Product: Startup.Com (2001)
Rating: 2.0
Adoring film crew is clueless.
I was very interested in seeing the decline and fall of a dotcom from the inside. Unfortunately, that wasn't what the filmakers thought they were filming. They thought it was going to be an inside look at a buff, young entreprenuer who makes an empire worth billions during the dotcom boom. They didn't seem to care much about showing how the company operated and what it's plan to make money was. It's almost as if during filming they viewed the company's success as a guarantee and what they really just wanted to do a personality piece on Kaleil so in the future others could look back at the life of an industrial giant. In the process, they squandered the opportunity for the real story (which was the fall of the company and why). That makes watching the documentary very frustrating, to be so close to the real story but miss it all. (but they manage to capture some stuff suitable for a Kaleil fitness workout video ... how fascinating).I give it 2 stars because there are a few interesting bits in there. And the personality of the CEO (or, "co-CEOs") is part of the story I wanted to see, but I was looking for something more. Who were they hiring and why? How were they choosing to spend the VC money? What milestones had they set and did they reach any of them? How were they going to stave off competition? Maybe they just didn't have executive staff meetings, or maybe the camera wasn't interested/invited.My poor rating speaks more about the filmakers than the subject matter itself. As for Kaleil and Tom, I found both of them loathesome and fake, even worse than I expected. They seemed genuinely clueless about what to do after raising VC money. Almost as if rasing the money was the real success and the rest would just fall into place after that. In all honesty, Kaleil seemed to do his job ... raise money and be a face guy. But who's responsibility was it to make the company work? We never get to see.In the end, you will laugh remembering the early co-founder who was "bought out" (driven out) for $700,000. Was this the guy who was going to make it all work? What skills did they lose when they played their hand against him? (unfortunately, that is not answered). The other founders thought they were cutting him out, but as it turns out he got the only parachute. Ironic.