That Will Never Work
Entrepreneurship
How many times have you been told “that will never work”?
Probably not as often as Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph. The veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur, advisor, investor, speaker and best-selling author has founded or co-founded half-a-dozen successful startups and mentored scores of entrepreneurs from first time business owners to established CEOs.
Be a fly on the boardroom wall as Marc's podcast opens up the opportunity to entrepreneurs everywhere to gain the benefit of his years of experience as he helps each guest think through their business problem.
These lively conversations, which showcase Marc’s unique combination of analytical skills, tough love and a healthy dose of humor, provide actionable advice that will benefit founders - and would-be founders - at every stage of their business journey.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Want to be a guest on That Will Never Work?
Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form and record the question you’d like Marc’s help with right there on the site. And while you’re there sign up for Marc’s newsletter https://marcrandolph.com/newsletter/
Feeling social? Marc would love to hear from you here:
Twitter: @mbrandolph
Instagram: @ThatWillNeverWork
LinkedIn: Marcrandolph
Tiktok: @marc_randolph
Location:
United States
Description:
How many times have you been told “that will never work”? Probably not as often as Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph. The veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur, advisor, investor, speaker and best-selling author has founded or co-founded half-a-dozen successful startups and mentored scores of entrepreneurs from first time business owners to established CEOs. Be a fly on the boardroom wall as Marc's podcast opens up the opportunity to entrepreneurs everywhere to gain the benefit of his years of experience as he helps each guest think through their business problem. These lively conversations, which showcase Marc’s unique combination of analytical skills, tough love and a healthy dose of humor, provide actionable advice that will benefit founders - and would-be founders - at every stage of their business journey. New episodes every Tuesday. Want to be a guest on That Will Never Work? Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form and record the question you’d like Marc’s help with right there on the site. And while you’re there sign up for Marc’s newsletter https://marcrandolph.com/newsletter/ Feeling social? Marc would love to hear from you here: Twitter: @mbrandolph Instagram: @ThatWillNeverWork LinkedIn: Marcrandolph Tiktok: @marc_randolph
Language:
English
Episodes
#72 Is it a Culture Problem or a Hiring Problem?
10/25/2022
This week’s guest Pat’s business centers on one of the most hyped and controversial investment forms ever – crypto currency. His company The Giving Block is at the forefront of crypto-philanthropy, bringing a new generation of investors together with non-profits.
Despite market turbulences this is one hot sector and his team has ballooned from 5 to 100 strong. But the speed of success comes with its own hurdles - how do you sculpt company culture and your hiring strategy when you’re growing...
Duration:00:38:32
#71: Is Pre-Revenue Funding a Pipe Dream?
10/18/2022
Many great entrepreneurial ideas were spawned in response to the pandemic. For this week’s guest Kyle it all began with him wondering how he could recreate the in-person feeling of reading bedtime stories to his child in Canada when he was stuck in Texas while the borders were shut. He also worried about how he could stop kids like his from falling behind. His solution is the Edsoma app.
So far everyone loves it – Shaquile O’Neill even just joined his advisory board! But he is struggling to...
Duration:00:33:42
#70: How to Get Your Business Buzzing
10/11/2022
Many people dream about their passion project becoming a full time gig but Allison is one of those rare people who made it a reality. Her love for honey bees became the Siller Pollinator Company and the initial momentum was gratifying. But growth has stalled and this has her at a juncture… Can Marc help her find her scalability sweet-spot?
Listen in for actionable tips on finding your focus and getting your business buzzing.
Want a deeper dive into these topics? The paperback edition of...
Duration:00:39:02
#69: Should You Buy or Lease Your Location?
10/4/2022
Have you ever wondered what people do with the advice that Marc gives them on the show?
Well, David Silberman, co-founder of PingPod, is here to tell you just that.
The first time he and Marc talked, David was trying to strategize the growth of his ping pong venue business and one of the hot topics was whether to buy or lease locations.
