Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph speaks at The Audi Innovation Series held at Four Seasons Hotel on June 5, 2018 in Toronto, Canada.of "The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett" earlier this month: "To put my ego aside for a bit was probably the smartest decision I ever made the entire time at Netflix."knocked on his door, laptop in hand, and asked to talk, Randolph recounted.
In the moment, Randolph said, he was crushed: Netflix started as his idea, and stepping down felt like giving up on a dream. He went home, "sat on the porch with my wife and we finished a bottle of wine," he said. The analysis helped him decide that Hastings was right, said Randolph. "I began to realize ... Maybe this was two different dreams ... a big, successful company might be a different dream than the one of me being CEO," he said.
The company went public in May 2002, roughly a year before Randolph left Netflix entirely. At the time of Netflix's IPO, Randolph held $12.6 million worth of beneficially owned shares, according toRandolph certainly isn't the only CEO — or ex-CEO — who's had to forfeit something meaningful to get ahead.