Product: Startup.Com (2001)
Rating: 4.0
Absolutely engrossing and fascinating!
An absolutely fascinating document of the rise and fall of an internet company (govworks.com) as the bubble was preparing to burst.Kaleil Tuzman and his buddy Tom decide to create a web site that would work with governments to do things like handle parking ticket payments, license applications, etc...on-line, for a fee, of course. The movie begins with the two friends, along with some business partners, brainstorming over what to call the business and then going out to venture capitalists to raise the funds...tens of millions of dollars. Early on, the ask a "man on the street" what he thinks of the name of their web site. He declares he doesn't like it...doesn't trust the government. An early potential investor tells them they're three years too late with their idea and that it will fail. These words turn out to be prophetic...but these guys are mostly amused and laugh the criticism off.Tuzman is the focal point of the movie. His is an ego run rampant. We see him scheming...this is a real, live type-A internet tycoon. His temper flairs, he's foul-mouthed, he's full of himself. But he can be convincing and charming too. Tom, his oldest, dearest friend, is very soft-spoken in comparison, and the two occasionally fight...and occasionally hug in reconciliation.The raise a bunch of money and really start living high on the hog. But when things go downhill, Tuzman turns on Tom and the disintegration of the company and relationship is luridly fascinating. We'd like to turn away, because what we see is real...but we can't. These guys are getting thier comeuppance...and that's fun to see. But we've also learned to empathize with them...to hope that THIS TIME the story won't turn out the way you know it will.The movie is fun. The filmmakers were SO lucky to get this kind of access at this point in internet history. A few years earlier and maybe govworks might have made it, and then the story wouldn't have been interesting. A few months later, and there would have been no funding and thus no story to tell.Some viewers who aren't very familiar with venture capital and such might get lost at a few points in the film, BUT, you can certainly understand what's going on by the roller-coaster of emotions these guys are going through. There's no narration to tell you what, factually, is happening...we see it all through the conversations of these guys we're following. Powerful stuff and worth putting up with the only occasionally esoteric financial details.It's interesting that we never get a really clear idea of how govworks.com is supposed to work...I suspect these guys didn't really either. It was a time when just opening up on the web could yield millions. The business model would take care of itself...so they thought. So, ultimately, startup.com is a cautionary tale. Check it out...it could be the most fun at the documentaries you've had!