Netflix is a video rental service that offers on-demand internet streaming media to users in a number of different countries across the world. Netflix was co-founded by American entrepreneur the name of Reed Hastings. Ingenious co-founder Hastings, who believes that taking calculated risks is the key to entrepreneurship success, is responsible for a significant amount of the success of the web-based mail-order service, which started in 1997 as a single rental service and is now available worldwide. Being the son of a well-known lawyer, he was brought up in Boston where he developed into a bright and daring young man. He attended Bowdoin College to study mathematics while serving in the US Marine Corps. He was driven by a sense of adventure and duty, so he enlisted in the Peace Corps and spent two years teaching mathematics in Swaziland. He returned home and finished his education, becoming confident that he would one day found his own business by the time he graduated. His first company, the Pure Software, eventually merged with another one and went out of business. He then teamed up with Marc Randolph to co-found Netflix, a company that was initially based on a concept novel. His willingness to take risks paid off as Netflix went on to amass millions of customers from all over the world and become a very valuable company.
Early Childhood & Life
On October 8, 1960, in Boston, Massachusetts, he was born Wilmot Reed Hastings, Jr., to Joan Amory and Wilmot Reed Hastings. The U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare employed his father as an attorney.
Following his graduation from a private school in Cambridge, Reed enrolled in Bowdoin College to pursue a degree in mathematics. He participated in the 1981 Platoon Leader Class of the Marine Corps’ officer training program.
After receiving his degree in 1983, he enlisted in the Peace Corps, a US government initiative that places volunteers in underdeveloped countries around the globe. From 1983 to 1985, he spent time in Swaziland where he taught math to high school students. Later, he said that his time in Africa had improved his capacity for risk-taking and entrepreneurship.
After leaving the Peace Corps, he joined Stanford University and graduated with a master’s in computer science in 1988.
The career of Reed Hastings
He accepted a position with Adaptive Technology and started a career as a software engineer. He worked there for Audrey MacLean, the CEO at the time, who taught him the importance of concentration. In 1991, he left this position.
Reed Hastings has always dreamed of founding his own business because he was an entrepreneur at heart. In October 1991, he founded his first business, Pure Software, alongside Raymond Peck and Mark Box. Over the next years, the business, which created devices to troubleshoot software, expanded quickly.
Hastings, however, found that managing a business that was expanding so quickly presented a difficulty because of the company’s growing success. He was an engineer by trade, thus he considered the CEO’s duties to be extremely onerous.
The business went public in 1995, and in 1996 Pure Software and Atria combined to establish Pure Atria Corporation. However, after the merger, some unanticipated problems surfaced, and the combined business, Pure Atria, was bought out by Rational Software in 1997.
In his entrepreneurial career, Reed Hastings viewed his experience with Pure Software as a crucial lesson. Then, in 1997, he joined forces with Marc Randolph to co-found Netflix. When it first launched, Netflix was intended to be a flat-rate rental-by-mail service for American consumers.
Netflix had established mail-order DVD operations by 1998. Each DVD could initially be rented by customers for a week. In 1999, this method was altered such that subscribers could now rent an unlimited number of DVDs for a predetermined monthly charge.
Over time, the business expanded steadily, and Hastings rose to prominence as a result of the cutting-edge management techniques he used to run Netflix. In order to entice the best talent, he provided staff with unusually large salaries, yet he was also quick to terminate those who weren’t giving it their all.
Through collaborations with film studios and marketing campaigns that highlighted the company’s library of independent films, documentaries, and other movies not readily available through other services, he used aggressive expansion techniques to grow Netflix. In 2007, Netflix sent out its billionth DVD, and as of now, it has over 65 million subscribers.
He was a member of the Microsoft board from 2007 until 2012. Since June 2011, he has served as a director on the board of Facebook.
Bigger Works of Reed Hastings
A media rental service founded on Reed Hastings’ original concepts is called Netflix. The business offers its services throughout North America, in a number of regions of Europe, as well as in Australia, South America, and New Zealand. Over 65 million people were Netflix subscribers as of July 2015.
Recognition & Achievements
Reed Hastings received the Henry Crown Leadership Award in 2014. The accolade is granted annually to a deserving leader whose accomplishments exhibit the great qualities of honor, honesty, industry, and charity that distinguished industrialist and philanthropist Henry Crown’s life and career.
Personal Legacy & Life
He has two kids with Patricia Ann Quillin, his wife.
Charitable works of Reed Hastings
Hastings is a prominent proponent of education reform through charter schools and is involved in philanthropic work in the field of education. He gave Beacon Education Network $1 million in beginning financing in 2006 so they could build additional charter schools in Santa Cruz County.
Reed Hastings has a net worth of US $1.65 billion as of August 2015.
Reed Hastings Net Worth
American entrepreneur Reed Hastings has a $1 billion fortune. As the co-founder, CEO, and chairman of Netflix, Reed Hastings has amassed a substantial fortune. Reed owned 5.2 million shares in Netflix as of the most recent SEC filing by the business, including options. Reed’s net worth peaked at $7 billion in the period when Netflix stock was rising.