Trama

Ctrl+Alt+Compete documents young tech-entrepreneurs seeking to solve problems and change the world, featuring Nolan Bushnell (Atari), Felicia Day (The Guild), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Mike Maples Jr (Twitter), Tim O'Reilly (Web 2.0 Summit), Veronica Belmont (Tekzilla), and Cliff Bleszinski (Gears of War).—Anonymous

Ctrl+Alt+Compete is a feature-length documentary film produced by Microsoft that takes a revealing look at the startup and emerging business scene through the eyes of 5 founders and their teams and tells a story of the passion, fortitude and insanity that is bringing a startup to life. We'll follow these visionaries as they face the challenges and obstacles of making their vision a reality alongside the insights and analysis of seasoned, industry watchers and tech sector pioneers.

This space has its own event scene which serves as a cattle call of first-time and seasoned entrepreneurs alike to showcase these budding tech stars with frenzied interest. Through the fray, there are recurring questions; who are these startup companies? What are they building? Is what theyre building adding any *real* value? Are we experiencing yet another tech bubble waiting to pop? We join our would-be moguls and their teams on the road as they jump into the scene to find out.

We visit DEMO - the forerunner of tech pitch conferences which has adapted to the current culture of always-on social media and 24-hour-a-day tech news cycles. We meet Josh and Joanne, two startup CEOs pitching on legendary stage that is DEMO (where Palm, TiVo and LiveScribe launched). Well learn what makes these entrepreneurs tick as they face to pressure of 6 minutes on the big stage for what may well be a life-changing pitch.

We head to San Francisco for GDC, the biggest meeting of video game developers in the world to catch up with Super Giant Games, a 6-person team producing their first game (Bastion) from the living room of the founders parents home. With the advent of marketplaces like Xbox LIVE Arcade, the indie games sector surging, paving the way for a tiny independent game studio like SuperGiant Games to bootstrap their way to instant success. The founders made the leap to start a studio and every day live the life of a bootstrapped, early stage company. And theyre doing it all on their own dimeno VC money, no big-name publisher and no one to answer to but themselves.

On to Austin where we hit nerd spring break, better known as SXSW Interactive. This conference, quickly becoming legendary in its own right, has been the launch pad for both Twitter and Foursquare, and holds rank as one of the largest convergence of developers, influencers, and investors in the world. Well track the frenetic pace of the action here through the experiences of 2 teams;

Well watch as tech and startup veteran CEO Mark Gilbreath uses SxSWi as a platform to manage a carefully orchestrated press campaign for his latest venture LiquidSpace and connect with influential investors and industry players. Well hear insights from Mark [and others] about taking on mammoth challenges, laser focus on customers and the entrepreneur-VC relationship dynamic. Well also meet first-time CEO Marci Harris of POPVOXa former congressional staffer who is also new to the tech spaceas she pitches in the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator competition at SXSW. With the companys seed money drained, personal finances dwindling and a well-financed competitor looming, the Accelerator stage might be the last chance for the POPVOX team to get their platform for citizen involvement off the ground. Well watch as Marci polishes the POPVOX pitch hoping to win the Accelerator competition and get a much needed infusion of cash and investor attention.