Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph still remembers the first order the streaming giant received when it began as a DVD-by-mail service in the late 1990s.

He’s reminded by a collection of memorabilia he calls the “archives,” which includes items such as an original envelope and packing slip from the first order he and co-founder Reed Hastings received when they began the company.

Randolph, who served as Netflix’s first CEO before it filed its initial public offering in 2002, told BNN Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman he and Hastings spent more than two years trying “hundreds of hundreds” things before they landed on something that could actually make money. It was the subscription-by-mail-service idea that marked the point where Randolph said they thought, “Wow, this actually might work.”  

“Most people are telling you, ‘that will never work’ because that’s the nature of new ideas,” he said in an interview Tuesday at the Audi Innovation Series in Toronto. “Everyone has some reason for why it’s a stupid idea. So you’re constantly hearing that.”

Randolph said the duo tried so many business ideas, they eventually knew what they were looking for.

“We were looking for that glimmer of customers saying, ‘Wow, we like this. We’ll tell our friends about it. We’ll keep doing it month after month.’ And when that happens, you can tell. You know it.”

Netflix’s nearly $160-billion market valuation has surpassed that of Disney’s and is up from $300 million when the streaming giant went public more than 15 years ago. Its shares have soared 90 per cent this year alone. 

“At every stage I never could have imagined the success that Netflix has seen,” Randolph said, calling Netflix’s rapid growth “astounding.”  

“There‘s a whole bunch of little moments where it almost became a reality — but didn’t.”

When it comes to offering advice for startups today, Randolph said being creative and innovative is essential.

If you’re not trying new things, creating new processes, “I think you’re doomed,” he said.

Randolph doesn’t forget those early days of doing just that. He says in addition to the “archives,” he keeps a framed deposit slip from the first money they took to start the company with on his desk, to serve as a reminder of how all businesses begin.

“Every company – even the huge ones – all start out the same way: with nothing,” he said.