Now that the company has been in business for a while, find out how things have evolved.. and what has real time data told him about the key rent vs lease...
Duration:00:20:24
#68: The Premium Product Conundrum
9/27/2022
How earth friendly are the so-called “earth friendly” products? In the opinion of this week’s guest Justine Potashnik - not very.
But she believes she has the answer in her Advanced Soapberry Formula, derived from Himalayan tree nuts.
A product like this has a higher cost to create than its competitors, which has her at a juncture - should the company take a lower margin to get onto shelves faster or focus on being premium?
Listen in for Marc’s tips on how to make the pivotal decisions in...
Duration:00:34:06
#67: Let Go to Grow
9/20/2022
Belissimo Hats has achieved something rare in today’s market – the company has an enthusiastic celebrity following without ever having to pay a dime in influencer marketing money. They can count mega stars like Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg among the fans who just love to post about wearing their product.
But the problem is co-founders, brothers Levi and Yossi Chayo, are still trying to do it all themselves.
Are their worries about delegating getting in the way of the growth they could...
Duration:00:33:17
#66: How to Become a Pitch Pro
9/13/2022
Faith has a patent pending product and she thinks it’s time to take it out to investors. Trouble is, as an Entrepreneurship & Marketing Junior her live pitching experience for The Shaving Step was limited to student pitch contests. So what does that mean now that she wants to get real world investment?
Listen in for a masterclass from Marc on how to get yourself ready to take your product out to the market, with actionable advice not just for young entrepreneurs but for anyone getting ready...
Duration:00:25:36
#65: The Wedding Industry is Worth Billions – What Could a Break-Up Industry be Worth?
9/6/2022
Natasha’s dream wedding went up in flames just before the big day. As she picked up the pieces of the breakdown of her nine year relationship, she had a realization: she was in way more need of all those items from her gift registry now than she had ever been when she and her fiancé were still together. As she moved back into her parents’ basement she had a lightbulb moment - there was a whole potential industry that could be created to help people like her get back on their feet after a...
Duration:00:38:05
#64: Did it Work? Catch Up Special: Bolder Adventure Park
8/16/2022
Have you ever wondered what people do with the advice Marc gives them? This week’s guest Paul Fontanelli was in the planning stages of his Bolder Adventure Park when he appeared as one of the first guests on the show. His business is an ambitious indoor venue out of Grand Prairie, Texas, which seeks to bring together everything from rock climbing to ice-skating under one massive roof.
He had questions not just about launching the business, but also about the tricky work-life balance that...
Duration:00:23:25
#63: Stop Thinking and Start Doing!
8/9/2022
Sometimes entrepreneurs get so caught up in making their idea perfect, they forget to collide it with reality. Is that what’s happening to this week’s guest Reilly?
His site Fleur.ai seeks to disrupt and democratize the art world. But it’s been tough. It’s an idea he and his co-founders passionately believe the world needs but it’s also a pitch that Marc’s heard a few times before.
So what makes Fleur different? Have they got enough data to prove their premise? Listen in for an actionable...
Duration:00:40:51
#62: Resurrecting the Great American Movie Drive-In with an Urban Twist - Feat. Special Guest Mitch Lowe
8/2/2022
Ben is stuck. He’s the founder of outdoor pop-up concept WEDriveIns, which repurposes disused urban parking lots as drive-in movie theaters. City officials have been gratifyingly swift to support the project which provides Covid safe entertainment and brings customers to shopping areas. It all looks so promising… So why can’t Ben scale?
Well, he needs the permission of the movie studios to use the technology to get him there. And, they ain’t budging.
This mindset reminds Marc of the early...
Duration:00:26:11
#61: The Six Month Work Year
7/26/2022
Matt has an intriguing question - can a founder work just six months of the year and still have a successful business? Frightmare - his UK based scare attraction - turns a great profit every year. But while the event itself is seasonal, he’s realized that to be a success the business needs backroom staff year round. But he’d rather spend the off season in his camper, driving between the ski resorts of Europe. Can a work-life balance really extend to taking 6 full months of Van Life at a...
