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. Randolph was shocked, and a little offended, when Hastings walked him through a PowerPoint presentation of his strengths and weaknesses as a CEO, he said.
Then, Randolph started evaluating his own strengths and weaknesses. When he and Hastings started the company, they were a"left-brain, right-brain" duo, Randolph said. Randolph was people-oriented, but had trouble holding difficult conversations. Hastings also had more business experience: He was previously the CEO of Pure Software, a debugging tool-turned-company that went public in 1995.
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.