all great things come to an end , and the dot - com era embodies that perfectly . beneath a mound of bankruptcy paperwork lies the remains of a former dot - com darling , the company kozmo .
com , an online convenience store stocked with ice cream , porn videos , and other basic necessities of a urban dweller , all hand - delivered by couriers within an hour .
designed in 1997 by two college roommates -- joseph parks , a 27 year old goldman sachs banker , and yong kang - kozmo flamed out in three short years , raising more than $ 280 million in venture capital funding and from partnerships with such bigwigs as starbucks and amazon .
com .
by december 1999 , the company boasted 4 , 000 employees in 11 cities , its barking ceo park attracting all kinds of media attention .
the company was set for an ipo in may 2000 . . .
until april 14 , 2000 , the day the stock market took its first big dive , ending the internet era .
by april 13 , 2001 , kozmo was out of money and ceased operations .
unlike the earlier , similar documentary startup .
com , which chronicled the rise and fall of another dot - com , govworks , e - dreams focuses both on its original founders , especially park , and on the common folks that ran the day - to - day operations .
the contrast is amazing , showing how a cult persona can convince anyone that any idea is the next big thing .
the film 's director , wonsuk chin ( too tired to die ) , expertly juxtaposes upper management company meetings with on - the - spot interviews with the bike messengers , general managers , and floor staff that kept kozmo humming .
the film 's images give a backbone to the company and provide an emotional edge to its ultimate demise .
the most satisfying part of the film comes in understanding , to a degree , the expectations of numerous ceos commanding these titanic - type businesses .
in the film 's final interviews with park , we learn what happens when the money dries up and backers do n't return phone calls .
in the end , the name of the game was profit , and if you could n't make money , even the dreamers got the axe .
screened at the 24th annual mill valley film festival .
give a backbone to the company and provide an emotional edge the contrast is amazing expertly juxtaposes the most satisfying part