Netflix's co-founder says Blockbuster execs tried not to laugh when they pitched a $50 million partnership — it's now worth $149 billion
to share an awkward encounter of pitching a $50 million partnership deal to entertainment rival Blockbuster in the early 2000s.
Randolph, who co-founded Netflix alongside Reed Hastings in 1997, opened up about the founders' early struggles to keep the company afloat and its brush with bankruptcy in a recent LinkedIn post. Randolph said that in the beginning, the company was a"DVD-rental-by-mail" service and gained a growing customer base. After the dot-com crash and burning $50 million on costs, the founders decided to approach the"movie rental king" at the time – Blockbuster – about a potential partnership.
"The pitch was simple. We would join forces with Blockbuster. We would run the online business. They would run the stores. We would jointly develop a blended model," Randolph wrote, adding that the Blockbuster team was initially interested. "There was perfect silence," Randolph wrote."Their words were 'we'll consider it,' but we could tell they were fighting to suppress laughter. After that, the meeting went downhill fast.
Netflix launched its video streaming service in 2007. As of the end of 2022, it had amassed 230.75 million subscribers and currently has a
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