Reed Hastings Essay

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Reed Hastings

Reed Hastings Jr. is the co-founder and CEO of Netflix. Along with March Randolph, the two created the streaming service that impacts over 74 million lives.

Background before Netflix

Hastings was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 8, 1960. He attended Bowdoin College where he received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics. After college, Hastings enlisted in the Marine Corps’ officer training school. However, he soon realized the military was not a proper fit. Once leaving the Marine Corps, he joined the Peace Corps. While with the Peace Corps, he taught high school math in Swaziland for two years. This experience was eye-opening to him and made him realize that anything is feasible. He returned to the United Sates and enrolled at Stanford University where he graduated with a master’s degree in computer science.

Before starting Netflix, Hastings founded Pure Software, a troubleshooting software for engineers, in 1991. Originally he started out as an engineer for the company and then progressed to CEO. The company continued to expand and this became a challenge for Hastings. He tried to leave due to him not having experience managing people. But this obstacle forced him to learn how to become a leader. In 1996, Pure Software and Atria Software merged together. Pure Atria, the new company, was …show more content…

He formed the concept of Netflix when he was charged $40 on a late fee for a movie rental at Blockbuster. During this time Netflix offered a fee for per DVD rental. But in 1999, Netflix changed its model to a monthly fee for unlimited movie rentals. Hastings was inspired for this idea based on how gym memberships worked. He realized that gym subscribers can go the gym as much or as less as they want. He thought this could transition to the movie rental business. This model was revolutionary at the time and is how Netflix began its climb up the corporate

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