#101 - Marc Randolph, Co-Founder of Netflix on being Fearless in Entrepreneurship, and the birth of a $100 billion company

 Discover the Secrets to Entrepreneurial Success with Netflix Co-founder, Marc Randolph! 

Are you ready to unlock the 🔑 to entrepreneurial success? Don't miss this exclusive episode of the #CreatingSynergyPodcast, where we sit down with Marc, to dive deep into the fascinating world of entrepreneurship, innovation, and personal growth!

In this power-packed episode, you'll learn:

🎯 The importance of hands-on experience in shaping successful entrepreneurs
🎯 How to master decision-making in uncertain situations
🎯 The unmatched value of trying, failing, and learning from feedback
🎯 Why there's no better time to start your entrepreneurial journey than now
🎯 The crucial balance between courage, grit, and perseverance
🎯 The secret to finding fulfillment in your entrepreneurial pursuits

And that's just the beginning! Gain insights into:

💡 How the idea for Netflix was born out of countless pitches and brainstorming sessions
💡 The art of striking the perfect balance between your professional and personal life
💡 The power of adaptability and strong company culture in driving business success
💡 Marc Randolph's book, offering an authentic portrayal of the entrepreneurial journey

Get ready to be inspired and empowered by Marc Randolph's incredible story, wisdom, and practical advice. Don't miss this game-changing episode of the #CreatingSynergyPodcast! 🎉

👉 Listen NOW and embark on your path to entrepreneurial success!


Where to find Marc Randolph

• LinkedIn
• Website

Books mentioned in this episode:

•  That will never work by Marc Randolph

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram (@synergyiq).

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.

Transcript

Daniel Franco: 0:10

So welcome back to the creating synergy podcast today. I'm very, very humbled to be sitting in front of Mr. Marc Randolph, thank you for for joining us.

Marc Randolph: 0:21

It's my pleasure.

Daniel Franco: 0:23

you may or may not know, the business has now grown to 31 billion in revenue, 231 million global paid users in over 190 companies. And I found out a stat 15% of the world's internet bandwidth, which I thought was really, really an interesting point, your serial investor to startups and some of those have gone on to be extremely successful in their own right coach to entrepreneurs, you travel the world in keynote speaking here today, currently speaking of South star and the fearless females International Women's events tonight. Thank you so much for joining us.

Marc Randolph: 1:09

Oh, it's a pleasure to be here. It really is. So much interesting things going on here. There is.

Daniel Franco: 1:13

So just to round up now. Well, this is the most impromptu podcast that we've both I think ever done, you've done no research where I've had minimal time to pull together. Normally, I spent a couple of weeks pulling together research. So we're going to sort of go off the cuff a little bit here, which is really interesting. But I want to kind of start back in date back to just who was Marc before the world of Netflix? And how did you come to be the man that you are today were in sitting in front of us?

Marc Randolph: 1:43

Well, the first thing is that I didn't start Netflix until I was 38. So this was not something I dreamed up in my university dorm room or something like that. So I had been, I had been an entrepreneur for a long time up to that Netflix was my fifth or six, depending how you count them startup. And I've been doing this pretty much my whole life. I didn't do it because I read a book about it. Or because I had some dream growing up about entrepreneurship, I've just always kind of been one of those guys who's kind of compulsively driven to fill holes that I see, to see things that are broken and want to fix them or things that could be done better and want to be the person who provides that better. And it's one of those one thing leads to another type careers.

Daniel Franco: 2:33

And you talked about the book, I am interested, because I've heard you talk numerous times, I've watched YouTube videos and all the above. And I think it was one of a recent tweet that you did, or, or something along the lines that "You can't learn entrepreneurship through a book". And then you've just mentioned that there again, what's your thoughts around the world of entrepreneurship and learning and reading? Do you think that the books and, you've written your own book as well, Do you think that books play a part? I'm a big reader, Do you think books play a part if you're immersed in the world of entrepreneurship?

Marc Randolph: 3:07

Sure, they help. So I don't want to say don't read anything, because you certainly can learn a lot from books, and learn a lot about entrepreneurship from books, the misconception or the wrong belief is a thing that you can learn how to do it. Yeah, from reading a book. That's true. Because the tweet really was that you know, thinking you can learn entrepreneurship from book is like think you can read, learn how to play golf, is correct. You know, you can study all the swings you want. You can read books about strategy in golf, but you've got to get out and hit balls. Yeah. And you've got to get out in the course and see what it brings you. Otherwise, you're, you're hopeless. And entrepreneurship is the same thing. You have to do it. I encourage everyone don't jump right into some big company. If you have an idea, just try it. And just the little things you learn are the exact same thing which was to do writ large, later on.

