D: All Things Digital Conferences
Frankly, I’m no longer a vertical person. I am not an expert in writing code, selling the product, or whatever. I’m just a manager.
— Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, talking to Fast Company’s Kermit Pattison
Tech and media bigs on the red-hot seat.
Co-Founder and CEO
Netflix, Inc.
Hastings co-founded Netflix as a DVD rental-by-mail company in 1997. In 2002, Netflix went public, and in 2003, Netflix reached 1 million subscribers. Thanks to streaming content over the Internet, Netflix now has over 20 million subscribers. Earlier in his career, in 1991, he founded Pure Software, which made tools for Unix software developers. He built Pure into one of the world's 50 largest public software companies before selling it to Rational Software in 1997. Reed received a BA from Bowdoin College and an MSCS in AI degree from Stanford University. Between Bowdoin and Stanford, Reed served in the Peace Corps as a high school math teacher in Swaziland. That may have been an easier task than his current one: dealing with media and cable companies who fear disruptive change.
Posts With Reed Hastings
Oh well. No one is right all the time.
— Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, on Facebook, linking to a 2005 MarketWatch story in which analyst Michael Pachter put a $3 price target on Netflix and said the company “continues to underestimate Blockbuster’s market position.”
Albania takes it up a notch.
— Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, via Facebook, sending a post-Emmy nomination message to his frenemies at Time Warner