before becoming the video streaming platform, what kind of business did netflix do?
They tested the concept of selling or renting DVDs by mail. They then decided to take on the $16 billion home-video sales and rental industry.
Netflix
Hastings invested $2.5 million in startup cash for Netflix. Randolph admired the fledgling e-commerce company Amazon and wanted to find a large category of portable items to sell over the Internet using a similar model. Hastings and Randolph considered and rejected VHS tapes as too expensive to stock and too delicate to ship. When they heard about DVDs, first introduced in the United States on March 24, 1997, they tested the concept of selling or renting DVDs by mail by mailing a compact disc to Hastings' house in Santa Cruz. When the disc arrived intact, they decided to take on the $16 billion home-video sales and rental industry. Hastings is often quoted saying that he decided to start Netflix after being fined $40 at a Blockbuster store for being late to return a copy of "Apollo 13", but he and Randolph designed this apocryphal story to explain the company's business model and motivation.

Netflix launched as the world's first online DVD-rental store, with only 30 employees and 925 
when does meredith get pregnant the second time UNANSWERABLE who is she? Meredith Grey, M.D., F.A.C.S. is a fictional character from the medical drama television series "Grey's Anatomy" describe the character? Intelligent, compassionate, hard-working, oftentimes outspoken, easily distracted, and indecisive who created the character? Shonda Rhimes who is she? American television producer, screenwriter, and author. what is "shondaland"? It is an American television production company founded by television writer/producer Shonda Rhimes name a few projects done by her? She created and produced the "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off series "Private Practice";  she created a new pilot for ABC called "Inside the Box" a female-centric ensemble drama what kind of deal was struck between her and netflix? An exclusive multi-year development deal under which all Rhimes' future productions will be Netflix Original series.
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Netflix [SEP] Establishment
Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings founded Netflix on August 29, 1997 in Scotts Valley, California. Randolph worked as a marketing director for Hastings' company, Pure Atria. Randolph had co-founded MicroWarehouse, a computer mail-order company; Borland International later employed him as vice president of marketing. Hastings, a computer scientist and mathematician, sold Pure Atria to Rational Software Corporation in 1997 for $700 million in what was then the biggest acquisition in Silicon Valley history. The two came up with the idea for Netflix when commuting between their homes in Santa Cruz and Pure Atria's headquarters in Sunnyvale while waiting for government regulators to approve the merger, although Hastings has given several different explanations for how the idea came about.