Daniel Franco: 4:01

It's what I find being an entrepreneur myself. It's the living with the ambiguity, it's live, it's making decisions with no control. Like it's all the above that actually builds the resilience piece, I guess is what you're talking about. From an entrepreneurship point of view, not just the

Marc Randolph: 4:16

resilience, you have to learn to become comfortable with making decisions, when you have no idea in advance what the outcome is going to be my definition just to expand what you said is that entrepreneurs are people who are comfortable making decision based on ambiguous or contradictory or incomplete information. And that's very, very hard for a lot of people. Nobody wants to be embarrassed. No one wants to try something that they're not sure in advance is going to work. No one wants to be laughed at. And what entrepreneurs have to do is realize you can take these risks, you can try things and when they don't work, the world doesn't end. And if anything, the thing that I've gotten good at after doing this for four decades. So is I am completely fearless. Now, I know there's going to be almost no bad consequences that I can't deal with from trying something. And I've learned that the value of trying it, the feedback I get is so unbelievably powerful and unexpected that it pays off every time. That's the kind of thing that you learn by practicing. And to think that, someone goes, I'm going to read some books, I'm going to, you know, I'm gonna tell him to study, be an entrepreneurship major at the University, and then come out and go try and raise money sort of company is just laughable.

Daniel Franco: 5:34

Yeah. The fearless is part I want to touch on that you have. I've been doing this five years now been growing the business, we're doing quite well, brands doing quite well. I want to know when is going to be the day that I stopped becoming fearful of making decisions, I think, entrepreneurship in its own right, you can have the best day and worst day in the same day, right? And it's there's these ups and downs that you kind of float with, you've often and a lot of your teachings in on a lot of your YouTube clips and your website and all the above you've you've spoken very much about failing and you know, making bad decisions and or there's no sort of real bad decision is there and you fail quickly. And you get through it and you learn and iterate along the way. When does one become comfortable with the failure in the making? You said you had five businesses there? Did you fail those before? Or did you had it at all work for you?

Marc Randolph: 6:33

It's not like one business is one swing and Okay, on my fourth swing, it's more that each of those businesses involved 10,000 different decisions. And what happens is, let me back up for a second. So is going to sound completely crazy. I'll bring it home, I promise. So listen, automotive safety has unbelievably better in the last 20, 30, 40 years in terms of what an automobile can do to protect its occupants, better steering, better brakes, all those things. And you would think that would make the death rate go down, but it doesn't. What it does is people just drive faster. Yeah. That's what happens for an entrepreneur is that your comfort with decisions, you're going to find a place where you're, oh, gosh, this is still a little uncomfortable. That little uncomfortable, never goes away. What happens is the decisions at which you feel that become more and more and more consequential. Yeah. So listen, the first, the maybe the first thing you start, when my first ventures you want to call them that were things at the university, where the consequences in the scheme of things were pretty modest, I was not going to starve, I still had a place to sleep, I still had to get fed. But they were very, very scary nonetheless. But and each time you graduate a little bit, you still have that same feeling of oh, yeah. But you're taking bigger and bigger swings. And so eventually, when you're taking a swing with a company like Netflix, or even bigger swing that I took with Looker, it's the same feeling. It's just a much, much bigger risk.

Daniel Franco: 8:13

I love that if you look back at year one, to some of the decisions I made, and the fee that I felt I would look at them now. And probably not even recognize them. You know? So it's the it's the iterations and the growth. There's so

Marc Randolph: 8:25

many, so many examples that we could talk a lot about it. It is, it's, which is why I say you can't learn it from a book. Yeah. Because you need to find the groove you need. And all the it's not there's one skill, it's like not like, there's decision making skills. There's so many of them. I mean, for example, especially early on, you were trying to convince people to come join you. Yeah, you're gonna say Come Come work for me. Leave your job, which pays better, and just more security has better benefits. And come join me on this mission. We're looking to change the world. Yeah. And that's an unbelievably hard skill right there. But though you can learn those skills early on, too. I mean, the same university things that I was doing is clubs is publications, all these things that I started, I had to convince people to come and work for me when I couldn't pay for them when they could have been out drinking and chasing women or whatever the case was. And that exact same skill is the one you use every single day. 30 years later. Yeah, that's what I mean by practice, practice, practice, practice. The best time you know, to start was 20 years ago, if you want to be entrepreneur a second best time is now

Daniel Franco: 9:38

I've heard a quote. It was the number one hardest thing to do is to start the number two hardest thing to do is to not quit. So I like that. Yeah. So just to elaborate on that and understand your thoughts. When at what point through your career We are even when you work with entrepreneurs, when do you realize that you're banging your head up against the wall every single day, and this is not going to change, like you need to call a spade a spade and say, Actually, this business is not working, I'm going to move away from it. It's a really tough decision. We see a lot of entrepreneurs who keep striving keep striving to keep striving. Do you encourage to continue to strive and continue to learn and continue to iterate and continue to make bad, make bad ideas and turn them into good ideas? Or do you actually encourage people to walk away when things are just not working?

Marc Randolph: 10:36

I challenge the whole premise of that question. I think that's a false question. I don't think any entrepreneur ever really thinks that way. Okay. I mean, it's true. It's not an unusual question. I get asked that all the time. How do I know when to quit? And the answer is, you never quit. And it's not like it's true. You ever think about quitting? You quit when they pry your hands? No, as the expression goes, you're gonna have my gun when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands. Yeah, correct. But it's, it really is that way. And I don't know anyone realistically, who's an entrepreneur who has said, This is too tough, I'm gonna walk away, you things fail. They run out of money, you realize your product is going backwards. And then when you try and find a safe landing for it, but that's, you're still trying to salvage it up to the very last minute. So I'm the worst person to ask for advice about when to give up. I've just never seen someone do up there. I can use this. Yeah.

