When Netflix reached out to me, I had no idea the company would become such a defining chapter in my professional journey.
They were looking for someone to help build incrementality-based advertising.
Having already built something similar, I joined to help implement this at Netflix.
I found myself immersed in a culture unlike any I’d experienced before—one that would fundamentally reshape my understanding of how organizations can operate at their best.
High Agency Culture: Sink or Swim
I still remember my introduction to Netflix’s approach and its high-agency culture. The product I was hired to work on was in its infancy, being shepherded along by another product manager.
After joining one meeting, he assessed me with what I would come to recognize as characteristic Netflix directness:
“Oh, you’re fairly capable. Cool. I’m never showing up to the meeting again. This is your product now.”
Just like that, I was in charge.
This exemplified Netflix’s high-agency culture. There was no hand-holding, no lengthy onboarding process, no gradual transfer of responsibility.
You were expected to take ownership immediately and run with it—a philosophy that terrifies some but energizes others.
For me, it was exhilarating. The implicit message was clear: “We hired you because we believe you’re excellent at what you do. Now prove it.”
This approach creates a virtuous cycle where high expectations lead to high performance, which in turn reinforces the culture of excellence.
We’re Not a Family, We’re a Sports Team
One of Netflix’s most controversial yet clarifying cultural principles is the explicit rejection of the “family” metaphor that many companies embrace.
Instead, Netflix views itself as a sports team: assembling the best talent, paying top-of-market compensation, and maintaining high-performance expectations.
This philosophy comes with an important corollary: there may come a day when your services are no longer required—not because you’ve done something wrong, but because the team’s needs have evolved.
Just as a championship team might trade an excellent player who no longer fits their strategy, Netflix is comfortable making personnel changes that optimize for overall team performance.
The result is remarkable. We’ve all worked in environments where we looked at a colleague and quietly wondered, “How does that person still work here?”
That situation rarely existed at Netflix. The bar for performance was consistently high, creating an environment where everyone brought their A-game every day.
This approach isn’t for everyone. It requires comfort with a certain level of productive insecurity.
But for those who thrive in high-performance environments, it’s incredibly motivating to know you’re surrounded exclusively by excellent colleagues.
Freedom and Responsibility
Perhaps the most profound aspect of Netflix’s culture is the balance of freedom and responsibility.
You’re given extraordinary latitude to lead in your domain—making decisions, allocating resources, and charting direction with minimal bureaucratic constraints.
This freedom comes paired with accountability. You’re responsible for the outcomes of your decisions.
Make enough poor calls, and you might find yourself looking for a new role.
But this accountability creates a context where good judgment thrives and decision-making skills sharpen rapidly.
Netflix flips the typical corporate equation. You have the freedom to move quickly and decisively, but you own the results.
This approach attracts self-motivated individuals who value autonomy and are confident in their judgment.
Scaling for Global Impact
I joined Netflix just as they were expanding internationally—a period of extraordinary growth and complexity.
The products I built focused on scaling to support 100+ countries, 40+ languages, and thousands of content titles annually.
When I started, we were a small team. By the time I left four years later, we had grown to about 5x—essentially experiencing startup-like growth within the structure of a larger organization.
This growth trajectory presented unique challenges: maintaining cultural cohesion while rapidly expanding, transferring institutional knowledge to new team members, and adapting processes that worked for a dozen people to serve a much larger group.
The high-agency culture proved invaluable during this scaling process.
Because team members were empowered to solve problems independently rather than waiting for top-down directives, we could maintain momentum despite the complexities of global expansion.
Lessons That Transcend Netflix
My four years at Netflix profoundly influenced my approach to business.
The principles I absorbed there—high agency, clear performance expectations, and the balance of freedom with responsibility—have informed how I’ve approached subsequent ventures.
When I founded LOTI (Learning On the Internet) after leaving Netflix, I applied these lessons directly.
I aimed to create an environment that similarly empowered team members while maintaining high standards.
Later, as CEO of a portfolio company at Enduring Ventures, I again drew on these principles to revitalize the business.
While not every aspect of Netflix’s high-agency culture can or should be transplanted to other contexts, its fundamental insights about how to create high-performance teams remain universally valuable.
The company taught me that when you combine exceptional talent with meaningful autonomy and clear accountability, remarkable results follow.
As I now look to acquire and operate businesses through MTL Capital, these lessons continue to shape my vision for building effective organizations—proving that the most valuable takeaways from my time at Netflix weren’t just what I built, but how I learned to build.