Marc Randolph was a successful marketer who, by the age of 40, had already founded a startup which was acquired by Reed Hastings. When Hastings’ company was about to undergo a merger, Randolph’s role as Vice President of Sales became redundant.
In order to find a new challenge, Randolph and Hastings began discussing ideas for a new e-commerce company, such as personalized surfboards and custom-made baseball bats, although all of these ideas were deemed infeasible.
Eventually, they settled on the idea of renting DVDs through the mail, and with Hastings’ seed investment of $1.9 million, the two agreed to launch a company in which Hastings would own 70% and Randolph would own 30%.
