Some interesting tidbits and lessons learned:
The co worked on a lot of biz ideas before landing on trying to disrupt video. There was a lot of e-commerce but no one was touching video at the time.
Anyone ever seen a VHS tape? I remember those from way back in the cobwebs of my childhood memories.
So betting on DVDs was a bet in itself.
It got there and didn't break. So they thought they had something interesting.
And they got 100+ orders on the first day of launch!
And, their DVDs broke in the "regular" mail. So they had to figure out packaging. If the 1st test send to Reed's house had broken, they wouldn't have started the biz.
However, 99% of sales were on *selling* DVDs not renting.
Rentals could have high margins but no one was renting from them at the time.
Or do you stay in the commodity biz of selling DVDs knowing your margins will go to near zero with Amazon looming?
This is a classic pivot move that most startups don't do well, but they excelled here and would do this again later.
1) It was a pain to keep picking new videos
2) Ppl didn't want a time limit
-no fees, unlimited time on each one
-pick a bunch of movies you like all at once, and you'll automatically get the next one
One insight was that consumers came to them for unique content (and this would come back later).
A mktg campaign that did well were the hearing tapes of the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky case. They offered that for free
That other client's content was Chinese pornography.
Since there were no labels on the DVDs, Netflix accidentally sent out the porn DVDs to their users!
At first they had no idea what was happening because they didn't actually check the content that had come back from the DVD creator.
It became a good opp to apologize
That sealed some customer loyalty. Sometimes a snafu is actually a moment to seal the deal w/ customers.
Reed became CEO (even though initially he was an advisor and investor), because he had the most clout and could raise money during the dark days of late 2000-2001.
Blockbuster sent spies to their warehouses to learn how to copy the Netflix model. Blockbuster also competed on price which hurt Netflix on profitability.
But the Blockbuster CEO didn't get his promised bonus so he stepped down.
And that was the nail that sealed the coffin for Blockbuster.
And that too is a direction that is hard to go in but is the right call.