Reed Hastings scripted his Netflix exit. Founder departures aren’t alway this smooth.

Hastings co-founded Netflix with Marc Randolph in 1997 and took over the management in 1999, when the company was still offering a DVD-by-mail service. It promoted creative executive Ted Sarandos to co-CEO in 2020, reflecting how important original content had become for Netflix, then the leading subscription streaming service. He stepped down from his co-CEO role in 2023 and was replaced by chief operating officer Greg Peters.