Netflix founder Reed Hastings explains why “family” is a bad metaphor for your startup

“The classic metaphor for companies was the family. You’d hire them and be like, ‘We’re a family. We look after each other.’ And that’s kind of baloney because you’ll lay someone off in a way that you wouldn’t your sister. It’s like you want them to work for you like they were a family member — for free and cheap. But you’re not really prepared to treat them like a family member if you’re honest.”

Instead of a family, Reed believes that professional sports team is a better metaphor for a company:

“Really, the professional relationship is like a sports team. And if you want to win a championship, you’ve got to have incredible talent at every position… We pay people well. We want them to win. And if you have one bad game, you don’t lose your position. But ultimately, you’re fighting for your position every year.”

Full video: Greylock “Blitzscaling 16: Reed Hastings on Building a Streaming Empire“ (Nov 2015)