Daniel Franco: 11:39

To be honest, you're right. If you're in your all in right, I mean, you've made the biggest decision is to step out on your own, like you said, encourage people to come in. Yeah,

Marc Randolph: 11:49

that's, your pithy little, quote, There was a great one. Yep. It really is courage to start and grit to continue. But I'm not saying it's easy to continue. But mustering the courage to continue is different than trying to decide when to quit

Daniel Franco: 12:07

when to quit, beautiful. So let's just talk back around the start. So you're in this world. And the idea of Netflix comes about, you know, we've all heard the story. It's a great story of, of the overdue fines and all that that you go from that you and Reed got from the blockbusters of the world. And then the commuting to and from Silicon Valley, the two of you come up with this idea. What happens then, well, how do you put into process at that point? Were you thinking actually, this could change the world?

Marc Randolph: 12:39

No. Yeah, not a chance. And it's not as I mean, listen, there are stories, for example, the whole late Fianna movie thing, It's hollywood story. Yeah, Hollywood story. Yeah. And I understand it, because what everybody wants is the epiphany story, correct? Yeah, they have this romantic vision that what entrepreneurs do is walk down the street and an apple falls in their head, and they invent gravity, or whatever it is, or, you know, figure out the bathtub.. and Eureka!

Daniel Franco: 13:12

And you've come up with a flux capacitor.

Marc Randolph: 13:15

Exactly. For that, you get a late fee in a movie, and boom, that's like springs forth fully formed. It just doesn't happen that way. You have to be looking for these ideas. And yes, you know, Reed Hastings, and I came up with the idea for Netflix in a commute. But it was just one of 100 ideas that I pitched him on those commutes. Yeah, the idea of finding the idea that has enough resonance to want to continue with it is work. And it was just an it's not just thought experiment work. What we were doing in the car is we'd start off with banging them around intellectually. But we would not waste a lot of time on that. Because fundamentally, that doesn't tell you much at all. Almost anything that passed the very first test of being intellectually sound, had to be validated by trying in some way to collide it with a real person. I mean, the whole that Netflix story is in the car, all of a sudden, mid ride, realizing that deep that DVDs might allow us to solve a problem we'd given up on several months ago. Yeah, but turning the car around and saying what can we do right now, to give us a sense of whether this idea has any validity or

Daniel Franco: 14:33

What did you learn about yourself through not. those early years, you know, you start the business, you know, the hustle and bustle, the continuous effort, the mistakes, the learnings, all the above. What did you learn about Marc Randolph in those early years of that startup?

Marc Randolph: 14:54

There's so many lessons I'm struggling to come up with the best one I probably the most important lesson is that I really like this. And that's not just a casual observation. It's this feeling that I've found something that fulfills me. And I think most people are constantly searching for this thing. And we're fighting against preconceptions of what should fulfill us, you should be a lawyer, you should be a doctor, or you should be successful, you should make a lot of money. And certainly, when I started as an entrepreneur, none of those things were true. It was it was kind of a losery thing for people who couldn't hold the job. But the coming to the realization that I really enjoy this, and that actually, I'm pretty good at it. That combination of things was a really big insight for me. The second big realization that was profound was that, in some ways, it's an addiction, that I have to be really careful about, because like an addiction, it can take over your life, what you have to do is say, How do I manage this? Yeah, how do I become a successful entrepreneur, without losing the things that make me whole, you know, my hobbies, or my family or my friends, those sort of things. And I learned the first one probably in my mid 20s. And I learned the second one, probably late 20s, early 30s. So these are not like, easy things to learn. But I look back now and go, Wow, those were important for both of those really? What shaped the rest of my life?

Daniel Franco: 16:34

Yeah. So similar position, I'm 38 years old, startup, in starting a business. Have a family to young children. I constantly grapple with putting my visions and my wants, needs desires for this business with the love and time that I want to spend with my family. How did you manage that concoction when you were going through the early years?

