Hurley hired himself out as a web designer. Then in January of 2005, he and a couple of friends discussed how to make a small collection of videos available to their other friends. Email didn't work because the files were invariably rejected by the email server for being too large. FTP wasn't adequate either because FTP requires that the user have a modicum of familiarity with computers and with file transfer if he or she is to have a successful, satisfying experience. Hurley and his friends Steve Chen and Jawed Karim retreated to a garage workspace to examine the problem.