Startup Culture

How Reed Hastings' First Company Failed — And Why That Was the Best Thing

I was researching Reed Hastings for a piece on the Keeper Test when I stumbled onto something that surprised me. Befo...

#Reed Hastings #Pure Software #Netflix

From a Classroom in Swaziland to Netflix: How the Peace Corps Shaped Reed Hastings

I was reading about Reed Hastings’ management philosophy at Netflix when I noticed something that kept showing up in ...

#Reed Hastings #Peace Corps #Netflix

Sibling Founders: Why Brothers and Sisters Build the Best Companies

I have been writing about the Musk family for months now, covering everything from Elon’s arrival in North America to...

#Sibling Founders #Musk Brothers #Collison Brothers

1997: The Year That Changed Everything — Netflix, Google, and the Birth of Modern Tech

I was mapping out timelines for my articles on Reed Hastings and the Musk brothers when I noticed something that stop...

#1997 #Netflix #Google

Reed Hastings Gave Away Billions — And Most of It Went to Education

I was reading through Reed Hastings’ career timeline — the founding of Netflix, the streaming revolution, the global ...

#Reed Hastings #Philanthropy #Education

The Dot-Com Crash: 8,000 Companies Died, but the Survivors Built the Future

I have spent months researching the origins of companies like Netflix and PayPal, and one thing kept surfacing in eve...

#Dot-com Crash #Silicon Valley #Amazon

Founders Who Got Fired From Their Own Companies — And Built Something Greater

I was thinking about a pattern that kept showing up in my research across both the Netflix story and the Musk saga. T...

#Founders #Steve Jobs #Elon Musk

The Garage Myth: How Apple, HP, Amazon, and Google Really Started

I started collecting garage startup stories as a side project while researching the Musk brothers’ early days at Zip2...

#Garage Startups #Apple #Google

The Company That Bought Zip2 — And Then Disappeared: The Rise and Fall of Compaq

I was researching the aftermath of the Zip2 acquisition when I realized something that doesn’t get discussed nearly e...

Three PayPal Engineers Started YouTube Because They Couldn't Find a Video Online

I was mapping the companies that emerged from the PayPal alumni network when I started digging into the YouTube origi...

#YouTube #PayPal Mafia #Steve Chen

Reid Hoffman Built LinkedIn in His Living Room Six Months After Leaving PayPal

I was reading through the list of PayPal Mafia members and their post-PayPal ventures when one detail stopped me cold...

#Reid Hoffman #LinkedIn #PayPal Mafia

How PayPal Started as a Way to Beam Money Between Palm Pilots

I was researching the origins of the PayPal Mafia when I realized that the PayPal most people know bears almost no re...

#PayPal #Peter Thiel #Max Levchin

Jeff Bezos Quit Wall Street and Drove Across America to Start Amazon in a Garage

I was tracing the origin stories of the companies that survived the dot-com crash when I noticed something that conne...

#Jeff Bezos #Amazon #Garage Startups

Blockbuster Laughed Netflix Out of the Room: The $50 Million Mistake

I have been fascinated by business decisions that look obviously wrong in hindsight but made complete sense at the ti...

#Netflix #Blockbuster #Business Mistakes

Marc Randolph: The Forgotten Co-Founder Who Actually Started Netflix

I was deep into my research on the Netflix culture machine when I noticed something that kept bothering me. Every art...

#Marc Randolph #Netflix #Co-Founders

8 min read

Category Startup Culture

How Reed Hastings' First Company Failed — And Why That Was the Best Thing

From a Classroom in Swaziland to Netflix: How the Peace Corps Shaped Reed Hastings

Sibling Founders: Why Brothers and Sisters Build the Best Companies

1997: The Year That Changed Everything — Netflix, Google, and the Birth of Modern Tech

Reed Hastings Gave Away Billions — And Most of It Went to Education

The Dot-Com Crash: 8,000 Companies Died, but the Survivors Built the Future

Founders Who Got Fired From Their Own Companies — And Built Something Greater

The Garage Myth: How Apple, HP, Amazon, and Google Really Started

The Company That Bought Zip2 — And Then Disappeared: The Rise and Fall of Compaq

Three PayPal Engineers Started YouTube Because They Couldn't Find a Video Online

Reid Hoffman Built LinkedIn in His Living Room Six Months After Leaving PayPal

How PayPal Started as a Way to Beam Money Between Palm Pilots

Jeff Bezos Quit Wall Street and Drove Across America to Start Amazon in a Garage

Blockbuster Laughed Netflix Out of the Room: The $50 Million Mistake

Marc Randolph: The Forgotten Co-Founder Who Actually Started Netflix

Explore More