Reed Hastings — Co-founder, Netflix

**Reed Hastings** co-founded **Netflix** (NASDAQ: NFLX) and served as CEO from 1997 to 2023, building it from a DVD-by-mail service into the world's largest streaming platform with 260M+ subscribers. He is the author (with Erin Meyer) of *No Rules Rules*, which codified Netflix's radical culture of freedom and responsibility, talent density, and candid feedback. He is also a major philanthropist, particularly in education.\n\nReed's legacy is the Netflix Culture Deck — one of the most influential management documents in Silicon Valley history. It established principles like 'adequate performance gets a generous severance package,' 'context not control,' and the Keeper Test ('would I fight to keep this person?'). His product innovation included the pivot from DVD to streaming, the bet on original content (House of Cards), and the global expansion strategy.