Marc Randolph: 17:05

So I screwed it up pretty badly at the beginning. So I will, I will confess to that. You know, I was so passionate about it that I was spending all the time working. You know, I was working seven days a week I would work staying late. I was going in on Sundays and Saturdays it was a lot and not because I had some boss cracking a whip on me. I was so enthusiastic for what I was doing. But of course, my girlfriend didn't quite see it that way. And it kind of dawned on me maybe with some nudging from her that this was not a sustainable, long term relationship. And right about then I decided I have to figure out a way to solve for this apparently unsolvable problem. And so that my quick answer is that I decided it was important. Yeah, which is usually the root of everything, and that it was not something I would just solve casually. I mean, I'm a planner, you know, I think through very carefully, my one of my mottos is, if you don't know exactly where you're going, you're unlikely you're gonna get there. And I go, I'm gonna figure this out. And made it really, really important. I mean, as a famous, famous sessions, I've told the story a number of times about how I, one of the things I did was, we had this Tuesday night, date night, where I'd leave the office at 5pm. Sharp, and as you probably know, I'm not sure how it is here. But that's like leaving at lunch, essentially. And, but I was religious. You know, listen, if there's a crisis, we're going to wrap it up. Before five. If you have to talk to me, we're going to talk in the car. And I'm just going to do that, listen. So a lot of nights after I'd go back into the office at 10, or 1030, or 11. But that was carved out. And there's a lot of other things that I did to try and make that make it work. And it's what's not hard at all, it's not easy. But looking back, I mean, with all complete sincerity, it's probably one of the things that I'm most proud of, is that not just the companies that I've had, which have been really successful, which is proud of that. But I'm especially proud of the fact that I was able to do all that and I'm still married to the same woman. Yeah, and my kids and I have three kids, you know, grown up knowing me. best as I can tell liking me that I've had a chance to get out and pursue the hobbies. My life's even harder here because I have the family, but my hobbies and stuff is I'm an outdoorsy guy. Yeah, I'm going back country skiing and mountain biking and kayaking and surfing and these are not the stuff you squeeze in between your 1130 Call, and your one o'clock meeting, you've got to plan for them. So I did. So I do have some advice for you though. Yeah. It's so it's another story. Hope you get this one a love story. I really am my career right about when I was probably your age, maybe a little bit younger. I was an expat that was living in France. And I was running international marketing for big software company. So I was visiting our European offices almost every day. So I get in the car, I drive from my apartment, I drive in the airport, fly to Copenhagen, come back to Paris. Next day, fly to London, come back to Paris next day fly to Milan, back to Paris. So I was on the plane a lot. And because of me, and because of Paris traffic, late a lot. And so finding yourself sprinting through the terminal, you know, frantically trying to make your plane. Yeah. And one day as these things happen, I realize this is futile. Goes for every 100 times I run for the plane 49 of the times I plucked the gate and the planes gone.

Daniel Franco: 21:16

Yeah, well, the other 50% of the time, you're missing the plane.

Marc Randolph: 21:19

Yeah. Because you're trying to run into the terminal. Yeah. So the other 49 times you pull up to the gate, and they go, yes, we're delayed 20 minutes. And so you're sitting there in your seat, sweating. Maybe once or twice for every 100 flights, did it make a difference between catching it and not catching it? And I vowed, then there I would never run for a plane again. And I never have run for a plane again. I tell that story. Because what I've also realized is that what your business is very much like that. And you I don't know you well enough to be assumed, but I'm guessing they're probably tons of times you're up really, really late. You've a big presentation, you're going over the deck, you're calling someone up and going quickly change this. You're, you're you're doing all kinds of last minute detail oriented stuff, because you wanted them to be perfect. You're running for a plane? Yeah. Because 100 taught you that 100 times 49% of the time, you would have gotten the deal anyway. The other 49 times you were that was not going to make the deal of difference between getting the deal and losing the deal. Maybe once or twice. Yeah. And so once you realize that you stopped running for planes, and that's what frees up a huge amount of time for the other things. Well, that's like striking a nerve with me that it's the perfectionism is probably one of those areas that, you know, this is what we're talking about. It's the strive for the extra 20% Not being comfortable with the 80% Isn't it? That's that's different, though. I mean, I'm not saying don't have high standards, okay. The skill is recognizing what has to be perfect and what doesn't have to be perfect. Okay. And that's this. And that's not something I knew when I was 25 or 30. But once you recognize it's, it's taken that millisecond to stop and ask yourself, is this one that I have to do like that those five o'clock meetings on Tuesdays? It's like a miracle. I don't know what did it but we stopped having crises on Tuesday afternoon. I don't know how that was like a some kind of lucky break

Daniel Franco: 23:34

your you said you need to learn how to do it is there was you know, and you need to ask stop and ask yourself, was there a thought process? Or is there something that you will stop and always analyze? Like, how do you know what's more? What's important? What's not, there's just go with your gut feel like? Is there a system that you would follow? Perfect?

Marc Randolph: 23:56

Pardon me, perfectionism. I listen, I get it. I know you get I'm extremely anal like that. I know, I'll work you know, it's almost an OCD thing. I'll work on something and work on. I mean, I, I can't it's really hard for me to send an email and just hit send, I gotta go back and review it. Even and I'm gonna this is ridiculous. It's to the vet, trying to schedule a paragraph that goes to the vet. So I get it. But what what you realize is that you're doing it because you have the sense that quote, everything needs to be perfect. And that's the habit to break is recognized. Not everything has to be perfect. It's becoming comfortable. With some things not being perfect. And it's a it's tooth. One thing by everything being perfect. Yeah, you're guaranteeing the important things are perfect. But you're driving yourself crazy. Yeah. Driving your people crazy.

Daniel Franco: 24:52

It's the inward stress that you're putting on. Yeah,

Marc Randolph: 24:55

absolutely. Right. And listen, I'm not I'm just a I'm a man. I make by some mistakes too, I'm saying I'm, but I'm quite a bit older. And I've had multiple companies. And I've kind of gotten to the point where I've recognized my skill set has to be recognizing what are the things that I say this has got to be right. And I let a lot of other stuff go. It's how I gain the time to have a life. So

Unknown: 25:26

in regards to having a life if you, there's so much in that there is because I was gonna ask you a question earlier, after you talked about how you decided to stop and make time and you said, I think my kids like me, and the one thing that went through my head is what would your children and your family say about Marc? How would they describe you as a father as a husband all the above? And is it aligned with what you want them to say?

