Reed Hastings

Reed Hastings co-founded Netflix as a DVD-by-mail service and then made one of the most audacious pivots in business history: he cannibalized his own successful DVD business to build a streaming platform that would destroy the entire traditional media industry. That willingness to kill a profitable business to build the future is extraordinarily rare, and it is what separates Netflix from Blockbuster, cable television, and every other incumbent that failed to adapt.

Netflix's original insight was that late fees were a pain point that customers hated. The DVD-by-mail subscription model eliminated late fees and gave customers unlimited access to a catalog of titles. But Hastings always saw streaming as the endgame. He launched Netflix streaming in 2007 when most American homes did not have fast enough internet to support it. The bet was that broadband would catch up, and it did. Netflix grew from 7.5 million subscribers in 2007 to over 280 million worldwide.

Hastings then pivoted Netflix again — from a distributor of other companies' content to a creator of original content. House of Cards, Stranger Things, The Crown, and thousands of other Netflix Originals transformed the company from a technology platform into the most prolific entertainment studio in the world. His 'No Rules Rules' management philosophy — which emphasizes freedom and responsibility, radical candor, and high talent density — has influenced how technology companies manage creative talent.