Startup.com

Startup.com is not a movie about the dot-com boom. It's not a movie about building a business; it's not a movie about technology and new industries.

It's a movie about greed and ego.

The two founders start off with the idea that they want to create a "dot com" -- they bounce around a bunch of goofy ideas like virtual cemetaries and eventually settle on a portal for government-related services. The fact that they wanted to document the startup of this venture from day one is another testimonial to their ego, greed and lack of focus.

I agree with most of the comments others have said about the movie. It's fragmented, and has gaping holes in it relating to explaining what's going on. The viewer ends up really not having a clue as to why the venture failed, which is another testimonial to the principals in that apparently the nature of what went wrong wasn't nearly as important to them as the fact that it did go wrong and their dreams weren't realized. Boo hoo.

After seeing the movie and not having much additional information on the project, I am left with my own thoughts as to some of the blanks that the film left open. Specifically, these guys failed because they were more interested in the fruits of their labor, than the labor itself, which was a means to an end. That's why they failed. The only reason they got as far as they did is they ran into others, greedy employees, greedy financiers who were just like them and had no passion for the job, just the brass ring that was promised at the end.

They might have had "good people" working for them, but I'd bet that there wasn't a single person in the company who actually had innate passion for the application and industry they were in. If you ask any successful businessman what's the secret, the first thing they'll likely tell you is, "Do something you enjoy doing." I'm sure Kalil enjoyed hob-nobbing with rich people, but that wasn't the purpose of his company, though it looks like his subsequent career involves that.

We're left to try to figure out exactly how things went wrong.

The one thing that I'm left with is, the tech end of the project never worked right. I'd bet good money the whole foundation was built on Windows technology and was never very flexible or manageable. And Tom is probably responsible for dropping the ball there, but then again like I said, these guys didn't really care about the business... they just wanted to be successful.

If anything, the movie doesn't really teach us lessons about startups. It is a tale of two misguided, self-absorbed guys who find other self-absorbed people with more money and get a free ride for a little while.

Main problem I had what this documentary was that it didn't really ever focus truly on anything. It doesn't go into depth with anything. It could had easily put some more focus on its subject, starting a dot com company, or more on the 2 main founders of it.

The documentary really doesn't explain thoroughly what the entire idea and functionality behind govWorks.com was. So the viewers are being pretty much clueless at what the creators of this website are actually trying to achieve and how they think that they can rule the market with their one idea and concept. It's therefore hard to truly distinctive for the viewers what they were doing right and what they did wrong with their concept.

It also doesn't help much that none of the key persons in this documentary very rarely recapitulate or explain anything into the camera. We don't get to see why they made certain choices or even how the website got developed or marketed. or why certain people had to leave the company because they weren't considered suitable enough for the job. Apparently this got shot over the course of about 2 years but the movie is being told and cut in such a way that it actually feels like a couple of weeks. Seems to me that the camera only showed up once for a day every two weeks, or only when a special event or important day got planned. So to me the documentary just doesn't feel like a natural and well flowing whole because too much stuff and time got omitted and it was lacking in focus or detail.

Perhaps this all could had been saved and more interesting if the two main founders were presented as some more interesting individuals as well. They now instead more come across as two inexperienced young guys who have plenty of ambition but are pretty much clueless at what they are getting themselves involved with and the movie really doesn't focus enough on their characters at who they are and what is driving them. Because of this you are not really feeling at all involved with any of them, or their dreams and goals.

It probably sounds as if I hated this documentary but this is far from the truth really. It still remains a good watch because it still has a good subject and it's always fun and interesting to see other people working hard and dealing with all kinds of ups and downs. And there is plenty happening in this documentary, I only wish it all got presented a bit better.

A good enough watch all but it still remains a real missed opportunity, that had far more potential in it.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is one of the most compelling and heart-wrenching films of the new millennium. The real-life struggle of two men trying to capitalize on the "Internet Boom" shows how mistaken everyone was that the Internet was the premiere way to get rich quickly and live happily ever after. But aside from the expose that formulating and operating an Internet business is far less glamorous than potential dollar signs would have one to believe, "Startup.com" is a perfect example of how the lure of riches and the good life can leave behind friendships made along the way; greed demoralizes oneself for the sake of material ownership that may ultimately cease and desist anyway. Filled with many subtleties and slight flourishes of (in)humanity, and telling signs of deteriorating personal relationships on the road to obtaining power and capital, this film contains far more juicy, resonating-with-truth moments than one could find (or even believe) in fiction. Perhaps most importantly, one realizes that with every little company with a numerical representation that he sees in the trade market one day that then disappears the next, there are real people like Kaleil and Tom whose lives are at stake and whom are suffering from the harsh reality that in the "real world," the American dream does not always come to fruition. Final Grade: A

I myself worked in one of the ubiquitous .com's in the late 90's and this movie is frightening realistic, from the long hours and technical glitches right down to the embarrassingly lame cheers.

I read on the web the filmmakers set out to document their friends impending wealth and business fortune with this documentary, but what they got was the complete opposite. I think that speaks volumes for expectations during this era.

I feel like some of the other IMDb reviews are off the mark. Yes, the movie is sometimes hard to follow. But it was shot in the Cinéma-vérité genre and that is to be expected. It is an uncompromising real life look, and it is up to the viewer to decipher; sometimes this works sometimes not. Some previous reviews wondered how the company folded. Honestly its a movie about an internet company, why do you think it failed? Having said this, I think more could have been shown of why Tom got the axe and the love relationships of Kaliel could have been better developed.

According to the DVD the producers cut some realistic (and boringly technical) scenes to focus more on the relationship between Tom and Kaleil. This is where they succeeded. They are trying to tell the story of the company downfall through the interplay of these two characters. It is fascinating because it is real. The most compelling part is the coorelation between their relationship eroding as does the company. Viewed from that point of view this movie is really not a documentary. Nevertheless it is entertaining and gripping. What amazed me was the unfettered greed and their enormous hubris which prevented them from acknowledge their role in this sinking ship.

Actually, to correct the plot outline above this movie does NOT "trace the birth and success...of new media company govWorks.com." Rather, it douments the rise and fall of a company whose fortunes seem to accurately reflect the demise of 1000s of similar dotcom start-ups. I saw the video on tape and not in a theater and thought the lack of art and panache in the news-like cinema verite photography was disappointing, but the story does deliver. The relationship between the protagonists--then antagonists--who founded and ran govWorks.com makes for compelling viewing and substantial response even weeks after the story-telling. The docu relies on the screen-filling charisma and intelligence of Kaleil Tuzman, CEO of the start-up company guarantees to drive the narrative. His former roommate Jehane Noujaim produced, directed and shot the feature doc with veteran Chris Hegedus, but it would not have been possible w/out Noujaim's access to the primary subject, Tuzman.

Interestingly, feature stories and reviews in the NY media describe Tuzmnan as both Hindu and as a "Latino Jew." It's exactly the type of detail missing in a doc that does not rely on narration to fill in the blanks.

On the whole, a solid, respectable fairly fulfilling though uninsightful piece of journalism.