IMDB: Movie watching hobby → Multi-millionaire internet mogul

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Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸‍♂️🦸‍♀️

Ever feel like you're not qualified enough to create something people would actually pay for?

Like everyone else has the "right" background, industry connections, or professional credentials that you're missing?

What if no one takes your passion project seriously because you're "just a hobbyist"?

Here's how Col Needham battled those exact same fears before building IMDb into a $55 million empire proving your obsession can become your profession.

But it started with something much smaller...

🧘‍♂️ The movie-obsessed kid from Manchester

Col wasn't destined for Silicon Valley greatness.

He was just a working-class kid from Denton, Manchester, raised by a single mom after his parents divorced.

He doesn't even remember his father.

His childhood wasn't filled with entrepreneurship camps or coding bootcamps.

It was filled with movies.

When his family got their first VHS player, Col discovered something magical.

Their family friend owned a video rental shop, which meant Col could keep movies for 15 days instead of the usual few.

Can you imagine having that kind of access as a movie-crazy kid?

He borrowed Alien and watched it every single day after school for 14 straight days.

At age 9, he begged his mom to take him to see Jaws - way too young for that movie!

He was so terrified afterward that he wouldn't go in swimming pools, convinced there might be a shark lurking. (Pretty funny when you think about it, right?)

"I often say this, but this experience showed me the power of film," he says.

This wasn't some grand business vision.

This was just a kid who loved movies more than anything else in the world.

You probably had something like that too - that one thing you couldn't stop thinking about.

Little did he know this hobby would soon become his biggest problem...

🧩 The problem that became his purpose

At 12, Col got his first computer for Christmas.

But it wasn't until he combined his movie obsession with technology that things got interesting.

Computers weren't mainstream yet - this was 1979.

But something clicked for him immediately.

In 1981, the home video revolution hit the UK.

Suddenly VHS tapes were everywhere - gas stations, grocery stores, libraries.

For the first time ever, you could watch movies whenever you wanted.

Sound familiar? (That feeling when technology suddenly makes your passion way more accessible?)

Col started asking questions: "What else has this director made? What other films has this actor been in?"

So he grabbed a paper diary and started writing everything down.

Movie titles, directors, actors, dates - everything.

When he got that computer, he moved his obsessive note-taking from paper to digital.

His friends probably thought he was nuts.

Who keeps detailed databases of movies they've watched?

But Col couldn't help himself.

"I'd be watching movies and would notice all of these connections between films. I was a big Cary Grant fan, so putting all the information in a little database helped me keep track of which Cary Grant films I'd seen."

He'd rewind VHS tapes and type in every detail - director, producers, writers, cinematographer, editor, major cast.

Picture this: while other teenagers were out partying, Col was at home cataloging movie credits.

"It's a bit geeky, but it worked out all right in the end," he says.

But this was still just a weird personal project with no real future...

🎪 From bedroom hobby to internet phenomenon

Col studied computer science and got a job as a software developer at HP in Bristol.

But he couldn't shake his movie database obsession.

On typical Saturdays, he'd watch 10 films back to back.

In a year, he'd see 1,100 movies. (That's three movies a day!)

Then something called the internet started emerging.

Only universities were using it at first.

Col discovered Usenet newsgroups - think early Reddit for film fans.

He joined these discussion groups where movie lovers from around the world shared reviews and debated their favorite films.

On October 17, 1990, Col posted something simple to the rec.arts.movies newsgroup.

It was basic software that let other film fans create and search a movie database.

The response was immediate.

These were mostly American male college students obsessed with movies.

They loved it.

Someone emailed: "I love the database software. I'm a big fan of writers, have you thought of adding writers to the database?"

Soon Col had about 20 volunteer movie buffs helping expand the database.

They added actors, then directors, then writers, then cinematographers, then plot summaries.

For six years, this was Col's Saturday morning routine.

Lead this international volunteer organization of film geeks, then take his twin daughters to the park.

Can you imagine explaining that to people? ("What do you do for fun?" "Oh, I run a global movie database with 20 volunteers...")

"It was our hobby. I was a film buff that ran this international volunteer organization of other film and TV people."

Then technology caught up with his vision...

🕵️‍♀️ The breakthrough that almost didn't happen

In 1993, Col got an email that would change everything.

But first, he had to understand what this "world wide web" thing actually was.

A PhD student at Cardiff University wrote: "Hey Col, I've installed the movie database software. I think it's really good but have you heard of this world wide web thing? I think it might be quite big. How about we put the database on the web?"

Col wrote back: "Yep, sounds like a good idea."

(Sometimes the biggest moments start with the simplest "yes," right?)

A few weeks later: "OK, so the website's just launched at Cardiff University an hour ago and we've had 60 hits!"

