Todd Yellin‍‍‍

Todd Yellin started working at Netflix over ten years ago and his current role as VP of Product Innovation revolves around changing the way people find great streaming content to watch over the Internet on their TVs, computers, and mobile devices. He is responsible for leveraging vast amounts of data, sophisticated algorithms, and best-in-class user interfaces across numerous viewing devices to create an easy, compelling way for Netflix members to find something great to watch. He also oversees member acquisition and how to best leverage social and messaging.

Before Netflix, as a documentarian, Todd became the only person ever to film Tibetan children escaping over the Himalayas; the footage was shown worldwide by Reuters. His written account was published in The Progressive and syndicated by the NYT. He also wrote/directed a short documentary for British TV on political oppression in Myanmar, which was broadcast throughout Europe.‍‍‍

Founder Vayner Media

Creator of reddit.com‍‍‍

CEO Johnn‍‍‍y Cupcakes

Fee:‍‍‍ $$

Stories You'll Love

‍‍‍The explosion of digital video has created an unprecedented level of choice for viewers. Netflix VP of Product Innovation Todd Yellin and his team devised a way to sort through the choices and match viewers with the content they'll love. Using a system of tags, behavioral and implicit data, and sophisticated machine learning techniques, Netflix has been able to personalize the movie and TV-watching experience. As Yellin explains, this method not only allows Netflix to suggest the right content to its viewers, but also to piece together elements of a story to form original content and shows that Netflix can be confident will appeal to specific audiences.