Netflix Co-Founder Marc Randolph Encourages HPU Student Entrepreneurs to Believe in Themselves
HIGH POINT, N.C., April 16, 2025 – Marc Randolph, who co-founded Netflix and now serves as High Point University’s Entrepreneur in Residence, encouraged students who are interested in starting their own companies to not be afraid to take risks during his recent visit to HPU’s campus.
Randolph, who served as Netflix’s first CEO, offered advice to hundreds of students and spoke about his own entrepreneurial spirit during a pair of sit-down conversations inside the Callicutt Life Skills Theater on April 8-9. During both conversations, he told student entrepreneurs to have confidence in themselves and yet still be willing to listen to different opinions about their business plans.
“If you’re going to start a company, you need to have incredible self-confidence,” Randolph told a large audience in attendance for his nearly 90-minute conversation with HPU President Nido Qubein on April 8. “I mean, you’re going to have everyone saying that will never work. You’re going to have ideas that everyone will tell you why it’s a bad idea.”
To emphasize his point, Randolph told the story about the early days of Netflix. He said he didn’t start Netflix at age 38 to disrupt the home movie rental business, which was a multi-billion-dollar industry at the time, or to turn Netflix into the streaming giant that it is today. He instead wanted to launch an e-commerce startup company, and movie rental was just one of perhaps 100 ideas that he considered for it.
Netflix wasn’t the first startup that Randolph launched. It was actually his sixth startup, but he said he had an advantage in that he had learned to take risks — dating back to his college days when he started a magazine and produced a play.
“The thing about taking risks is that it’s a learned skill,” Randolph said. “People say, ‘How do you take these big risks?’ And I say, ‘Well, I took thousands of small risks, and I’ve learned how to take risks because I practiced.’ And I practiced at school. I started clubs. I launched magazines. I made unbelievable mistakes, but I did it at a safe, nurturing place like this where I could experiment and fail and realize the consequences were nowhere near as bad as I thought they were going to be.”
Randolph said Netflix struggled early on, falling $50 million in debt and needing to lay off employees. He flew to Dallas, Texas, to meet with officials of Blockbuster, which was then the world’s largest home movie rental chain, about purchasing Netflix for $50 million.
Blockbuster officials decided to pass on buying Netflix, which proved to be a big mistake. There is now only one Blockbuster store remaining in the world, and Netflix has grown into a multi-billion-dollar company that produces its own films and TV shows.
“It’s a lesson that if you’re unwilling to disrupt yourself there’s always going to be someone willing to disrupt you for you,” Randolph said.
Impacting HPU Students
Qubein began his conversation with Randolph by telling a story about how Randolph took interest in a product designed by an HPU junior during one of his previous visits to campus. Randolph helped the student get her product into Walmart stores across the country.
“This is remarkable,” Qubein said. “A junior in college invents something, meets the co-founder of Netflix, he opens up the doors of opportunities for her, and then she goes out there and becomes a national brand. That’s just the impact you’ve had on our students.”
The following day, Randolph sat down and answered questions from Lou Anne Flanders-Stec, founding dean of HPU’s David S. Congdon School of Entrepreneurship, during a seminar titled “The Art of Leveraging Feedback.” During their conversation, he compared starting a company to mountain biking. With both ventures, it’s a never-ending process of looking at what is right in front of you and what is far off in the distance.
“The best entrepreneurs have a product sense that says, ‘I’m going to focus on getting this right, but if this works, it gives me permission to do these three things. And if I get them right, I have permission to do these nine things,’” Randolph said.
Randolph’s visit was part of HPU’s Life Skills and Leadership Series, which allows HPU students to work toward earning a tuition-free certification in coachability. Students who attend four designated Access to Innovators sessions can earn a Life Skills certification and enhance their professional credentials.
Raymond Brooks, a High Point native who’s pursuing a Master of Arts in Communication and Business Leadership, said he was interested in hearing from Randolph because he wanted to get insight into ways to pursue his passions without being held back by other people. He was inspired by Randolph’s message about having incredible self-confidence.
“Everyone has an idea or success, but it truly doesn’t start off until you realize it yourself,” Brooks said. “So, when you’re moving forward in a company or a business or starting up something, you’re going have a lot of differences and blocks that will hold you back. However, you have to keep pushing and moving forward.”