Marc Randolph

Randolph was Netflix's first chief executive and thought of the company on a car ride to Scotts Valley with Reed Hastings, having spent years in direct mail marketing. That Will Never Work takes its title from what his wife said about the idea, and it is unusually honest about how many of the early plans failed, selling shampoo by post among them. He left in 2003, well before streaming, and now mentors founders and speaks. The late-fee origin story that circulates about Netflix is one he says is considerably tidier than what actually happened.