Netflix

The strategy too stupid to sell: just buy FANG and hold

Shaan relays Peter Thiel's point that simply buying FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) in 2013 and holding would have 6x'd your money and beaten almost any money manager — but advisors can't recommend it because it's too simple to justify their 1% fee.

“if you had just put your money into FANG, which were obviously great companies that were technology companies that were growing, and you didn't even need to know how fast they were growing, but if you just said, these are solid companies that, you know, seems like everybody in America is using their products, you would have made 6 times your money in the last 8 years. And he goes, that would beat the performance of almost any money manager or hedge fund or investment banker that you're thinking of working with.”

Steal thisDefault to the embarrassingly simple buy-and-hold strategy; complexity in investing usually underperforms.

Dave Chappelle's masterclass in telling your side of the story

Shaan recaps Chappelle's 20-minute Instagram video explaining why he had Netflix pull Chappelle's Show. Chappelle weaves three life stories of being taken advantage of by bigger players, ending with networks owning his name 'in all parts of the universe,' and Netflix voluntarily took the show down.

“And he's like, and now I can't even do a new show because they signed, you know, I had to sign a contract that said you can use my name and likeness forever and in perpetuity in all parts of the universe. And he's like, well, he's like, what kind of contract language is that? That's like all parts of the universe. Was that even really necessary? So I literally can't come out with another show with my name in it because these fuckers own it.”

Steal thisWhen defending a decision publicly, weave several personal stories into one narrative arc instead of arguing the facts head-on.

Netflix wins by just not being an asshole to talent

Shaan frames Netflix's real competition as the traditional production studios, who abused their monopoly for so long that Netflix can look heroic to creators simply by behaving decently. The Chappelle episode will help them sign comedians and talent.

“So what weak competition really is like the traditional Hollywood world, because they got away with the monopoly for so long that things were so screwed up that all you have to do is just not be completely an asshole and you look like a knight in shining armor. And so I think this is going to be good for them with creators.”

Steal thisEnter a market full of incumbents who abuse their customers; simply treating people decently makes you look like a hero and wins the talent.

Three moves when you hit failure: dig in, pivot, or innovate

Askren's failure framework: when you fail you can dig in and work harder (the lazy default), pivot to something new (like Netflix to streaming, timed right), or innovate. Good performers cycle through all three over time.

“when you meet failure, there's, there's really 3 things that you can do, and I talk deeply about all of them. Um, number one is dig in, right? So you dig in and you work harder. And then like you said, that is the option that most people choose because it's relatively, um, easy, you know, it's not very hard. Number two, you could pivot and you could quit and do something else”

Steal thisWhen stuck, explicitly choose: dig in, pivot, or innovate. Don't default to digging in just because it's easiest.

Love is Quarantine: Love is Blind run off a spreadsheet

Shaan marvels at people recreating Netflix's 'Love is Blind' as 'Love is Quarantine', matching ~40 strangers into voice-only dates run entirely off a Google Doc spreadsheet and Instagram, an example of lockdown creativity.

“so some people recreated the Love is Blind show just using a Google Doc. So they basically said, hey, we're going to do something called Love is Quarantine, right? And they opened up 40 slots and they said they started matching people into rooms and you have like a voice conversation. You can't see each other and, um, you're never going to meet or whatever.”

Spotify didn't buy The Ringer for ad revenue, it bought exclusive content to cut churn

Shaan argues Spotify's ~$300M for The Ringer has nothing to do with podcast ad revenue: as an audio (not just music) company it buys exclusive key content like Bill Simmons so listeners switch to and stay on Spotify, the same content-wars logic as HBO and Netflix.

“it's like the HBO model or whatever, Netflix. They're all trying to do the same thing, which is how do we get the key content here so that our subscribers stay subscribers or new people become subscribers? And that's the math. And so it has nothing to do with what The Ringer can do in its own revenue. That's irrelevant to them. It's what they think they can do if they— the key content in the key podcast verticals.”

Quibi raised $2B pre-launch for 10-minute videos

Shaan notes that Quibi, the short-form video startup from DreamWorks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg (who sold DreamWorks for $4 billion), raised $2 billion before it had even launched.

“He sold DreamWorks for $4 billion, and now he's got a new startup idea, and he's raised $2 billion pre-launch for this thing called Quibi, which is basically like short 10-minute videos.”

Build the Y Combinator of movies

Shaan pitches a startup accelerator for film and TV: give creators small funding to shoot a pilot, then hold a demo day where Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and other content-hungry buyers bid on the projects.

“The way I would do this is actually like creating Y Combinator for movies. So I would go down to LA, or I think Adam was telling us Humboldt is a good area near LA where they shoot a lot of stuff. And I would basically say, here's an accelerator. You want to create a movie? You want to create a show? This is an accelerator. You come in, we'll give you a small amount of funding, and you go shoot a pilot, and then we'll have a demo day at the end where the buyers from Netflix and Amazon Prime and Hulu and all the others, they'll all show up and they'll get to see these pilots and you can get funded.”

Steal thisRun a pilot accelerator and arrange a demo day where streaming buyers bid against each other for the content.