Sixty hits in an hour!

Col was thrilled.

For the first time, he could see people using his creation in real time.

But then... plot twist.

Traffic exploded.

Cardiff's servers couldn't handle it.

Col frantically reached out to universities around the world - Mississippi, Germany, Italy, Australia, South Africa, Korea, Japan, Iceland.

All volunteered to host mirror sites.

In 1995, millions of people started going online.

In a two-week period, their traffic doubled.

Two weeks later, it doubled again.

His volunteer editors were drowning in work.

"We're like, well, this is too hard to do as a hobby," says Col.

They faced a brutal choice: shut down or try to build a business.

Imagine being at that crossroads... success was literally breaking your passion project.

But making money online was still a complete mystery...

⛳️ The terrifying leap into the unknown

This was 1995.

Nobody had figured out how to actually make money on this internet thing.

You could count profitable websites on two hands.

Nobody knew if internet advertising would work.

Yahoo existed, but was anyone actually making money?

"Now you're probably thinking, 'Well, isn't that a no brainer?' But you could count the number of websites that were ad supported on two hands and you didn't know if they were really making any money."

Col and his team agonized for months.

Should they give up after five amazing years?

Or risk everything on this crazy internet thing?

Can you feel that fear? That "what if I'm making a huge mistake" feeling?

Finally, they decided to find out if they could really succeed.

In January 1996, Col launched IMDb.com as a commercial website.

He didn't have money for servers.

So he used his credit card to buy his first web server. (Talk about putting your money where your mouth is!)

Within weeks, he sold his first advertising campaign to a movie studio looking to promote their latest release.

"We'd never sold any ads before. And the people who we sold to had never bought any ads before."

He paid off the credit card before the bill was due.

Used the ad revenue to buy more servers.

Then the New York Times called.

They wanted to feature IMDb because everyone in the film industry was using it.

"It was a really big surprise that was happening," says Col.

But the biggest opportunity was still ahead...

🌈 From hobby to Hollywood's memory bank

Summer 1996 brought the breakthrough moment.

And this time, it came from an unexpected source.

Fox Studios sponsored the first movie ad campaign on IMDb for Independence Day.

That's when Col realized this could be bigger than a side project.

He quit his job at HP and became IMDb's first full-time employee.

As revenue grew, he brought in his volunteer editors one by one.

He kept a list of volunteer shareholders.

When they had enough money for another salary, he'd call someone: "Hey we can afford to pay you, give in your notice!"

Slowly, almost all his volunteers quit their day jobs and joined IMDb full time.

By January 1998, IMDb had 18 million visitors a month.

400,000 movies and 1.4 million professionals in their database.

Coverage from 1891 to future releases.

Even though they seemed massive, they still didn't have an office.

"Everybody assumes that we have a massive office complex on Wilshire Boulevard. I always say, 'We're headquartered on the Internet.'"

Then Jeff Bezos came calling.

Amazon was expanding beyond books into music and possibly video.

They met in a London hotel.

Bezos described Amazon's plans and suddenly asked if IMDb would consider an acquisition.

Can you imagine that conversation? Your hobby project catching the attention of one of the world's biggest entrepreneurs?

On April 24th, 1998, Amazon bought IMDb for $55 million.

🎁 The movie database that changed Hollywood

Today, IMDb gets 250 million unique monthly visitors.

The mobile app has over 100 million downloads.

Richard Hicks, casting director of Gravity and Zero Dark Thirty, says: "I can remember life before IMDb. It was a Kafkaesque assemblage of file cabinets and Rolodex cards. When the site went down for maintenance recently, I simply stopped working."

Col still works from home in Bristol, England.

Gets up at 6am seven days a week to watch movies before his wife wakes up. (Living the dream, right?)

Has seen over 10,000 films and tracks every single one on IMDb.

His favorite quote that drives his business philosophy comes from the movie Grand Canyon: "All of life's riddles are answered in the movies."

He practices "management by movie quote" in business meetings.

Gets invited to Cannes, BAFTAs, and the Oscars.

Has a net worth over $40 million.

All because he turned his "geeky" movie obsession into the world's most trusted entertainment database.

"We didn't sit down and think, 'What's the best way to make money on the Internet?' This is very much a labor of love."

🥂 Your turn to crush it!

Col's "disadvantage" of being an unqualified movie obsessive became his billion-dollar advantage.

His amateur hobby generated $55 million without any industry credentials.

Your authenticity is your differentiator - just like Col's genuine passion for film created something no "qualified" corporate team could replicate.

I'm betting you're gonna surprise yourself with what you're capable of.

Keep rocking! 🚀🍦

Yours 'anti-stress-enjoy-life-while building a biz' vijay peduru 🦸‍♂️