Startup.com - a valuable lesson for young entrepreneurs
I’ve just watched the documentary Startup.Com (borrowed from my local library, but available from Amazon), which tracks the birth, rise and fall of Govworks.com in 2000 and 2001. Govwork’s story is still relevant today. You see the enthusiasm of the founders, the frustration and excitement of the money-raising, the early plaudits and adulation, and then the fall into nothingness as the realisation strikes home that the business isn’t working.
The technology and the product were incidental to the story. The central theme is the relationship between the founders. One is kicked out early because he won’t risk his day job. One of the two principal founders is fired as things start to go wrong, because although he isn’t co-CEO, he acts as if he is, countermanding the actual CEO, his best friend from high school. Their friendship goes through massive strain, and although renewed, you wonder if it will ever be the same again. (However, they did patch things up as they went on to other ventures together including JumpTV.com)
Every budding young entrepreneur should watch this documentary - if only to realize that it will get tough (it always does), friendships may get hammered, and success isn’t guaranteed.
Trackback uri
Leave a Reply