Product: Startup.Com (2001)
Rating: 5.0
Gripping and Educational
This film is a nonfiction documentary of an actual start-up. The company, called GovWorks.com, was designed to facilitate interaction between citizens and government. One sample application was allowing a citizen to pay a parking ticket on line.GovWorks is very representative of companies that were started in 1999-2000. It got funded well before it had any proven revenue model, and it generated a lot of buzz. The CEO made the cover of a number of magazines, and he even appeared on a panel with President Clinton, as shown in the documentary. However, they had not gone public prior to the crash in April 2000, so when they did not have a revenue model the company collapsed.The documentary focuses primarily on two of the founders--Kaleil and Tom. They had been friends for over ten years prior to founding the company, and their relationship has ups and downs, culminating in Kaleil firing Tom.Even if you have no interest in start-ups, the relationship between Kaleil and Tom is gripping. They are more dramatic than the "characters" in many fictional movies. These are real human beings, not superheroes or cardboard villains.I think that the movie also is instructional. If you start a business, you have to be prepared for tremendous pressure, and you need to be able to deal with your partners under stress. When you watch the two protagonists start to come apart under pressure, don't think it couldn't happen to you.Personally, for an Internet business, I have always favored the bootstrapping model over the venture-capital-funded model. I believe very strongly in spending time in front of customers as opposed to spending time in front of VC's.I think this movie pretty clearly reinforces my position. GovWorks followed the VC script of trying to spend your way to success. The dismal results were fairly typical.