Who co-founded Netflix with Reed Hastings?

Marc Randolph co-founded Netflix with Reed Hastings. Randolph was Netflix’s first CEO, while Hastings later became the company’s long-serving chief executive.

The idea emerged in the late 1990s while Randolph and Hastings were working together at software company Pure Atria and commuting between Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley. They explored using the internet to sell or rent products and tested whether a compact disc could survive shipment by mail—an experiment that helped point them toward DVDs.

Netflix was founded in 1997 and launched its DVD-by-mail website in 1998. Randolph helped name the company, designed its early website and branding, and used customer behavior as a form of market research. The service later developed subscriptions, a queue system, and no-late-fee rentals.

Randolph handed the CEO role to Hastings in 1999 and left Netflix in 2002. A frequent misconception is that Hastings founded Netflix alone; the company’s founding story includes both co-founders.