''Startup.com'' is a 2001 American

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by Jehane Noujaim and Chris Hegedus. D. A. Pennebaker served as a producer on the film. It follows the dot-com start-up govWorks.com, which raised $60 million in funding from Hearst Interactive Media, KKR, the New York Investment Fund, and Sapient. The startup did not survive, but it became a reference for lessons learned, as it was the subject of a 2001 documentary that follows govWorks founders Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman from 1999 to 2000, as the

Internet bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Intern ...

was bursting. The film had its world premiere at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

on January 21, 2001. It was released on May 11, 2001, by

Artisan Entertainment Artisan Entertainment (formerly known as U.S.A. Home Video, International Video Entertainment (IVE) and LIVE Entertainment) was an American film studio and home video company. It was considered one of the largest mini-major film studios until i ...

Production

The film was produced by D. A. Pennebaker, and was directed by Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim. Noujaim had been Kaleil Tuzman's

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

classmate and began filming Tuzman as he quit his job at

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

, to begin govWorks with his high school friend Tom Herman. Noujaim contacted Hegedus and Pennebaker for help in financing the project. The film was distributed by

(which was later acquired by

Lions Gate Entertainment Starz Entertainment Corp, formerly known officially as Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation and commonly as Lions Gate and/or Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment industry, entertainment company currently headquartered in Santa Monica ...

). The film was shot in digital video. The filmmakers shot for over two years, and were editing the more than 400 hours of video and film right up to their

premiere in early 2001. They re-edited the last few minutes of the film just prior to its May 2001 theatrical release. Since the film's release, Herman and Tuzman worked together again at Recognition Group and

JumpTV JumpTV Inc. was a Canadian company, and one of the country's largest internet television carriers until its acquisition by NeuLion in 2008. History JumpTV was formed as an internet television company in 2000. It was limited in the services it cou ...

Reception

Critical response

''Startup.com'' received positive reviews from film critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

it holds a 93% approval rating, based on 94 reviews, with an average rating of 7.55/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Startup.com is more than just a look at the rise and fall of the new economy. At its center is a friendship being tested to the limit, and that's what makes it worth viewing." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". David Rooney of '' Variety'' called it a "timely, topical film, which goes beyond its potentially dry diet of facts to incorporate the juicy human drama of Machiavellian manipulations, ambition, torn loyalties and crushing betrayal."

References

External links

* * Kaleil's Official Website * * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Startup.com'' , list = {{Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Documentary Film {{Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Documentary Film 2001 films American business films American documentary films Artisan Entertainment films Documentary films about business Documentary films about the Internet 2001 documentary films 2001 independent films Dot-com bubble Films directed by Jehane Noujaim 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Films about companies English-language documentary films English-language independent films

Production

Reception

Critical response

See also

References

External links