Marc Randolph: 26:00

Yeah, I'm so lucky, because I do have that kind of relationship with my kids. And as you know, you, you have so little control over that stuff, you can just do the best you can. And you correct you hope for the best. Yeah. I laughed, because I don't take a lot of stuff seriously. And so my kids, of course, have picked that up. And so they give me shit, essentially. So it's a

Daniel Franco: 26:26

lot. So there's gonna be some sock hasn't been one that's

Marc Randolph: 26:31

been in all seriousness, I think the thing that they have said, which makes me feel proud as they go your superpower, if that's where these before they go is or love language, they have some new age bullshit way of saying they go is that you want to help people that someone asks you something, you shift into this gear of what can I do to help that person? And that certainly is how I've always been with them. And I think that's a great way for them to perceive

Daniel Franco: 27:01

your beautiful tribe. I want to talk or there's one thing that I'm really interested in going back into the whole Netflix world, the blockbuster story, is there another famous story of how they laughed. When you asked them, if there was an opportunity to buy you for 50 million at the time. Now, as we said 31.6 billion so and now they've gone bankrupt. So not that revenue. Exactly. You're right. And so

Marc Randolph: 27:31

that's revenue, did did you and I've heard you say in a few of your talks that you said right now we're going to sink them, which is like, perfect entrepreneur attitude, right? Like you've made a bad decision. I'm going to prove you wrong. Was there ever the thought process of a moral dilemma for you putting a company with, you know, all the employees 9000 stores, was there ever that conflict of interest for you, like, and how did you deal with that? With some hesitancy, I'll say no, but not because I'm callous. I mean, I feel I feel terrible in one sense that, you know, 60,000 people lost their jobs. Excuse me, that's one wonderful thing about it, it's beautiful. You know, I feel terrible that you know, 60,000 people lost their jobs. But it's not my fault. It's not Netflix's fault. Good point. It's at a probably isn't even blockbuster management's fault is that the world changes. And if companies can't figure out how to respond to that change, they get replaced by companies that can, because it's not what we did was build a better mousetrap. We provided a better solution for customers. And that's the way this works. And it shows either chose not to, or structurally we're unable to. And, you know, I don't feel sorry for buggy whip manufacturers.

Daniel Franco: 29:28

No, I hear your point. I like it. It's you trade. It's the leadership fault of blockbuster at the time wasn't it, that they didn't move with the market.

Marc Randolph: 29:38

You know, it's easy for us to say just didn't it's incredibly hard, correct. You're right, I mean,

Daniel Franco: 29:44

moving a behemoth. Yeah.

Marc Randolph: 29:46

And, and it's partly courage, but it's partly the entrenched systems you know, if you're a public company will say out. No, we manage this company with a 20 year horizon. As in, but we better get the numbers every quarter. Yeah, that's that's why it's really, really impossible to do the right thing is when you're judged on your results every three months.

Daniel Franco: 30:13

If you could look back at the success, or even just the startup world, the environment in the ecosystem of a startup world, and you put it into a hot pot, and you boil, you boil away, and the excess that you're left with, is the reasons why Netflix was successful. What's in that pot? What's remaining? Why do you think were the core reasons Netflix and Looker and all the startups that you've worked with have been successful?

Marc Randolph: 30:41

Two things. Biggest one, by far is culture. Culture are common denominators. Because every company otherwise is different. They solve different problems. They have different markets, different business models. What is consistent with as a founder usually is the culture. And certainly, I think the culture was a big, big part of Netflix's early success and continued success. I think we learned early on some very entrepreneurial strategies, partly because I was 38. And Reed was 36, or 37. And so we both had a lot of experience and that and knew how to approach the problem in terms of almost anti-blockbuster things, which was continually willing to walk away from the past in order to get the get the future, usually from the present to get the future, right. rapid iteration, not falling in love with their ideas, all those things. So I think those are probably the two underlying core things which drove the success.

Daniel Franco: 31:56

Music to my ears, the consulting company, that is Synergy IQ, which I'm the CEO for we work with organizations on their culture, and constantly believe that the return on investment of in putting time and effort into your culture and growing your culture and creating a high performing culture or the culture that you do, that the community and client deserves, is one that should be front of mind of every leader, so, yeah thank you for sort of just pointing that out. My pleasure. Why why did you decide to move on from the world of Netflix and then go out into your career from there?

Marc Randolph: 32:47

Fundamentally, I'm a startup guy. Yeah. I love the challenges. And the struggles of a really early stage company. I love that Prop figuring out what is the repeatable, scalable business model? What is product market fit? How do you bring together a team of people to solve a really interesting problem, I just love that phase of a business. And seven years in, at Netflix, it was a different scale company. I mean, we had had our initial public offering. So we had the cash we had the reputation, we were able to attract and retain amazingly talented people. As the company gets bigger, the management begins to specialize. And it kind of gradually began to dawn on me that my love for the company was undiminished. I mean, this was my baby. Yeah, you know, I was gonna right its wrongs and fight its fights. But at the same time, I began to realize that I didn't really like what I was doing, that the day to day stuff was not what energized me. And I guess was really going to be honest. I wasn't very good at it either.

