Startup.com tells it like it was. Seeing this film feels like reliving the bubble days of 1999 and early 2000. I kept saying, “yes, I remember that” to elements from the huge billboard in downtown Manhattan sponsored by Doubleclick (back when they had money) that said “Welcome to Silicon Alley” to the magazine covers and politicians trying to get some high-tech glamour to rub off by meeting with startup entrepreneurs.

Except for a power breakfast at Bucks, the film has all the sets and situations familiar to the startup experience. Driving down Sand Hill Road. Meeting room after meeting room after meeting room. Questionable advice. For example, while looking for funding, the executive team meets with a VC who sagely explains the need for them to get a site launched fast because of the first-mover advantage. The “first-mover advantage” is now largely discredited -- but, boy, were there a lot of clueless VCs and “analysts” who believed in this theory in 1999 and 2000. You couldn’t go to an industry confab without hearing this term in half the panels.

The film focuses on the personal relationship between the two founders, with a few other relationships thrown in, such as the CEO being dumped by both girlfriend 1.0 and girlfriend 2.0 because he spent too much time on the company (and his email). We hardly get to know any of the other people who worked at the company. We also don’t learn much about their actual product or project. For example, the company had apparently spent $8M on some web design shop that delivered a bad site. The film shows the CEO testing the search engine two days before launch and proclaiming that it doesn’t work. Makes for good drama, but even the most clueless web design shop would presumably have had somebody else test the search engine much earlier - but we are not shown any such details.

The linear medium forces a focus on storytelling and a simplified presentation. One cannot cover all details in two hours of film. Most of the audience will surely find the people-oriented part of the events to be of much greater interest than search engine design. Even so, I felt like clicking on the search engine scene to link to the backstory.

Bottom line:

If you were part of the Internet industry in 1999 and 2000, then go see this film to relive the experience.

If you are a newcomer, then go see this film to get an impressionistic and emotional insight into that era so that you can understand what your elders mutter about when they refer to the old days.

In either case, the film is entertaining enough to be worth two hours for anybody with an interest in the Internet. It’s untechnical enough to be watchable by normal people as well, but I am not sure they would enjoy it any more than they would a National Geographic special about the Siberian tiger.

Anecdote: I saw the film in downtown Palo Alto, and the guy who was ahead of me in the ticket line asked the cashier if they offered a discount to former dot-com employees. No such luck. But it was good fun to watch this film in the bosom of Silicon Valley where everybody in the audience had first-hand experience with the types of events depicted in the film.


Recommended:
Yes