From Aggie dorm room to Roku success: How Anthony Wood became streaming television’s top innovator

That groundbreaking innovation eventually led to Roku, an internet streaming device that has become so ingrained in people’s TV-watching experience that it’s hard to imagine a time when TV viewers had to record — and rerecord — their favorite shows on clunky physical media.

“I just sort of used to look at the prices of hard drives, and one day I realized it’s getting to the point where you could build a DVR,” Wood said in a 2024 interview with Bill Gurley at South by Southwest, discussing the falling cost of the DVR’s key component. “So I thought, ‘Well, at least I’ll get a DVR. I can watch “Star Trek.”’ So, I started this DVR company and was successful in raising money. But I always felt like the DVR was just this stepping stone to when streaming would eventually happen.”

A pioneer and innovator in TV and digital media, Wood is the founder and CEO of Roku, the No. 1 streaming TV platform in North America, present in over half of all U.S. broadband households. But behind the globally recognized brand that millions rely on daily is a refreshingly personal story about how Roku got its name.

What’s in a name?

“My wife, Susan, and I were having dinner in a Japanese restaurant in Palo Alto, and I was trying to think of a name for my next company,” Wood said in the 2024 interview, reflecting on the unexpectedly significant dinner in California. “I thought, it’s actually sort of my fifth company — it depends how you count. … I asked the waitress, ‘What is five in Japanese?’ She said, ‘Oh, that’s “go.”’ But Go was this failed Silicon Valley tech company, so I was like, ‘That’s not going to work. What’s six in Japanese?’ And she said, ‘“roku.”’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’”

Wood was born in Manchester, England, and also resided in Georgia and the Netherlands before spending the remainder of his childhood in Houston, Texas. He earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, but his time in College Station was more than just academic. While still an undergraduate, he displayed his trademark industriousness by founding SunRize Industries, which developed digital audio editing systems for Commodore International’s Amiga computers.

According to Wood, SunRize Industries was actually his second company. He said in the 2024 interview that he formed his first company in high school, after selling one copy of the software he’d written for $10.

“I still have the check. I didn’t cash it because I didn’t have a bank account,” Wood said.

Wood discovered that there was one problem with operating a company out of his college dorm room, though. He said that he’d sign up for Texas A&M classes but get so busy with his work that he’d forget to attend. This situation essentially forced him to make the difficult decision to put SunRize Industries on hold.

“They send you letters telling you they’re going to kick you out of school for not having good grades. … I started with nothing. I had a few dollars I had made working, and I built that up to, you know, millions of dollars a year in revenue. I was making good money for a college student, but it wasn’t like Michael Dell or Bill Gates. I felt I’d regret not getting my degree, so I basically kind of shut that down, went back to school for another year and graduated with a degree in electrical engineering,” Wood told Gurley.

The newly minted Aggie graduate and his Aggie wife (Susan earned a Bachelor of Science in environmental design in 1989) immediately set out for California’s Silicon Valley to restart SunRize Industries. There was just one problem.

“I didn’t know the Silicon Valley wasn’t on a map,” Wood said in an interview on the “How I Built This” podcast with Guy Raz.

After clearing that cartographic hurdle, the duo relaunched SunRize Industries on the West Coast and continued making digital audio editing systems for the Amiga until Commodore International went out of business.

That’s when Wood became the co-founder and CEO of internet software company iBand Inc. He and his team developed a web-authoring code that he sold, following a single demonstration, to Macromedia for $32 million in 1996. He then went to work for Macromedia as vice president of internet authoring, and the iBand code he helped develop was used in a web-authoring software tool now known as Adobe Dreamweaver.

Where no TV had gone before

Wood had always worked in his own companies, noting that the only outside job he had before joining Macromedia was “working at Burger King.” Tired of company politics and eager to build another business on his own, he founded ReplayTV in 1997.

This new company enabled Wood to develop the DVR — a device that records video content in a digital format and stores the video on a hard disk drive — so that he could record “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” In 1999, his innovative device won the prestigious Best of Show award at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Right next to the ReplayTV booth at the Las Vegas trade show was the booth of a similar company: TiVo. While ReplayTV was regarded as having the superior product, the better-funded TiVo eventually outmaneuvered it.

Wood, further hurt financially by the dot-com crash, sold ReplayTV to SONICblue for $120 million in 2001.

“It wasn’t a great outcome. But we made money and invented the DVR, so things worked out,” Wood said on the “How I Built This” podcast.

Even while working on the DVR, Wood, ever the visionary, could see that streaming television over the internet was the future. In 2002, he founded Roku with the intent of making that future a reality.

Also in 2002, Wood began a business relationship with Reed Hastings, co-founder and chairman of Netflix. At the time, Netflix was still mailing rental DVDs to customers’ homes. The two digital media pioneers discussed the future of streaming movies online, with Wood saying he wanted to build the devices and develop the software for Netflix.

Hastings said Netflix “wasn’t ready” to do that but promised the two would keep in touch. Meanwhile, Wood continued developing Roku.

Wood determined that the television itself would need an operating system and in turn created Roku OS — the world’s first and only purpose-built TV operating system. This innovation transformed the television set from a simple one-way receiver into an internet-enabled device capable of connecting viewers to the perpetually expanding library of content available online.

Wood later joined Netflix as the company’s vice president of internet television on the condition that he could continue working on Roku as a skunkworks project. Although Hastings agreed, Netflix later decided it didn’t want to produce a device of its own. This decision cleared the way for Roku, which officially launched its first streaming player in 2008.

Looking back on the launch, Wood said traditional media companies didn’t buy in initially, believing that “no one will quit using cable and satellite TV.” But current trends indicate that the majority of TV programming and TV advertising will be streamed in the very near future. To take full advantage of that development, Roku also creates its own original programming.

Keys to success

As for what makes him successful, Wood points to a combination of several key characteristics.

“Passion. I love technical stuff, and it turns out technical stuff can make you a lot of money. Having an interest in that and being good at it — I don’t really know why I’m good at it. Growing up with a culture that values hard work. Being persistent. And the word luck comes in — it’s just staying with an idea for however long it takes. Maybe the timing matters a little bit,” Wood shared on the “How I Built This” podcast.

Wood and his wife also give back through the WoodNext Foundation, which manages their philanthropy. Through WoodNext, they are striving to achieve their goal of “advancing human progress and removing obstacles to a fulfilling life.” 

A proud Aggie, Wood remains active at Texas A&M. He is a named donor of the stage in Aggie Park, which students and organizations use daily, and a 2023 recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award — the highest honor the university can bestow upon a former student. He also funds a variety of research projects, Fish Camp scholarships and the massive sci-fi collection at the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives — a nod to his undergraduate passions.

“I was part of the microcomputer club and the science-fiction group, Cepheid Variable. I went to AggieCon at the same time as George R.R. Martin,” Wood said.

Wood makes a point of sharing Texas A&M culture with his California colleagues at meetings, often starting them by greeting everyone with a warm “Howdy.” And in fact, Wood memorialized the friendly greeting by making it the name of Roku’s latest offering; Howdy was introduced to consumers in 2025 as an affordable, ad-free streaming service with a vast library of movies and television shows.

Today, the Aggie graduate exemplifies how a Texas A&M education can play a crucial role in shaping the future of global technology while empowering alumni to heed the call and stand together as a force for good.

Wood will be part of the “In Good Company” panels during South by Southwest in Austin. The Fast Company Grill and Texas A&M are hosting a day dedicated to innovators, brand leaders and entrepreneurs committed to positive impact, responsibility and business for good in a changing world.