Daniel Franco: 34:04

From the scale with the scale that it was

Marc Randolph: 34:06

awesome, it really early stage companies, when you have three or four or 500 companies, it's very different thing. And I love

Daniel Franco: 34:13

the chase. I'm pretty bad.

Marc Randolph: 34:16

And you realize, well, success is not your title. Success is doing the thing you like doing and doing something you're good at. And if I was really going to be successful, I should get back to doing that. And I did, I mean it and not in a bad way. You know, I'm still very close to the company. I'm still very good friends with Reed and everyone there. But I'm happy as a clam right now. I mean, I get to work. I started another company after Netflix. I get to work every day with the most unbelievably talented and interesting entrepreneurs. I have plenty of time for all my outdoor activities and for my family. I'm really happy and Reed is really happy. He loves playing this global chess game. And he's exceptionally good at it. Win-win. beautiful.

Daniel Franco: 35:11

Hold on. So in regards to your book, and I'm conscious of your time, so you're that

Marc Randolph: 35:15

we can go a bit, we can go a bit. We'll go to six, we'll go to 430 if you want.

Unknown: 35:19

Okay, perfect. Thank you. So, in regards to your book, that'll never work, which I understand was a quote that was sent to you early on in your, in your career and the birth of Netflix. It's been endorsed by Reed. It's been endorsed by someone who I love as well, which is Gary Vee Gary Vaynerchuk. So, you know, and I've, I haven't had a chance to read it because I didn't have chance to prepare is as impromptu as this podcast was. I've heard it's very entertaining. I've read great reviews on it. Can you talk to us why you decided to write this book? Because I know there's some questions in it. You know, how do you begin? How do you weather disappointment and failure? How do you define success? So these are three really amazing sort of philosophical questions. Is that what you your intent was when you wrote this book?

Marc Randolph: 36:13

I really had a couple of objectives here. The first thing to point out is I wrote this book almost 15 years after I left Netflix. Because it took me that long to really understand what went on. And more importantly, what my role there was, what succeeded, in spite of me, what succeeded because of me, what was brilliant tactical decisions, and what was just dumb luck. And I really felt I couldn't write it until I understood those things. But the main two things I wanted this book to accomplish was first to dispel a lot of the myths that surround entrepreneurship. I was fighting against this media frenzy that says this is some glamorous route to riches and fame. I wanted people to see the struggle, I wanted people to see what it was really like to feel it, to see the fun, but to also see the disappointment. I wanted to create a true picture of what it was like to start and grow a company. But the other thing is, what I had realized in the years since leaving Netflix is that, you know, dreaming is not purely the domain of entrepreneurs that everybody has something they want to accomplish. Maybe starting a company, maybe you just want a better job, maybe you just want to convince your boss to let you start something maybe you want to get a better apartment closer to the center. I mean, everyone is as a as Nolan Bushnell said I was taking a shower as had an idea. But what I realized. What I realized, though, is that all these tips and tricks and secrets that I learned over four decades as an entrepreneur, were not just for entrepreneurship, there were the exact same steps that anybody could take, take anything they want to accomplish and make it real. And I think that's really what the book is, is about.

Daniel Franco: 38:21

Thank you. So to answer one of those philosophical questions, which is the one that I grappled with, and the one that probably interludes with the family question that I asked earlier, what does success look like to Marc Randolph?

Marc Randolph: 38:39

I mean, I am the luckiest guy you're ever going to meet. I mean, and not because of Netflix. But because of how I consider myself so lucky because of how I get to spend my my days. Since I left Netflix, I've kind of recognized that the thing I want to do is help other people not have the same success that I've had, but have the same opportunity to take a shot that I had, I can't tell an early stage company, whether it's going to work or not. But I can certainly help you take your best shot at it. I can help convince you that yes, you can try this, you can do it without quitting your job. You can do it without dropping out of school. You can do it without raising money or hiring a co founder or learning how to code that I can do these things and that I have to do these things. And I get to do these things. I get to work with these really, really talented and fascinating entrepreneurs of all ages all over the world. That's success. The fact like I said before that I was able to do all these things and I'm stayed married to the same woman. That's success. Yeah. I'm a I could have done on some of the classical definitions, I could have done better who would that's I never, I was lucky, I never got sucked into that I never. I didn't do this ever. Because I thought this was going to be a way to make money or what never occurred to me, just did it because these were fascinating problems that needed to get solved. And I went to work every day, driven by this is the coolest puzzle that we all get to sit around a table and help solve together. The fact that I've gotten a chance to do that my whole life is biggest gift I can imagine.

