleasantly) surprised when the book ended around 2002/3. The final wrap-up was nicely done but it’s unfortunate that despite all the build up regarding the move to digital, we didn’t get to read about how David became Goliath.

Already recommended to others!

I really liked the narration of ow decisions were made and what factored into those decisions. Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in creating the culture of a company or starting one.

From start to finish, Marc Randolph has written a sharp, candid, insightful, and immensely inspiring memoir of his struggle to create and launch Netflix -- from before the company even had a name -- to his decision to cash out and leave it in the hands of people who could take it to higher heights. Not only for entrepreneurs, his well-written story will inspire anyone with a dream, whether its business-related or not. Great life lessons included, too. Job well done, Marc. Five stars.

The book represented itself as a case study on startups and will chart the creation of Netflix. Unfortunately, I didn't think it quite lived up to those promises. The book is really simple and covers topics at a really high level. It moves really fast and doesn't dig into a lot of the interesting and unique problems Netflix (and other tech startups) had early on. It's structured in a way to kind of get at the process of how a startup grows, but it just wasn't a natural way to tell the story. I got the sense the author was doing his best to remember everything and actively covering up part of the growth he didn't want to talk about. Plus so much of the book is about his family and I get that is a component, but gosh I just thought it was unnecessary to the story. If you are looking for a detail comprehensive book on Netflix, this is not it. Still overall an okay read, but probably would not have bought it again.