Pure Software was founded in October 1991 by Reed Hastings, Raymond Peck and Mark Box.

The original product was a debugging tool for UNIX software applications written in C called Purify.

[3] Later in August 1997, Rational Software acquired Pure Atria, giving Hastings the capital to start Netflix.

[4][5] When Pure Atria was acquired by Rational Software, it triggered a 42% drop in both companies' stocks after the deal was announced.

"[7] After Pure Software, Hastings spent two years thinking about how to avoid similar problems at his next startup, Netflix.