Daniel Franco: 40:42

Kudos. That's remarkable. And thank you for sharing that because people, myself included, sometimes can get lost in the world that they're playing. And put too much emphasis on what isn't important. Like you've said,

Marc Randolph: 40:59

it's not it's not your fault. It's, you know, the media and not blaming the media, I'm not bashing the media. But just the nature of it, it. We're bombarded with images that tell us if you have this, you'll be happy. Yeah, if you have this new car, you'll be happy if it's bigger house you'll be happy if you have, It's just an ongoing onslaught. And so people lose sight of what really does make me happy. And I was I mean, I grew up in an affluent community. So I was extremely lucky to have all those things I have my education paid for, I never worried about where my meals or my bed so I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm very, very much incredibly fortunate that way. But the other unrecognized gift that I got was, I got to see all these very, very wealthy, successful friends of my parents who were miserable, whose kids wouldn't talk to them, where they were divorced, or, and I'm not saying as a 13 year old kid, I went, whoa, whoa, oh, my gosh, like, but it would what it did was it. I did not get sucked into this thing. If I only got to live in this fancy town, boy, I'd be happy then. Which freed me up to be able to pursue the things that I was curious about.

Daniel Franco: 42:16

I'm drinking the same kool aid when? For me, it's really, how do I do both these the? Or how do I be all that I want to be? Right? That's the concoction that I'm trying to work out, you know, if happiness was this cocktail of that we could put together and I'm trying to find that recipe right now in my own life.

Marc Randolph: 42:40

Yeah, well, I smack you upside the head. Be careful. There is always more. And I listen, don't get me wrong, you know.

Daniel Franco: 42:50

So So you're saying, Don't stick with the one recipe is that? What do you know, I'm saying?

Marc Randolph: 42:57

Reflect on where you are? And are you find your happiness there?

Daniel Franco: 43:03

Yeah. So I would almost say that family come first, over business for me and I and sometimes it actually affects the quality of business that I owe the quality or the effort that I put in, because I'm like that families first and then but I never regret that decision.

Marc Randolph: 43:18

So listen, I says we're getting kind of personal stuff. So you have 25 or so employees. Right? So why do you want to be 50? Don't answer me now. Think about it, though. I mean, you probably can afford your kids can go to school, you probably can take some time off, In fact, If you said, growth is no longer part of the equation. I can take even more time off.

Daniel Franco: 43:43

No, no, no, I hear you loud and clear. You don't

Marc Randolph: 43:46

need to necessarily say Oh, you're right. I'm just gonna stay exactly where I am. But breaks, it breaks the thought about more and more faster. What's the chase? Isn't it? I think two things happen. Number one is with bigger companies and more complexity and growth comes more stress. And more importantly, you will reach a point unless you are an exceptional person where you're not as good at it anymore. And then that's a very, very difficult

Daniel Franco: 44:14

point. Yeah. And look, I'm the first to admit that my toxic trait is is running after that new shiny thing, right? That's how do you solve for that? Like, how do I how do I manage focus within and amongst all this as a, as a leader within the business? You

Marc Randolph: 44:32

know, the answer is, I don't know. Very, very scared of coming across as some kind of Zen. No, no, I don't. I've solved a bunch of these solves the wrong word. I worked very hard on saying this is my one of the one of my principles here. And it is true that one of the things what hey, here's how I'm gonna say this. I cannot say here is how you do it. All I can show you is it can be done. Yeah, you can Have my case to multi billion market cap companies and still have a life. But I don't know necessarily how to say here's exactly the steps you have to take. It's enough for me to demonstrate that they're not. life and business success or not trade offs.

Daniel Franco: 45:19

Yeah. And I think you're right. I think it's about you know, if we go back to the cocktail or the concoction, it's about everyone finding their own individual drink, isn't it?

Marc Randolph: 45:31

There's no question about that. That's, that's the Insight is not presupposing that you have to do it a certain way. I mean, I counsel I have a I have this invitation only entrepreneurial community. And a fair number of people that I speak to, were in their everyday chatting, and a number of these people are all worried about fundraising. And what I try and say, as you ask yourself, why you're doing this, having a lifestyle business is not a bad thing. Most new businesses or lifestyle businesses, when you raise money, you're signing up for something and make sure you understand exactly what you're signing up for. You're signing up for growth, you're signing up for access, you're signing up for a lot of things that add a huge amount of pressure to your life and make sure you do it. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, either. I love that game. But it does not mean it's the only way to be an entrepreneur is not the only way to be a business person. I years ago, when I was living in Paris, a good friend of mine, his sister was married to a Frenchman. And we, my friend and I were at their house, we were out in the deck with the husband, he had a glove importing business. And of course, me and my friend being you know, the Americans were grilling, all the stuff that we could do. If you consider this, you can make this bigger. And you had this expression on his face like 'Why?'. And I thought it might be, you know, the translation stuff. And I began speaking slower. He goes, No, no, no, it goes, I understand what you're saying. He goes, I don't understand why you're saying it. Why would I want that? I have this wonderful business. I have a house in Paris and I have one in the south of France, I'm able to take off six to eight weeks every summer to go there. Why would I want more? And it was really a such an interesting.

Daniel Franco: 47:36

So the question I I asked myself is why not? Like why wouldn't I want more?

Marc Randolph: 47:47

Exactly. That's that's what that's what my friend and I were saying. Yeah, it was. It was self evident to us. He was self evident to us that of course, you want to keep growing it. Yeah. But it was interesting. That his he had a different cultural mindset, that recognize that with with more complexity with greater size and growth comes quality of life issues. Yeah. And, and listen, I It's kind of I recognize the irony of podcast, which is about people largely transforming and growing their businesses and coming on here and going, Whoa, be careful what you wish for. Yeah. But, you know, what can I

Daniel Franco: 48:23

can I know this podcast is about finding the path that

Marc Randolph: 48:28

you want to find. Yeah. Excellent. Then we're in the right place. Yeah.

