StartMeUp Dot Com

As I have an interest in the computer industry, especially the history thereof, I was interesting in seeing Startup.Com as a look into an example of a bursting dot com bubble.

And this movie starts from go to whoa. The crew was with the people for two years, not sure of how the ending was going to be, and that comes across in the movie. The first half is about setting up the company, which was about a website govWorks.com that would enable people to have a one-stop internet portal to dealing with the government, particularly paying off fines, etc. (That should be the first clue this would have trouble, this still hasn't worked, and this is from the perspective of ten years later!) By which, I mean we see them talking to various groups about getting money, and nothing about the website at all. It isn't until the website is about to go live that we actually see it! Until then, it's all corporate talk. After the go point... it's more corporate talk as the two friends fracture over the future of the company and trying to run it. Not the first time that's happened. And once again it's about the story of the two guys and their personal interaction, not about the company at all.

(Yes, one could say that these two are the company, but the rest of the company still exists without them around. You can tell the story of Apple without talking solely about Steve Jobs, go read West of Eden.)

Anyway, if you want to pin-point why this company failed... I'd say it simply got too big for the people in charge to handle. Having read various computer histories, that's typical. But as a general example of the dot com bubble... eh, I wouldn't say so. Then again, I haven't see a lot about it, so maybe this is typical. If it is... then the dot com burst was like any other burst.

Not a particularly great movie if you want company history. If you just want to see two guys doing their thing without really getting a full context of, well, anything, then watch this movie.

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