Business

Over the past several years, I’ve been spending more of my time working with startups, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs. Many founders have a lot of passion for their ideas and fervently believe they can build a successful company. There are also many programs available to help businesses start up, through grants and matching funds. Plus, there is a plethora of books, Web sites, and other information available to help founders go through the mechanics of establishing a business and filing the right paperwork.

But what startups are often missing is the ability to effectively manage and lead an organization as it grows. When the time comes to turn an idea for a business into a functioning team that can execute on the business’s purpose, things can get a bit dicey. As a result, these young businesses often tread water, make little progress, hire the wrong people, and fail to build a plan for growing the business. They may have great plans for building technology, but they need help getting on a path to success. Read More

If you’ve ever frittered away an afternoon, watching a late 1990s sitcom on Netflix on autoplay or, if you lamented the final demise of the neighborhood video stores—or even Blockbuster—Marc Randolph’s idea might be to blame.

While Reed Hastings has been the CEO of Netflix throughout its period of tremendous growth since 2002, Marc Randolph was its first CEO and co-founded the firm with Hastings. Over a period of roughly a year, Marc led Netflix from launch to an established firm providing mail-order DVDs. Many of the innovations that Netflix initially pioneered—such as its queue of movies, distinctive envelope, and automated method of recommending movies—the company conceived during Randolph’s tenure.

That Will Never Work is Marc Randolph’s autobiographical perspective on the early days of Netflix, from ideation through research, iterative design, and launch. Read More