Startup.com

Released 2001
Directed by Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim

I think we're very lucky to have the insane ".com craze" chronicled in a film like this. I think the World Wide Web was the most important invention in the twentieth century, because it created the possibility for every person on the planet to instantaneously have access to each other. It also provided a distributed repository for all of mankind's knowledge. This is revolutionary. Of course, people immediately saw the business potential of the web, and thousands of new .dom companies started forming. This film chronicles the rise and fall of one of those companies. It opens with 28 year-old Kaleil Isaza Tuzman quitting his job at Goldman Sachs and becoming the CEO of govWorks.com, and it follows him and his boyhood friend, Tom Herman, through their painful but exciting adventure.

My only complaint about "Startup.com" is with its lack of exposition. It has quick boards at the beginning and ending of the film but nothing in between. I think it would have been stronger if it had paused to explain what was happening at different times, because I think you'd be pretty lost if you aren't familiar with Internet business and venture capitalists. Even if you're lost with the business details, however, the human drama shines through.

Summary by Bill Alward, October 20, 2001