With all the buzz, streaming viewer convenience, and continued shooting stock price of Netflix, I wanted to take a look at who was behind this influential movement.
Reed Hastings is the CEO of Netflix, and he describes his rise to wealth in this excellent article from INC.Com back in 2005.
Also below is a link to a recent video from 60 Minutes.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2223713n
Most interesting is to hear Reed speak about viewers preference from DVDs to streaming entertainment, and its similarity with listeners preference from CDs to MP3s.
In the INC.com article, he discusses founding his first company Pure Software, which was a debugging tool for engineers. Like many other business owners, an investment bank IPO’d his companies stock, making him immensely wealthy (so he was already greatly successful before Netflix).
Morgan Stanley took his company Pure Software public, and this new found wealth gave him the means to start Netflix.
Also interesting in the article is to notice that he spent three years as president of the state board of education, appointed by Governor Gray Davis, in California.
In the article from 2005, Reed mentions trying to become a company as big as HBO (How can you get bigger than the company that broadcasted The Wire and The Sopranos!). While I don’t think Netflix is there yet, it is surely on its way.
See the INC.com “How He Did It” article located HERE .
