Marc Randolph facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Marc Randolph
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Randolph in April 2017
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| Born |
Marc Bernays Randolph
April 29, 1958 (age 67) Chappaqua, New York, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Hamilton College |
| Occupation | Co-founder and former CEO of Netflix |
| Spouse(s) |
Lorraine Kiernan
(m. 1987) |
| Children | 3 |
| Family | Bernays family |
Marc Bernays Randolph (born April 29, 1958) is an American entrepreneur, advisor, and speaker. He is best known as the person who helped start Netflix and was its first CEO.
Marc Randolph is known for starting many companies. He helped create the U.S. version of Macworld magazine. He also started computer mail-order businesses like MacWarehouse and MicroWarehouse. Today, he is on the boards of companies like Looker Data Sciences and Chubbies Shorts.
Randolph compares starting companies to guiding people up mountains. He is the chairman of the board for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). This school is in Lander, Wyoming. He also serves on the board of 1% for the Planet, an environmental group.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Marc Randolph was born on April 29, 1958, in Chappaqua, New York. His family was Jewish. His father, Stephen Bernays Randolph, was a nuclear engineer who became a financial advisor. His mother, Muriel Lipchik, ran her own real estate business.
Marc Randolph has famous relatives. One of his great-grand uncles was Sigmund Freud, a pioneer in psychology. Another great-uncle was Edward Bernays, who helped create public relations.
During high school and college, Randolph spent his summers working for the National Outdoor Leadership School. He became one of their youngest instructors. He later graduated from Hamilton College in New York. He earned a degree in geology.
Marc Randolph's Career
Starting Out in Business
Marc Randolph's first job after college was in 1981. He worked at Cherry Lane Music Company in New York. He was in charge of their small mail-order business. Randolph taught himself how to sell products directly to customers. He learned how to use computers to track what customers bought. This idea later helped him create Netflix's user interface.
In 1984, he helped start the U.S. version of MacUser magazine. He continued to learn about direct marketing. About a year later, he co-founded MacWarehouse and MicroWarehouse. These were computer mail-order companies. He realized that fast, overnight delivery made customers happier. This discovery was very important for Netflix's success later on.
Working in Silicon Valley
In 1988, Randolph started working at Borland International. This was a big software company. He built direct-to-consumer marketing systems there. In 1995, he left Borland for other tech startups. He worked at Visioneer, a scanner company. Then he joined Integrity QA, a software testing company.
In late 1996, another software company called Pure Atria bought Integrity QA. Pure Atria's founder and CEO was Reed Hastings. Hastings kept Randolph as vice president of marketing. Soon after, Pure Atria was bought by Rational Software for $850 million. This was a huge deal in Silicon Valley at the time.
Hastings and Randolph often drove to work together. During these drives, they came up with the idea for Netflix.
Creating Netflix
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Randolph wanted to create an online store like Amazon.com. He heard that new digital-versatile-discs (DVDs) were being tested. He wanted to sell these new discs online. He and Hastings couldn't find a DVD to test their idea. So, they used a compact disc instead.
Randolph explained their "aha moment": "Reed and I were in downtown Santa Cruz. We wondered if we could mail these things. We bought a music CD and an envelope. We put the CD in the envelope and mailed it to Reed's house. The next day, he said, 'It came. It's fine.' If there was an aha moment, that was it."
Hastings, Randolph's mother, and Steve Kahn invested in Netflix early on. Randolph named the company and designed its first website. He was the first CEO for the first year. Netflix officially launched on April 14, 1998. Its first office was in Scotts Valley, California.
Randolph designed the website to be both a movie catalog and a research tool. This allowed him to constantly test new ideas. The information they gathered led to Netflix's successful business model in 1999. It included:
- A subscription service with no due dates or late fees.
- A "Queue" where members could choose the order of their DVDs.
- A system that sent a new DVD as soon as the last one was returned.
The data from the website also helped create Cinematch. This was a recommendation system. It helped guide members to movies that were available. This helped manage Netflix's limited DVD supply.
Randolph gave the CEO job to Hastings in 1999. He then focused on developing new products. He and Mitch Lowe tested an idea for a movie rental kiosk. This idea later became Redbox, a giant in movie kiosks. Randolph left Netflix in 2002. He had helped the company go public two years earlier. He said he preferred the early stages of a company. He felt Hastings was better at growing a company to a huge size.
After Netflix
After leaving Netflix, Marc Randolph became a mentor at MiddCORE. He also joined the board of Looker Data Sciences. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at High Point University.
He travels the world as a speaker. He shares his experiences with Netflix and other startups. He talks about entrepreneurship, leadership, and new ideas.
In September 2019, he published a book. It is called That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea.
Personal Life
Marc Randolph married Lorraine Kiernan in 1987. They have three children together. He now lives in Santa Cruz, California.
