A virtual book salon, featuring Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, hosted for Foundation Capital’s CEOs.
Foundation Capital
In early 2000, Netflix co-founders Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph met with John Antioco, the CEO of Blockbuster, to pitch him on the idea of acquiring their startup for $50 million. Antioco practically laughed them out of the building. At the time, it wasn’t hard to see why. Blockbuster dominated the home-entertainment business, with nine thousand rental stores worldwide and $6 billion in annual revenues. Netflix, by contrast, was a two-year-old DVD-by-mail company that was off to a shaky start, with losses that year alone totaling $57 million.
Faster than anyone anticipated, however, the world changed and Netflix was able to change (and grow) with it; while Blockbuster, was not. Fast-forward ten years: Blockbuster declares bankruptcy. Fast-forward another decade: only a single Blockbuster store, in Bend, Oregon, remains. Netflix,…
