Posted by In 1997, Marc Randolph co-founded Netflix. His first investor was his old boss, a guy named Reed Hastings. Reed wrote him a check for $2M to get the thing started.
By 1999, Netflix was burgeoning eCommerce company focused on selling DVDs. Worried about looming competition from an upstart company in Seattle called Amazon, Marc made the fateful decision to pivot Netflix away from the DVD sales business and go "all in" on subscription DVD rentals. At the time, DVD sales generated a $100,000/month in sales, while the rental subscription unit was earning a measly $2,000/month.
Overnight, Netflix lost 98% of its revenue.
To hear the rest of the story and meet Marc in person, register now and we'll see you on Thursday, September 10th, in San Francisco.