Startup.com

startup.com was an interesting documentary about a new business venture that was happening during the dot.com boom. It was not an educational documentary more like a documentary for people interested in the inside world of entrepreneurs of that time period. The documentary itself was ok in content nothing to exciting but I hated the filming style period. It was terrible, distracting and unprofessional and I just did not enjoy it. I did learn three things from the documentary, regarding the people, corporate nature and success.

The documentary highlighted just how important it is to have committed and like minded people in order to succeed. Also an important part is ownership distribution early on int the company and the terms for that distribution. As it turned out Keleil and Tom did not think that too much thru and ended up having to bail out the portion that belonged to Kenneth.

As a Russian immigrant I am no stranger to corruption and questionable practices among businesses, but a naive part of me thinks that America should be different. Now there are major differences in the culture of business that is native to me and the USA, however USA is not except from its bad apples either. And the documentary showcased that classless corporate theft.

Lastly the lesson of success, or more the definition of success. From the documentary we saw that Tom and Keleil had the hardest time and the funniest time with all the glamour of parties and VIP status but ended up with little to nothing when the bust happened. Whole Kenneth walked away with a good chunk of money without even compromising his daily career. Who was more successful in the end then? Well that all depends on who is looking for what, of you are looking for fame and glamour, they got it, not for long but still had it. If you are looking for stability and some easy cash Kenneth got that as well. So basically success if measured based on what you desire it to be.

Overall the documentary was an interesting look at interactions of entrepreneurs during a very interesting time period in the technology world.