Founding of Pure Software Hastings' first job was at Adaptive Technology, where he created a tool for debugging software. He met
Audrey MacLean in 1990 when she was CEO at Adaptive Corp. In 2007, Hastings told CNN: "From her, I learned the value of focus. I learned it is better to do one product well than two products in a mediocre way." Hastings left Adaptive Technology in 1991 to lay the foundation for his first company,
Pure Software, which produced products to troubleshoot software. The company's growth proved challenging for Hastings, as he lacked managerial experience. He stated that he had trouble managing with a rapid headcount growth. His engineering background didn't prepare him for the challenges of being a CEO, and he asked his board to replace him, stating that he was losing confidence. In 1996, Pure Software announced a merger with Atria Software. The merger integrated Pure Software's programs for detecting bugs in software with Atria's tools to manage development of complex software. The
Wall Street Journal reported that there were problems integrating the sales forces of the two companies after both head salesmen left following the merger. In 1997, the combined company,
Pure Atria, was acquired by
Rational Software, which triggered a 42% drop in both companies' stocks after the deal was announced. Hastings was appointed Chief Technical Officer of the combined companies and left soon after the acquisition.
Founder of Netflix movie rental-by-mail to customers in the US. In 1997, Hastings and former Pure Software employee
Marc Randolph co-founded
Netflix, Inc., offering
flat rate movie rental by mail to customers in the US, combining two emerging technologies: DVDs, which were much easier to send as mail than VHS cassettes; and a website from which to order them, rather than a paper catalogue. Headquartered in
Los Gatos, California, Netflix has since amassed a collection of 100,000 titles and more than 100 million subscribers. Hastings had the idea for Netflix after he left Pure Software. "I had a big late fee for
Apollo 13. It was six weeks late and I owed the video store $40. I had misplaced the cassette. It was all my fault. I didn't want to tell my wife about it. And I said to myself, "I'm going to compromise the integrity of my marriage over a late fee?" Later, on my way to the gym, I realized they had a much better business model. You could pay $30 or $40 a month and work out as little or as much as you wanted.") Hastings said that when he founded Netflix, he had no idea whether customers would use the service. He is a proponent of
Internet television and sees it as the future. Netflix launched a service in 2007 to stream movies and television shows to computers. Hastings created an internal culture guide for Netflix by meeting with employees to discuss the company's culture. In August 2009, Hastings posted this internal culture guide publicly online, and it eventually became a pre-employment screening tool that dissuaded incompatible people from applying. In September 2020, Hastings and
Erin Meyer co-authored a book on Netflix's culture and management principles with interviews from current and former employees.
No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention was a
New York Times bestseller, featured on year-end lists for publications such as
NPR and
The Economist. It was shortlisted for the
Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. In April 2026, Hastings announced his departure from Netflix.
Other business ventures Hastings was on the board of
Microsoft from 2007 to 2012. He was also on the board of directors of
Facebook from June 2011 to May 2019. As of September 2016, Hastings was reported to own over $10 million of Facebook shares. Hastings is the majority owner of the
Powder Mountain ski resort in Utah following his $100 million investment in 2023. That same year, he announced plans to turn half of the mountain into a members-only ski club, in addition to other planned residential developments. Hastings was appointed to the board of directors of
Bloomberg in 2023. In 2025, he was added to the board of
Anthropic. == Activism and philanthropy ==