- Company
- Netflix
- Role
- Co-Founder & Executive Chairman
- Est. Net Worth
- $6.2 Billion (Est.)
- Stage
- Elite
- Industry
- Tech & SaaS
Reed Hastings
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman at Netflix
LinkedIn ProfileAbout
Reed Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997, transforming it from a DVD-by-mail service into the world's dominant streaming entertainment platform. He served as CEO until 2023 and now serves as Executive Chairman, overseeing a company with over 280 million subscribers globally.
Current Company
Netflix — Co-Founder & Executive Chairman
The Man Who Killed the Video Store
Reed Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997 with Marc Randolph, originally as a DVD-by-mail rental service that challenged the dominant Blockbuster Video model. The legend goes that a $40 late fee on a VHS copy of Apollo 13 planted the seed, though Hastings has downplayed the story over the years. What isn't debatable is the result — Reed Hastings built a company that fundamentally changed how the world consumes entertainment, first by eliminating late fees, then by eliminating physical media altogether.
Before Netflix, Reed Hastings founded Pure Atria, a software debugging company that merged with Rational Software in a $700 million deal. That exit gave him the capital and confidence to bet on an industry where incumbents weren't thinking about technology at all. Reed Hastings holds a master's degree in computer science from Stanford and spent two years in the Peace Corps teaching math in Eswatini — a background that shaped his long-term, education-oriented worldview.
Building the Streaming Machine
Reed Hastings made the pivotal decision to launch Netflix's streaming service in 2007, well before broadband infrastructure was mature enough to support it at scale. That willingness to invest ahead of the market — and to cannibalize Netflix's own profitable DVD business — is the defining strategic move of his career. By the time competitors realized streaming was the future, Netflix had a multi-year head start in content licensing, recommendation algorithms, and subscriber acquisition.
Under Reed Hastings' leadership as CEO, Netflix grew to over 280 million paid subscribers across 190 countries, producing award-winning original content and reshaping the economics of the entertainment industry. Reed Hastings stepped down as co-CEO in 2023, transitioning to Executive Chairman, but his influence on the company's culture of radical transparency, high performance, and freedom with responsibility continues to define how Netflix operates.