The hangover from the Dotcom Bubble bursting was still fairly fresh, but Netflix went public in May 2002.

CEO Reed Hastings said, "An IPO is like high school graduation. It's big at the time but with hindsight it's only really a beginning of something else."

The DVD subscription service had yet to make a profit at the time.

Watch the video above to relive CNBC's coverage of Netflix's IPO in 2002.