Daniel Franco: 48:31

Yeah. That's why I haven't got questions about growth, and how do I grow? I am interested in about success. I'm interested in about creating a world a better world and realizing our own visions, but it's how do we do it in a way that suits us as an individual, as a community, as a leader? All the above. So

Marc Randolph: 48:52

yeah, life is one of those things that are complicated. And I, I'm lucky that I can now look back and see the path I've taken and go that seemed to work, but I have no idea if I had been 28 and saying Where do I go whether I would have come even close to figuring out this was the way to get there.

Daniel Franco: 49:14

So I'm we're going to round up the podcast now and you're off to another event. You're here in Adelaide for a couple of days. But I know you're back to back today so I just I want to say thank you so much. You know and from the bottom of my heart it actually I've never been more nervous in a podcast before you came in today. Like Gabriella was telling me you're following him around, stop following him around, but I really want to say this is this is life changing for me personally and and you actually have that effect you you've created something that's changed the world right and you know, man crushing and geeking out and all the above right now is something I'm definitely doing and I just I really want you to know this means the world to me and you have You've already in the 45 minutes, 50 minutes that we've had a chat had an impact on me. And really proven to me that maybe I am on the right track. Maybe I am thinking about things in the right way. And I'm discovering what is going to be best for me and my family and our and our team and and our business. So I just want to say thank you for all that you're doing.

Marc Randolph: 50:24

Oh, it's really it's really a pleasure. And you got this!

Daniel Franco: 50:29

Yeah, sometimes I don't know. What's next for Marc? Well, what is the what is the future look like for you?

Marc Randolph: 50:40

It's interesting. You can't turn it off. Yeah. All I can do is learn how to control it. I sometimes describe the mentoring that I do as my my startup methadone. It's my way of getting my fix of startup without getting dragged into a business where I'm thinking about seven days a week, 24 hours a day, which is one of the issues in being an entrepreneur. Yeah. And I'm loving that. And what's fascinating is that being a mentor, pulls you into their worlds, besides getting a chance to work with these really great people. But like one of them is working on an AI startup, which is fascinating. What's worked in robotics for a long time, did blockchain. So it's getting this old guy, you know, it's keeping me current, which is fascinating. I mentioned that I'm working on the entrepreneurial community. I have a bunch of interesting other projects in the works. I can't turn it off of just figuring out ways with the exact same strategies I used when I was in my late 20s and early 30s. How do I do these things in a way that they are the right at the right intensity in the right place?

Daniel Franco: 51:59

I love it. I did have one question on AI before we go. Sure. Does it scare you? or does it excite you?

Marc Randolph: 52:05

It excites me. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Yeah.

Daniel Franco: 52:07

It's unbelievable, isn't it? Some of the stuff that's come and chatgpt is one of those areas, That's just to me, that's one of the many.

Marc Randolph: 52:16

I mean, have you played with some of the AI podcasting stuff? Just? Well, no, it's see that. Okay, take two seconds to talk about that. People have had so many discussions about Oh, aren't you worried is going to put people out of jobs and stuff like that?

Daniel Franco: 52:40

What's the Elon Musk thing? He's gonna He's that's his thing, isn't it that he wants to be good? Like Terminator three?

Marc Randolph: 52:47

Yes, but that's not what, I don't know what he's scared of. Yeah. Who knows? Yeah. But it's that what it does is remove all the mundane rose things from the processes. Yeah. It's like, you know, my father, you know, he could whip through a slide rule, you know, and it was really, really good because he was an engineer. He's an engineer, and he had to use that. And he could do calculations really quickly. And lo and behold, this new technology called a calculator came along, which meant you didn't need to learn how to use a slide rule. So yes, all the people who are amazing on a slide rule were out of work. But that wasn't a bad thing. Because it took something used to take eight hours to do these set of calculations, you can now do them in 1520 minutes than the spreadsheet came along. And you could do it even more powerfully. And I think what we're seeing with so many, like chatGPT is like basically a calculator. But for words, you still have to have creative thoughts, you still have to be able to put things together in a coherent thought process way. But you no longer have to sit at a word processor, Microsoft Word for three hours, trying to figure out how to structure the paragraphs and the thoughts to make it come across. Yeah. And that's an amazing thing that will free all of us up to do much higher level work, in my opinion.

Daniel Franco: 54:16

Excellent. We'll leave it on that note. Thank you so much for your time today. Really appreciate you if anyone wants to follow you. Where can they where can they connect with you follow you all the above.

Marc Randolph: 54:27

So the best place to start is marcrandolph.com, My website because there you'll find ways to follow me on all my social channels, which I'm actually pretty active on Yep, for an old guy. But also you can find links to my podcast there my book, I write a blog post once a week, you can get it via email. So that's ground zero for tapping into the my verbal river of disjointed thoughts.

Daniel Franco: 54:57

I love it. I'm already subscribed so I'm looking into. thanks again thank you for all you've done thank you for all you are doing and thank you for all that you are going to do appreciate your time. Thanks guys bye bye