Founder of the OTT giant, Netflix, flipped the script on the classic “family” metaphor often overused by companies while onboarding employees. He thinks its “kind of baloney” pointing that the way employees are laid off will not come close to how one treats their family. Given the faced-paced startup ecosystem of, he says, nobody is even prepared to. Interestingly, the scenario hasn’t changed a decade later from this throwback in 2015
Considering the low pays employees are receiving in most companies, Reed acknowledges the expectation attached to employees to work like a family member for “free and cheap”. This brutally honest statement truly hits home as it coincides with stagnant reality of today.
Reed offers a different lens
““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” he mentions in his monologue. Shifting the lens from family to team makes every part of the group accountable.
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… pic.twitter.com/QAXgZtCHpW
— Startup Archive (@StartupArchive_) April 4, 2025
“We pay people well. We want them to win. And if you have one bad game, you don’t lose your position” the Netflix founder mentions to point out the bidirectional nature of growth. However, he does acknowledge the cut-throat tendency of the startup ecosystem as everyone around tries to find a problem to solve it with the “next big thing”.
Furthermore, with the rapid integration of AI in most industries, companies consider employees replaceable by artificially intelligent models. Zomato for instance, has laid off over 600 employees after launching their own AI-based customer service model. While it is a testament India’s technological feat, it also shows the dynamic nature of startups.
While Piyush Goyal’s India’s comparisons with tech-giant China at the Startup Mahakumbh 2025 stands as a challenge to Indian founders, beating the “we’re a family” cliche, as per Reed, should be another priority among startups.