Duration:00:32:43
#60: How to Turn Your Kitchen Side-Hustle Into a Brand
7/19/2022
Krystina decided to take the leap and try to make her home- bakery business her full time gig just before the pandemic hit.
While most people would have hit pause, she instead reimagined her offering and The Messy Cookie home kit was born. Big names like Wayfair and Ebay jumped on board for her delicious virtual team-building escape. But while she’s been able to get in the virtual door once, she’s struggled to get repeat business from the big companies for her cookie decorating parties....
Duration:00:32:47
#59: Entrepreneurship Isn’t Brain Surgery… Or is it?
7/12/2022
Some industries don’t want to be disrupted, but that doesn’t mean you should step back from the fight! This week’s guest Alex Koefman knows he has a solution that surgeons like him all over the world need – but he needs to form partnerships with medical device companies in order for his SurgeryTV app to be successful. The trouble is, they just aren’t biting.
The current system of creating an archive of videos involves a wearying series of steps including thumb drives, home downloads and...
Duration:00:30:38
#58: Success is in Sight - Now What?
7/5/2022
When bars and pubs across the world closed during the pandemic, so did their game nights… For this week’s guest Mark Walsh it was a heart-stopping moment as British pub quizzes were his business.
He immediately set to work reimagining this unique style of trivia entertainment for remote times by creating his Kwizzbit app.
The growth has been so fast that his lean team has been working to redevelop the platform to be able to host up to 100,000 players at a time.
But Mark’s been struggling...
Duration:00:41:40
#57: How to Overcome Resistance to Change
6/28/2022
There are few industries more resistant to disruption than education… But despite the odds, this week’s guest Benny Boas seems to be making some headway.
He’s the founder of Upright Education, a bootcamp-style program aimed at helping adult learners rapidly re-skill in tech. The course is intended to be white-labeled at colleges. But while the program runs at a fast pace, the company’s growth isn’t… The market changes so fast, shouldn’t it be self-evident to higher education institutions...
Duration:00:29:12
#56: When your Biggest Competitor is Inertia
6/21/2022
City red tape seems so baked into American life, that it stopped being a problem people even bothered trying to solve. But when Covid hit, it forced the opportunity for change. Businesses – especially restaurants - faced fast changing regulations and had to be able to get the new permits they needed to operate at speed, or face going under. No business, means no city tax and the city itself facing a funding shortfall.
This presented the opening for this week’s guest Catherine Geanuracos to...
Duration:00:30:46
#55: How to let go When You’re the Founding CEO
6/14/2022
Where to put the mountains of trash humans create is a problem that only seems to keep growing. Recycling is one part of solving the problem… the other is having consumer products last longer so we don’t create as much garbage to begin with. That’s the thinking of this week’s guest Chris Burrage, founder of San Francisco based Proclamation Goods.
With some savvy social media, the company’s core product – an ultra durable three-piece pan set – is becoming a sensation with the slow food set....
Duration:00:30:38
#54: The Boutique Approach to Taking on the Big Box Stores
6/7/2022
Stephanie’s cracked the hardest part – her Austin, TX, designer boutiques have seen record growth this past year despite the pandemic. She knows for a fact she’s taking sales away from the big hitters like Nordstroms, Revolve and Amazon - her customers just prefer the personal touch she brings to the sales experience.
But now that she’s setting her sights on expanding into other cities she’s got a hurdle to overcome – if the reason her clients love Estilo is because the experience feels so...
Duration:00:31:39
#53: My Meeting with Jeff Bezos. Is Netflix for sale?
6/7/2022
In the summer of 1998, Reed and I flew up to Seattle to meet with Jeff Bezos to discuss nothing other than potentially selling Netflix to Amazon. It was a decision that would have serious implications. Listen to me tell the whole story in this free chapter from the audiobook of the international bestseller: That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea, now available in Paperback!
The paperback edition is out now in all good bookstores and online:...
Duration:00:33:42